The latest trend in running headphones goes up against tried-and-tested technology.
Which running headphones are best for you? There’s a vast array of options out there right now, but traditional in-ear buds are rapidly making way on shelves for a new contender: open-ear bone conduction headphones, sending sound through your ears and temples without obstructing your ears to the world. If you’re after the best running headphones then you have a choice to make between traditional in-ear headphones or a pair of the best bone conduction headphones. Bone conduction headphones don’t obstruct your ears while doing any kind of activity, and wired models are rapidly being replaced by true wireless products. In-ear headphones have been around for years and are now on the verge of the mainstream. while it’s taken a few years for bone conduction headphones to be accepted by runners. After all, the idea of transducers that convert sound into vibrations that get to your inner ear via your cheekbones do seem a little crazy at first. However, they’re all the rage among runners for several reasons that we’re going to explore. Can their open-ear design keep pace with the tried-and-tested sound quality of in-ear headphones? Here’s what you need to know to make that all-important buying decision:
The biggest reason why bone conduction headphones have become so popular as running headphones is that they promote situational awareness. Since they don’t physically put anything in your ear – instead resting their transducers on your cheekbones to send vibrations down them to your inner ear – you can hear everything around you while you wear them. All of this creates a product that is not only very comfortable, but also much safer. Firstly because you can hear traffic around you, which makes running close to traffic and crossing busy roads a lot safer. Secondly, their open-ear design is also less likely to damage your hearing, partly because there’s nothing going in your ear and partly because they don’t tend to achieve a particularly high volume.
