Skip navigation

Current DateTime: 11:37:11 27 Nov 2009
LinksList Documentid: 24355697
  • Runway Angels

      The superbowl of fashion shows, models walk down the runway at the 2009 Victoria's Secret Show.

  • Smartphone Guide

      Here's a need-to-know guide to nine devices, based on features, price, network and platform.

  • Wines for the Holidays

      Not quite sure what wine to pair with Turkey or Creme Brulee? Our experts do.

FEATURED QUIZZES


Current DateTime: 11:37:11 27 Nov 2009
LinksList Documentid: 33793611
  • How Well Do You Know Your Bird?

      Let's talk turkey. Test your turkey knowledge and perhaps pick up a bit of trivia to trot out at your holiday meal.

  • A Healthier & Wealthier You

      Take the following quiz and find out how much you know about the impact of obesity on the health of the U.S. economy.

  • The Billionaire BFF's

      Philanthropists. Bridge partners. Hockey players. Which responses are based on facts from Buffett's and Gates' real lives?


Current DateTime: 11:37:11 27 Nov 2009
LinksList Documentid: 24890560
  • Winterizing Your Portfolio

      If 2009 was the winter of our discontent, will 2010 be a winter wonderland for investors? A lot depends on the recovery—or lack thereof.

  • Investor's Guide to Real Estate

      Some even say the long-awaited recovery is here. Regardless, buyers and sellers alike can profit from our guide.

  • Alternative Investing

      Stocks and bonds? Sure. But it's a big world out there for investors.

powered by digg
New Headphones Help You Really Feel Music
By: David Pogue, The New York Times | 25 Sep 2008 | 10:28 AM ET
Text Size

Now that Apple has sold 160 million iPods, reshaped the music business and inspired dozens of competitors, maybe it’s time to admit it: this music player thing might be more than a fad.

Yet in all this time, almost nobody has brought up the screaming flaw that’s built into every one of those things: the earbuds.

That’s right. Hundreds of millions of times a day, music player owners jam little white discs into their ears without a thought, rendering themselves both deaf and rude to the outside world.

And that’s if you can even get them to stay in. A sizable chunk of the population lacks the proper cartilage formation to hold earbuds in place. (I’m among them. Don’t tell anyone.) How about a little sympathy for these long-time sufferers? Where are the self-help groups? Where’s the telethon?

Well, technology created these problems, and now it has solved them. Two alternative earbuds are now available in the United States; both neatly solve all of the hearing, safety and fit problems of the traditional disc-style earbuds. Instead of going in your ear, they pass the audio signal through your bones or cartilage. They’d be perfect, if they weren’t so flawed in their own ways.

The most promising are the Audio Bones, which come in orange, blue, black or white for $190 — or, for $30 more (go figure), pink, lime, tan or purple.

These are bone-conduction headphones, meaning that they pass sound directly through your skull to your inner ear, bypassing the eardrum. The sculpted plastic headband goes behind your head, hooking over your ears, so that the earbuds, if that’s what you call them, rest just forward of your ears.

In other words, your ears are left completely open. You can hear the music from your player, but you can also still hear everything around you.

There’s an immense cleverness to this design, and a long list of advantages. For example, these earbuds neatly solve the rudeness problem, because you’re not shutting yourself off from conversation. It’s no more rude than having a bookshelf stereo system playing in the background — a really, really tiny one that only you can hear.

These devices also stay put, because no cartilage-wedging is involved. Hooking them over your ears holds the Audio Bones in place. Not everyone has iPod-compatible cartilage pockets, but almost everyone has ears.

As a bonus, Audio Bones are less tangly than standard earbuds. A single cord emerges from the back of the headband — not one per earpiece.

Now, this is probably going to sound alarming and controversial. But when you really think about it, these earphones are also perfectly safe to wear while you’re driving. After all, how are wearing these headphones any more dangerous than listening to your car radio? The only difference is that the speakers are much smaller and much closer to your head.

Surprisingly enough, you can even listen to Audio Bones music while you’re wearing earplugs, which could come in handy if you work someplace noisy. Don’t try that with regular iPod earbuds.

They’re waterproof, too. If you can keep the player itself dry (buy a waterproof case, for example), then you can listen to Handel’s “Water Music” while you’re swimming laps.

It’s a small point, but it’s also worth mentioning that Audio Bones make it much less disgusting when you want to share your music player’s output. Admit it: when someone digs regular earbud discs out of their ear canals and hands them to you, there’s at least a brief moment of personal hygiene assessment as you prepare to insert them into your own.

The makers of Audio Bones also assert that bone conduction is less likely to contribute to hearing loss over the years, and that this technology permits some people with eardrum damage to enjoy music once again. (Bone conduction is already available in certain hearing aids.)

That’s quite a list of virtues. And besides the steep price, there’s really only one significant drawback to the Audio Bones — but it’s a doozy: the sound quality isn’t great.

Compared with regular earbuds, the Audio Bones sound muffled, with less presence. They’re also much quieter; you have to crank an iPod to its very top volume to hear what’s going on. Serious audiophiles who already complain about the iPod’s audio quality will be aghast.

Tools:
Print EmailAdd This share icon
  • digg share

CNBC HIGHLIGHTS

  • These four sectors will be the next to lead the market.
  • Zhu Zhu Pets are this year's must-have toy, fetching $40 or more on eBay.
  • T shirt man
  • From the why-didn’t-I-think-of-that file, we present Jason Sadler, a man whose job is wearing T-shirts.
  • It may be the most unusual guide to business you'll read.
  • Shopping for a gadget hound? The choices can be baffling. Here are a few that should be a hit.
  • "The Who" will be the halftime act for Super Bowl XLIV on Feb. 7 in Miami. Is the NFL behind the times?
ADD COMMENTS
Remaining characters


Current DateTime: 06:14:06 27 Nov 2009
LinksList Documentid: 29778428

Current DateTime: 09:11:30 27 Nov 2009
LinksList Documentid: 29779196

Current DateTime: 10:38:14 27 Nov 2009
LinksList Documentid: 29779199

Current DateTime: 07:56:29 27 Nov 2009
LinksList Documentid: 29779198
  Data is a real-time snapshot  *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes
Global Business and Financial News, Stock Quotes, and Market Data and Analysis

© 2009 CNBC, Inc.  All Rights Reserved.
A Division of NBC Universal
Thomson ReutersThomson Reuters