Bose introduces their new Ultra Open Earbuds. “Their cuff-like fit leaves your ears totally open so you can still hear the world around you”
https://www.bose.com/p/earbuds/bose-ultra-open-earbuds/ULT-HEADPHONEOPN.html
The amount of people in the comments not understanding why open buds are relevant to some people / the concept of earbuds overall is quite funny. I guess there’s some truth in stereotypical Lemmy user rarely showing up outside 🙃
OK, but why the fuck are their models looking at me like I’m a piece of shit?
Do wearing these gives you a futuristic superiority complex?
Norm from Tested recently reviewed the “Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses”. The most interesting use case for him was to have good, non obtrusive earphones that allow you to hear normally without blocking people out.
Bose actually made the first music playing sunglasses. It’s where the open ear bud idea came from.
“so you can still hear the world around you”
Isn’t that the exact opposite reason of why people wear headphones?
Eeeehhhhh that depends.
I work delivering food on a bicycle. I need to be able to hear things. Would be nice if I could listing to my playlists and not drown out the car coming my way.
May I suggest checking these out? https://shokz.com/products/openrunpro
Not affiliated, just like mine for when I need to keep my ears completely open. Audio quality is surprisingly good, but also never going to compete with something whose sole purpose is to sound good i.e. non-sporty headphones.
Bike riding is perfect for these bone conducting headphones, you can listen to tunes while hearing absolutely everything.
180 US for 10 hours of battery life and, allegedly, a full titanium body. That’s honestly reasonable.
Now the real question is; do they ship to Denmark? I’ll have to check that out after work.
Seems like only the US is available. I am also curious about a product like this that’d deliver to Sweden.
Well, it turns out Telenor is selling that exact model here. Maybe check your phone provider?
The bose quietcomfort ones do that and more. You can choose if you want to block out external sounds with ANC or enable pass-through so you can hear the world around you. Not sure why they needed to make this product.
Passthrough doesn’t work well on a bike when there’s wind rushing past the microphones that record the passthrough sound. This product fixes that.
OK I can see how that would be better for biking.
It’s primarily for safety, like walking outside so you’re aware of your surroundings. As for critical listening, an open soundstage is more accurate to the original sound than closed headphones.
People keep saying that, but wearing earphones while walking outside is a niche usage. It’s mostly an excuse because no one knows how to do total noise cancellation. Being able to work in quiet while others are yammering around you is priceless.
There’s a difference between using closed-back noise-cancelling headphones in an office or plane and using open-back headphones or bone-conduction while riding a bike or running so you can hear vehicles and other runners/cyclists around you.
Open-back headphones are not just niche usage. They are also used for music production, watching movies at home (feels like you’re listening to speakers in the room with you instead of small headphones), and gaming (open soundstage makes pinpointing sound around you like footsteps more accurate).
Yes, it’s walking around outside while listening to music that is a niche usage. I know that some people do it and can’t live without it, but I tend to feel that is unusual. It’s annoying to see “these earphones let you keep hearing other people’s conversations around you” as if that was a desirable feature, which it almost never is.
You tend to feel? Mate, it’s not unusual, it’s been done for decades by lots of people. Go outside and look.
The Walkman, introduced in the 80’s, would like a word. As would the first electronic handheld radios in the 60’s.
Niche? You keep using that word. I do not think that word means what you think it means.
Niche?? Shit man, go outside some time.
Being able to work in quiet while others are yammering around you is priceless.
And they make headphones for that.
But if you’re out walking around in the city you absolutely want to be aware of whats around you, and it’s absolutely not a niche usage. That’s why the airpods, and lots of other headphone offer both. Transparency for when you want to be aware, noise cancelation for when you don’t.
Dude, there are people with earbuds EVERYWHERE on the street. It’s actually a problem on the bike lanes because the ones that are noise cancelling can’t hear when someone is right behind them ringing a bike bell.
As a person, no. Most people maybe. It’s incredibly liberating to not feel like you are missing out on the world around you sometimes (and safer). Sure sometimes I want to duck out and place my big puffy over ear speakers on and block everything out, but for day to day use for navigation, podcasts, phone conversations, AI interactions, and some stereo background music - this is exactly what this person wants.
As a person
I too am a person and totally not an AI driven bot fellow human.
Open almost always means no bass (unless you’re spending $500+ on planar magnetic), so I’ll pass.
Semi-closed back is the way to go. Best of all worlds (good sound stage + good bass).
You haven’t even heard them and are making grand assumptions. The bass is great at low to medium listening levels but rolls off as you increase the volume due to physical limitations.
I’m pretty sure those physical limitations are exactly what he’s talking about.
Bone conducting headphones already exist
earbuds are fucking stupid why don’t you just wear headphones
Because in the summer it’s too warm on my ears
