I am an evangelist for these. I have a set of the aftershokz and I wear them like a watch, always on my head. I do a lot of work in different kinds of factories, forges, power plants, etc which are all places earplugs are required. No big deal with bone conducting headphones, I can listen to my podcasts while I work. A bonus too is the kind I ended up with can connect to two phones, so my work phone and personal phone don't need two different headsets. The only downside is when I have to take a flight somwhere they aren't really loud enough to fight the sound of the plane so you have to wear earplugs. But the upshot is people generally leave you alone if yer wearing earplugs which is nice. I grab handfuls of them from our customers anyways so it's double not a big deal.

Which brand/model are you using?

Aftershokz Aeropex

How's the sound quality?

Not great, but they are not headphones I use for audiophile-purposes

How's the sound leak?

No idea tbh - a bit more than in-ears/over-ears I guess?

What kind of music do you use it to listen to?

Hardly any. If I want music, I have other hardware for that. My primary use for these headphones is to listen to podcasts while exercising

Are they comfortable to wear? For how long?

You don't really notice them. I use them for hours on end for long cycling trips and they work well for that

Do you get any skin irritation or even breakdown where it contacts your temple?

I have not noticed any

Does the hook part wrap around your ears without any pressure points?

Yes

Does the behind-the-head band bounce around when you're walking or running?

Not noticably

How much space is between the band and the back of your head/neck?

A few centimeters, less than five.

How's the battery life?

A full charge maybe gets you 8 hours I think? I never let my devices go that low, though

How long have you had it?

2 years

When do you use it?

While exercising to listen to podcasts

Do they stay put, or do you need to reposition them frequently?

They stay where they are. It can be annoying to put on/take off shirts though as they can easily get stuck in them

Anything else to comment on?

I really enjoy my headphones, but they are most certainly not good for music imo. Still, it makes my rotation, which is mostly these plus a pair of buds that go in my pocket for all other listening purposes

Your TLDR is longer than the comment above it LOL

I love my Shokz Openrun. It really fits my head, is easy to detach and the audio is pretty good. I use it basically everyday, anywhere and anytime. After wearing it for about an hour, you don’t even remember that you’re wearing it. It’s so comfortable. The battery is pretty good, too. You can play music on it 16 hours straight.

My mother who used to be a Shokz user bought soundcore aerofit pro recently though, she claims that musics sound better on Shokz. So I don’t recommend those “open-ear headphones”.

One thing I hate about Shokz is that I cannot lie on the bed while wearing it. Otherwise it’s pretty good.

https://shokz.com/products/openrun

I fucking love my AfterShokz, despite the awful name.

I got them to use while out walking, so I can still hear traffic and other hazards. The sound quality is perfectly fine (I am no audiophile), though with precisely 0 isolation, your experience will depend entirely on the environment you're in - that being the whole point. If you're walking down the highway, traffic noise is going to eat everything but the beat, and that's on loud.

No discomfort, they're stable enough mechanically (I'm a walker, not a runner), I kind of wish the band were a little tighter but that's very minor.

There is a little too much space for me at the back actually; I can't wear them lying down as it just pushes them off.

Battery life is... not an issue, I've had them a year or maybe two I can't remember, they're good.

I suspect my use-case is not your use-case though, so ymmv.

I wore some of these at work for a while to listen to music, since earbuds were an OSHA safetey issue.

• They are horrible in loud environments. I had to turn them up so high thay they would vibrate, which was an unpleasent feeling.
• However, you can still hear them fine with OSHA approved earplugs, but then the music sounds all muffled.
• You can find lots of different ones on Amazon and such just by searching for bone conduction headphones, ranging from cheap to expensive.
• The ones I got cost about $20 at the time, and had an okay sound quality, but not much bass.

I leaned about these from the Soundband Kickstarter over a decade ago, whoch I backed. None of the backers ever got a product, as it seems the creators dropped the project and ran with the money. Those ones had the bone-conduction wrap around the ear. Instead of sit on the bone in front of the ear.

Edit, to add a few points:

• They were comfortable enough to wear for several hours, but the vibration got real annoying if I had to turn up the volume due to a loud environment. The band that wraps around the ears could get uncomfortable after a while.
• It didn't irratate my skin, but vibration at loud volumes was uncomfortable.
• I wore these with glasses no problem.
• The band that wraps around wasn't tight, but fit okay enough to not flop around while working. Not sure about for jogging or other work-outs.

Lots of Aftershox comments and recs here. I’ve owned 3 generations of Aftershox and now use the Suunto Wingz. I like the head gestures and led and the sound is as good if not better. YMMV.

Also interested!

Never tried them, but people claim that they are great for anything but music. You can totally listen to music through your bone, but the experience lacks behind good headphones.

