Aftershokz Headphones

[theoriginaldigger]

Just a brief review which may be of use to someone else, you or friend or family member.

I received a pair of theses headphones for Christmas and being on holiday this week they have by now received extensive testing. I chose them myself to be honest but my old Mum kindly paid for them Purchased at Costco with a pre-Christmas discount so about £55 inc VAT I think, good value I felt.

So my main reason for choosing these and the main purpose of this “review” is that I have pretty significant hearing loss and wear a pair of hearing aids, not expensive ones, from the NHS, which I am extremely grateful for. So the beauty of theses headphones is that the are bone-conducting which has some significant benefits for me and potentially others; 1. I had a major surgery on my left ear as a teenager so an earbud won’t stay in it just falls out regardless of the size or shape of the bud 2. With the hearing loss even expensive over ear headphones unsurprisingly sound muffled.

With these though I can wear them with (or without) my hearing aids and if I want “situational awareness” I can have the aids turned on or if I want to concentrate on the music or audio book I can switch them off. For regular folk with no hearing problems they supply soft ear plugs to block out extraneous noise.

Downsides I guess, for obvious reasons these aren’t noise cancelling in fact that’s the main point i.e. you can (more) safely use them for running/cycling and with my hearing loss I can’t state the audio quality compared to say Bose or other expensive ones but to me sound great and as gadgets go pretty game changing.

There are plenty of online reviews but I wanted to particularly mention the benefits for those with hearing loss or like me with a wonky ear as well.

Cheers Chris

[Seamaster73]

Sounds like your hearing loss is conductive in nature, and that you would benefit from a BAHA (bone anchored hearing aid).

[benny.c]

They are superb. I use them when cycling off-road and also when my wife is in the office as she doesn’t like the radio on when working. There’s no way I’d be able to wear ear buds or over ear headphones all day but I don’t even notice that I have the Aftershokz on.

[mrushton]

My wife has the titanium model but is now on her 3rd pair which have gone back to the shop. She gets a year out of them. Just uses for running and around the house. Various issues incl sound only on one side, not charging etc.if the store is happy to keep replacing that's fine by me.

[theoriginaldigger]

Sounds like your hearing loss is conductive in nature, and that you would benefit from a BAHA (bone anchored hearing aid).

Thanks this bears investigation, I honestly don’t know what type of hearing loss I have ? I just went to the Audiology Dept and they confirmed my hearing was awful and fitted me up with a pair of hearing aids.

[trott3r]

i have some cheaper marsboy induction bluetooth bone conducting headphones.

I find them muffled in sound.
They do have their place as the OP mentioned in maintaining awareness if i am expecting the doorbell to go or if i was driving.

[Zurvan7]

I have a pair of Aftershokz Air, but I've only had them a couple of months so I can't speak to their durability yet. I've been super happy with them! They are super light and comfortable, and I've not had any issues with connectivity or shorting out when I sweat (and I am super sweaty). I specifically bought them so I could listen to music AND keep an ear out for dogs/cars. They've been fantastic in that regard.