So headphone reviews.

Usually, when you think of a headphone review, you think about sound quality and noise, isolation and battery life and comfort.

And those are your priorities, you know, headphone stuff.

But I have been testing out a whole different kind of headphone.

I've been testing out open ear headphones, headphones that are designed to let you hear the world because they leave your ears open.

Now, why would you want something like this?

Well, here's an example.

Riding a bike When you're riding a bike, you need to be able to hear the environment around you because it's kind of super dangerous to be riding your bike with your ears closed, especially in the city, where there are two ton cars that can run over you in any second.

Even though there's a white line four bikes that are dedicated to you, they're not supposed to live over it, but it's not real infrastructure, because if you said he had real infrastructure, they have some pilot or something in between there, that's a different video.

What this video is about is open ear headphones and specifically that open your headphones have a completely different set of priorities than regular headphones with regular headphones.

You care about sound quality right with open your headphones.

Sound quality is kind of low on the list because you're kind of not going to get great sound quality because again, your ears are open to the world and that bird over there and whatever else there might be.

Instead, what you care about is comfort.

You care about Volume can get loud enough for you to actually hear them, and you care how they actually attached to your head because it turns out there are a bunch of different ways to get sound next to your ears instead of in your ears.

And some of those things are really good, and some of them are kind of bad.

So what I want to do is talk about the half dozen or so different kinds of open your headphones that I have tried out and pick a winner, at least for the context of riding a bike.

Actually, maybe we'll pick two winners because everybody's ears are different, especially mine.

Miner might really be big.

Mhm, Mhm.

Now, the headphones that got me into this whole journey are these right here These are the bows, open ear buds that cost 200 bucks.

And the headphone part is sort of right here.

And it sits just above your ear hole, and that hooks over on to your ear, like so Now the thing that I like about these headphones is they sound remarkably good for open your headphones.

They're pretty loud.

They've got a speaker just really close pointing right into your ear.

And, you know, I think Bo's is pretty good at shaping the acoustics, and so they do a pretty decent job here.

But this is where I come to the part about priorities, because it turns out that the space behind your ears is really valuable.

Real estate, my glasses, temples.

They kind of go back there and they get in the way of these things.

If you're wearing a mask that will get in the way of these things as well.

So for me, these don't really work, because I often I'm finding myself fiddling around and make, and they feel like they're gonna fall out because of my glasses.

The other problem I have with them is they do this thing that a lot of headphones do where If they're connected to your computer and you want to switch them over to your phone, they won't let go the connection to the computer.

So you have to disconnect it from the computer, and then you can reconnect it to your phone.

So put all that together, and these really aren't for me.

But if sound quality is your most important thing and you're not worried about them falling off and you're willing to pay 200 bucks, then these maybe are good choice.

Now, for the next category of open your headphones, I'm gonna let these bows sunglasses sort of stand in for the whole idea of taking speakers and batteries and Bluetooth and stuff and sticking them in the temples of your eyeglasses.

Now I've tried this before.

I just reviewed the Amazon echo frames, and I really like the idea of just always having Bluetooth headphones sort of attached to your head, and you can still hear the world around you or the office, or you're at home or whatever, but they're conveniently there when you want them, and nobody else can hear them when they're around you.

Now for bows, these 250 sunglasses.

They come in a bunch of different styles and these are the biker glasses, and you can see Just look, Super Arrow.

I mean, I know I've got bicycle kit on and I looked like a nerd, but this is just not my style.

Uh, other than that, though, they're fine.

I wish there were 250 bucks.

The other problem I have with these is I want headphones that I can wear in other context.

So I want to wear them when I'm sitting at my computer or, I don't know, on a cloudy day.

And unless you know that you're only gonna wear them on your bike and you're only gonna be riding your bike on sunny days, then these just probably aren't very convenient options for you.

Now, speaking of taking Bluetooth stuff and putting it in another thing, my bike helmet here has all of the things built into the helmet.

So there are a couple of little speakers here and some buttons for controlling it, and it can connect to your phone and do podcasts or music or phone calls.

It's got an FM radio in it.

It has a little blinky light on the back if you want a blinky light for at night.

Although it's not very bright, it even has mesh intercom.