AfterShokz is the most notable brand that makes these, but they are called "bone conduction" headphones.

I had a coworker who would swear by these things. We cannot wear double earplugs at work, so that was her solution to listen to music. I did some googling and found that many people stated that the audio quality is decent, but bass can be very lacking on them. It seems like wearing earplugs with them supposedly help things like that. I love bass and can't stand not having it, so I never bothered to try a pair.

Personally, I have a pair of wireless earbuds instead altho I don't wear them at work. They have both an "ambient" mode where I can hear stuff around me similar to how you can with bone conduction headphones, and they also have a noise cancelling mode. The battery doesn't last nearly as long as with something like a pair of AfterShokz tho and you have the discomfort of putting them in your ear canal. But I've always been curious about bone conduction headphonesn too! Hope you enjoy them if you get a pair!

Shokz Openrun, the smaller ones.

Sound quality? Good, lacking bass but overall good.

It has to be quite loud before anyone at the office hears anything

A bit of everything, mostly rock, electronic.

Comfortable Yes, all day long for 6 months straight during office hours.

No irritation, not a trace like you would have on the nose when wearing glasses

It barely touches the ears

No it does not bounce, it's super light and I got the smaller size that's quite close to the head.

I can barely fit my index finger between the band and my head.

How’s the battery life? Over 8 hours for sure.

How long have you had it? 6 months

I wear it at work, when driving a convertible , or working in the garden. (Even with foam hear plugs when needed, it messes un the EQ balance but still enjoyable).

Do they stay put, or do you need to reposition them frequently? No they just do their thing.

It's paired to both my phone and laptop, but that feature is far from perfect : windows notification messing up the music, or phone notifications messing up Teams calls/meetings.

Afterskokz are great like everyone says. I even sleep with mine on sometimes with a rain app on so it doesn’t bother my wife. They stay on all night for me, they are better laying on your side but you can lay pretty much how you want with a little adjustment.

I've had a pair of shcokz until I forgot them in an airport. I bought regular pair instead since that's what was available at the time. Pretty much what everyone said here is true. Comfy, you hear well 90% of the time, good combo with earplugs when you can, sound quality is okay but not great.

One very neat (accidental) feature of them is that if you put them in the right accustic (like in a cupboard) they turn into an okay speaker.

In my experience, after trying most brands, they are just ok for music.

Using them at the gym was not a good experience because the gym music is too loud, and this is the same for malls and airports.

Outdoors usage is good for running and washing the car. None of them are good for Webex or Zoom meetings because the mic is very tinny, except for Shoks OpenComm2 UC, with the boom mic.

In a quiet office, with open space design, my coworkers didn't complain. One coworker sits two desks down, from me, has a pair of Shokz and I don't hear his music.

And because of the behind the neck design, you can't lay in bed. Anything that pushes the conductor out of the sweet spot will ruin the music.

I didn't keep any of them.

doesn’t seem to be so comfortable with glasses, esp with a hoodie unfortunately

Aftershocks… I have the mini for about 2 years and still a but too much space in the back but my hair usually covers it. Better is usually 30’ish hours? Sound is good, you won’t get deep bass or be immersed by it but for running around it’s great. I wear mine at work and in the shower too. Sometimes while sleeping too depending on battery life and the lazy factor. My BFF has the “detached” over the ears version which eliminates the neck band issue.

Another believer in Shokz. I've got two. I mainly use them during work (wfh) to listen to YouTube/podcasts. And for me it's a vastly superior experience to ear buds and on/over ear headphones, which always make me feel super hot.

The other pair I use while cycling. And yeas, while at high speeds I don't really hear anything because of wind, during normal riding they're excellent because I still hear ambient sound, which is my preference, safety wise.

I got the shokz openrun pros just a few weeks ago despite considering them and other bone conduction headphones for years. I wanted them because I bike a lot and wanted to have open ears when listening to music. I quickly found the reason they are called openRUN, because when biking at anything over about 10kmh, the wind noise overpowers them so much I need to turn them to unhealthy levels in order to hear anything.

Another disappointment is that they aren't really bone conduction. They are just small speakers pointing directly into your ears. I partially bought them because I was excited about the tech, but they are now useless in my application and boring. I will probably sell them and get in ear buds with pass-through noise canceling and wind noise cancelation.

I bought a cheap pair on Amazon for around $30 just to try the concept out. I actually use them primarily for gaming cause I play a lot of split screen/in the same room with people, so it let's us talk while I can still hear.

Couple of notes:

• Don't put the volume too high, as they can damage your ears just like regular headphones
• They are definitely quieter than regular headphones as nothing is blocking your ears.

https://auricle.io/

Shokz makes some good ones which I use and have been happy with.