It is hard to miss seeing others with hearing loss have great success with Shokz headphones.
How easy it would be to listen to a podcast or follow along on a Zoom meeting without noise interference making it difficult to make out what someone is saying.
You dream of those days when you can go running without your hearing aids and a cochlear implant. The day that you don’t need to worry about the sweat from exercising covering the microphones or the metal clipping of your cochlear implant slipping off.
Perhaps, you’re wondering if these bone conductor headphones can make you hearing aid- or cochlear implant-free. Well, we’ll help you decide if this is worth your next purchase.
Not everyone who experience hearing loss can wear a bone conductor headphone alone. The determining factor is based on which part of your ears that are damaged.
The bone conductor works by skipping the process of sound entering the ear canal and into the middle ear (the ear drum) and heading directly to the inner ear. So, your inner ear needs to be functional in order for your bone conductor headphone to work by itself. Hence, this means any nerve damage that makes it hard to hear will make this device ineffective.
Therefore, if you have sensorineural hearing loss, then consider the possibility that bone conductors won’t work alone. But you can still choose to wear them with your hearing aids or cochlear implant as another option for a headphone.
It would be nice to have other options other than wearing a Bluetooth device. We all know how Bluetooth can suck up all a battery’s energy.
If you are someone who juggles between, Zoom meetings, listening to podcasts or music and binge-watching YouTube videos on a giving day, you sometimes wish you don’t have to deal with the inconvenience of changing your batteries every now and then.
Having a headphone that doesn’t depend on your hearing aid battery is a nice option.
Two things start to happen when your headphone cup isn’t big enough to cover your hearing device. Either, you find that either your ears are so sore. The pain throbbing against your ear’s cartilage is a reminder that it’s time to remove your headphone and say no more.
Also, you may find your hearing aids whistle too much. It can be an annoyance that can make it hard to hear what you need the most.
A bone conductor headphone is another option for over-the-ear headphones. You don’t have to worry about covering yours too close to your device microphone and pressing it against your ears for a long time.
It is hard to believe that some of us don’t mind a little background noise. Often, Bluetooth listening can block out all the noise around you. Your only choice is to focus on listening to the audio that is streaming with your Bluetooth devices.
But it comes at a convenience. Without hearing anything, you are constantly startled by the littlest things that appear in your peripheral vision. The bone conductor headphone doesn’t block the sound but gives you an added boost of clarity, no matter what your hearing loss situation is.
The bone conductor headphone would be a great alternative if you ever need to step outside of the home. Sometimes you need to feel safe knowing what’s going around you. There isn’t enough time to be switching between programs to suit your listening preferences. This is why they are a great option to carry along for listening at the airport and still hearing the announcement. Or while you are out walking and listening to a podcast but still need to be attentive to the cars driving by.
A bone conductor headphone can be a great alternative headphone for some and a complete hearing device replacement for others. It is a great way to balance the amount of battery your hearing aid can consume with Bluetooth streaming. It also allows you to enjoy the sounds surrounding you without being in your own sound bubble.