Outi Bone-Conducting Headphones
Friday, January 4, 2008 10:22AM - By J. Wallace
Outi headphones “bypass” your eardrums, sending vibrations directly into your skull bones and cartilage. It’s a fascinating concept–listen to music as loud as you want without damaging those fragile eardrums. We’re not sure about the decibels–can you REALLY crank this up all the way with NO hearing damage? But we love the idea that you can listen loud without disturbing others sitting right next to you in cubicleland. Even more interesting–you can be fully immersed in the music without missing out on conversations reaching your ear the traditional way. We are intrigued.
Buy for $110.00
Posted In: Gadgets
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Friday, June 27, 2008 9:14AM
These headphones are so cool. Its like you are sitting next to a huge set of speakers with the base pumping you but you can have a normal conversation. I know, sounds impossible. Plus you can run with them and they don’t fall out like most buds. Plus you can hear cars and other things that you might need to hear for your saftey. Get these they are the ish
Thursday, July 3, 2008 6:53PM
The sound quality is treble-heavy and varies in quality, depending upon where they touch your outer ear (unless you pinch-hold them tighter on your ear with your fingers). They mostly resonate with the lower frequencies (bass), so you end up feeling the lower register, rather than hearing it.
They do emit sound equal to that of other headphones, except the speaker is placed BEHIND your ear in this case. Therefore, I’m not sure that your hearing cannot be damaged by loud volumes, which is what has been claimed.
The clip-on style is quite secure, although you may feel pain or discomfort from their pinching your ear with 10 or more minutes of use. The vibrating bass rubs away some of the pain, though, which is nice.
I’m not sure that I can recommend them, except for their ability to let you hear outside noise while you wear them (as long as the music isn’t too loud). Note that other people will be able to hear what you are listening to; more sound probably seeps out from these headphones than from normal ones, although only in the treble register (the bass register is mainly converted to felt vibrations).