this post was submitted on 11 Apr 2024
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(Sorry if it's a miss, this community looked the most fitting)

After mentioning them somewhere in comments, I actually bought Shokz after years of sitting curious. There are a few brands that do them, so it doesn't matter what's the brand is. I bought what I've heard of and the cheapest model I could find at that.

So, what's the trick? As I'm cycling, walking and running a lot, I needed a headphone solution to be aware of my surroundings. They don't cover ears and don't actually emmit sound - they vibrate and make your bones serve as a membrane.

The obvious minus is that in a bus or other loud setting you can't hear shit. That's by design. And, logically but somehow absurdly, by shutting your ear with a finger, you can make yourself hear it okay. I did a full circle here, returning to the old headphones isolation problem, heh.

But what impressed me more, they do feel like some kind of a cyberpunk prosthetic. You can wear them all day and even the cheapest one that promises 6hr of activity lasts days on the idle. But as you call someone or watch a vid – here they are, with a little to no latency. Honestly, I feel like if there'd be implants, that's one of the basic ones we can try first. It's hands-free device with a bonus of being more stealthy and not isolating you from the world.

As a cheapskate audiophile who stayed with cords for a long time, I can say that the sound is okay. Keeping in mind that producers can't control the skull of a wearer, they can't nail the ideal sound, but I'm impressed with how nice IDM and metal plays on them - something akin to budget Senh, AKG and Audiotechnica. And unlike cheap Sony, they don't put up low freqs, that's a plus. BUT when I shared it with others, people in body reported less effectiveness due to thickness of skin and under-dermal stuff, so it's better to test it if you aren't skinny as a skeleton.

After being so open about plus sides, I'm to talk minuses. Since the software is proprietary, it doesn't have many controls and is very weird sometimes. As I bought a model that was for internal chinese market originally, it talked to me in Chinese, and it can only be switched to another language before any pairing, so only after unpairing I could've chosen English – and the same combination of button presses when paired was reserved to calling the last called number, so I fucked up a lazy weekend morning for a friend of mine calling them 4-5 times, damn it. Ah, and it supports dual pairing with a PC and a smartphone, but as I tested it this function worked weird and I sometimes manually disconnected them. Walking&working distance from a source device is around the second or third room, that fits most office and home listening cases. I could've probably wished for it to have an option to pick lesser distance since I don't usually have even a meter between my smartphones and them.

Ah, and going back to the bus problem - the obvious downside that you want to turn them to 100% volume that you don't feel, but your ears do. After the first day when I needed to move a lot in loud contexts and thus put them on max, I had a headache, because although I didn't register the volume, my head had a first row concert experience. So if you use these, keep that in mind too.

Have you tried them, is there a topic I haven't covered? As you can tell, I'm happy with them, so I would be biased. It's just with VR stuff, even from Apple, I feel like we underlook existing tech that already serves us as expander of our life experiences and powers.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 7 months ago (3 children)

I've been giving these more and more of a thought lately. I like the idea that you can just leave them on and not worry about taking them out to hear things.

Only question. Can people near you hear them at all? Like on a plane?

[–] [email protected] 17 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (2 children)

In a quiet setting, with the headphones raised to 70-100% volume, people within 1-2m will be able to make out what you are listening too.

(This is with Aeropex from Aftershockz/AKA Shockz)

Keep in mind, at 100% volume they buzz and tickle on your skin, so I never have them set to 100% ever.

60-70% is clear enough for enjoyable listening.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (2 children)

A note about the Aeropex (and possible other Aftershockz/Shockz models) is that the volume-adjust-beep and bluetooth-connect-voice is very loud and cannot be adjusted.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago (1 children)

This is my one true complaint, I have tinnitus already and that beep including the volume beep are what feels like 2-3 times louder than I ever have the volume set.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

I try to connect it before putting on my head. Also, to pull the pads off ear or put the whole thing around neck, before doing a volume change. For an absolutely amazing headphone experience, this is a regrettable annoyance.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago

Yeah I did send them a message about that. Please fix in next firmware version lol

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

So at normal listening volumes no one can hear, but it sounds like normal listening volumes aren't good enough for a plane?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago

I've combined these headphones with earplugs for a plane trip. Engine roar overpowers the sound for bone conducting headphones the same way it does for earbuds or headphones that don't isolate. You might still need to crank the volume up, though. Planes are loud. No issue of other people overhearing it at that point though.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago

@realitista @andrew_bidlaw they're really not good in loud places like a plane (for you) in my experience the person you're on a call with will hear you just fine, but being open-ear designs they just can't compete with jets.

They are very good for having background music going in offices and such - you can hear it, but you can have conversations over it without any trouble

[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 months ago

From my experience it's not louder on max volume than simple earbuds put out of ear. They have metal details, so they do serve as little membranes, but I don't find them significant. I'm listening to a lot of problematic stuff on a daily basis and didn't have any weird looks. Most people didn't even recognize I'm listening to something in a calm office setting.