So if you're within about a half a mile a little bit less and you've got line of sight with the people that you're riding with, you just talk to each other with walkie talkies and just It's just an open channel and it's really, really convenient of all of the features that I just rattle off of this $160 helmet.

The only thing that actually works really well is the mesh intercom that is a killer feature.

If you're riding with somebody else or in a group and you can all get the same helmets, then, man, it's just really, really nice to be able to talk to each other instead of having to, like, ride up and catch up and get within shouting distance and keep talking.

The rest of it, though, is man, because the speakers are way up here and they don't get that loud.

And so if you're in any kind of traffic or there's any kind of noise whatsoever, these just get drowned out.

They're just they're not very loud.

So I'm gonna keep using this helmet because I love the mesh intercom.

But as a open ear headphone solution, not so good.

The next category of Open your headphones and I tried were bone conduction headphones.

Because my name is Dr Bone.

Whatever.

These are the aftershocks Aero packs there, 160 bucks, and the way they work is you kind of wrap them around your head here, and then they kind of tension onto your skull right in front of your ears.

And then these little pods here, actually speakers.

But instead of having speakers that transmit the sound through the air, they transmit the sound by your head through the bone bone conduction.

I kind of like these a lot.

They are funny looking, but I'm funny looking.

They stay in my head having glasses on, and a mask on around them can be a little bit annoying, but for the most part, they're pretty good.

The big knock is, of course, it's weird to have little vibrating pods in front of your ears.

You can start to feel that after a while, and the sound quality is look, it's not great.

I mostly just listen to podcast with these things, and they're not so loud that you don't hear the world around you or they can't get drowned out.

These things aren't magic, but for the most part they're one of the better solutions, at least for riding a bike.

Okay, now there's one more kind of open your headphone that I tried.

And that is, don't have a headphone in one of your ears.

Just get a pair of regular old earbuds.

These are the Samsung Galaxy buds, plus put one in your right ear.

Not your left, because that's where traffic is when you're riding on the road, where it's totally safe and you can hear cars to this one, and then you can hear your music or your podcast for this one.

So sound quality.

Well, you know you're getting half a stereo, so it's not great.

But it does a better job of sealing out the world if you wear a proper earbuds so you don't have to turn it up quite as allowed to hear whatever it is you're listening to.

And it's slightly more likely to be able to let you hear your music when there's still traffic noise around you.

If you're picking out an ear bud that's convenient to use with a bike, I got to say the airpods aren't those little stems that stick out of them.

Get caught on bike helmet straps for me all of the time and they go flying off.

I don't feel comfortable with them at all.

So I stick with something that kind of goes in my ear and doesn't stick out too much.

And I really do like the Samsung Galaxy buds for that.

There's also the buds live, which kind of fit in there, but they're just a little bit less secure.

So those are all the open your headphones that I've tried, the bones that go on your ear, the sunglasses that go next to your ear, the helmet that goes over your ear, the bone conductors that go in front of your ear and the single ear bud that goes in just one year.

Which one do I like the best?

Well, for me and for biking and for not feeling bad about looking like a dork, I think the aftershocks air Opec's are my pick.

They hit all of the boxes of keeping my ears open, so I feel safe when I'm riding my bike.

But give me enough sound and enough sound quality and most importantly, enough convenience of staying in my head.

So these are my picks, but I don't know that I would recommend that anybody that isn't riding their bike a whole lot because it's really nice to have stereo sound, but they're a little bit weird to use at home.

I mean, I am, but it's just a little bit weird, I think for most people that are just doing the occasional bike ride, the headphones you already got, they're pretty good.

You probably already like them you're already using with your phone and your computer and whatever else.

Just when you're on your bike, make sure you only use one of them, and then you put it in the ear that faces away from traffic so that the other ear is open to listen for the world around.

You hear cars make sure you don't run into people whatever else.

Also, you should wear a helmet.

I'm not going to turn this into a whole safety PSA, but the bottom line is make sure that you find something that keeps your ears open.

And if that's just using the thing you already got.

No problem.

Everybody, thanks so much for watching.

I didn't plan to be all like camo.

I just happened to own green bike clothes, and then this was the best shot I could find out on the trail.

So I hope that I didn't just look like a weird floating head like and subscribe.