I bought some bone-conduction headphones a couple of months ago to wear when I’m on my bicycle. As opposed to more traditional in-ear or over-ear headphones, the contacts sit in front of the ear canal without obstructing it. In theory, this allows you to hear outside stimuli clearly while simultaneously listening to chill hop or old Charlie Rose interviews. In practice, I’d call them barely serviceable.
Now granted, I may be paying the price for dipping my toe in with a $40 pair. The biggest issue I’ve had has been fit, which seems to be a universal problem. Since the band that wraps around the back of your head must be rigid to keep the earpieces in place, the fit tends to be for a specific head shape, especially with the cheaper pairs. This isn’t a problem for me since my bike helmet straps push the earpieces against my ears, but traditional headphones are much better for general use.
You also can’t expect much from the sound quality, although that shouldn’t be a surprise. Bass is nonexistent and outside interference seems to contribute to how loud playback is perceived. It’s funny that you can take for granted how much noise traditional headphones filter out until you’ve used something like this.
Case in point, like most gadgets, these flashy new things aren’t useful outside some specific use cases. If you don’t have hearing problems or feel the need to have your ear unobstructed while wearing headphones, earbuds or some on-ear headphones will get you way better bang for your buck.