There's nothing like a good soundtrack to life, or to a run. Great music can pick up your mood, spike your motivation, or push you up that hill. The one down side to great music pumping into your ears is safety on the road. It's always important to be aware of your environment, and while I love my music, I know that takes away from that. It's always a balancing game between the music and the environment, that is, until these headphones: AfterShokz Trekz Titanium.
What makes these headphones different?
AfterShokz headphones provide a safe solution for music and the environment. They use bone conduction technology to deliver music through your cheekbones. This allows them to get the sound to your inner ear through vibrations and leaving your ears open to hear the world with your music. As you know, I appreciate innovative engineering and design. The headphones are finely tuned for giving the best sound they can through bone conduction with their PremiumPitch and LeakSlayer technologies.
How do they really work?
The most important thing about any product isn't simply the technology that goes into it, but how that technology actually performs. We'll start with a standard measuring factor for headphones: sound quality. When you put the on headphones, they sit up and forward of your ears, then wrapping up and over and around the back. Using your cheekbones to conduct sound into the ear sounds like an innovative science experiment, but they really make it work. I played with a variety of music types, as I have diverse tastes, and they all worked well, though I found the base a little lacking. It makes me think of a phone speaker music: my phone sounds quite good, but it doesn't match my ear buds.
The sound of bone conduction technology has some awesome benefits. First, is the loss of sound, or lack thereof. Normally, running down the road, even with it pumped up, the cars can sometimes drown out the music. With AfterShokz, that really didn't happen. It was a minimal drop, which was a cool unexpected factor. The second huge benefit is the open ears. You can hear everything going on around you: the cars, other runners, animals, the splash as you accidentally run through a puddle while you're thinking too much about the headphones... you hear it all. While it wasn't unexpected, but it was one of those things that was hard to wrap your head around. It's pretty cool how you can hear both so well.
The headphones are very easy to use. They paired as simply as you would expect, no problems on my Android phone. It feels a little weird at first, not in an uncomfortable way, but weird that they're not on your ears. They're a little heavier, given the solid wrap around then my current headphones but were still comfortable. They are also IP55 certified for moisture and dust, so no sweat worry either. I even took a call on them, which worked surprisingly well. They were easy to hear, and reported no issues hearing me clearly.
The sound of bone conduction technology has some awesome benefits. First, is the loss of sound, or lack thereof. Normally, running down the road, even with it pumped up, the cars can sometimes drown out the music. With AfterShokz, that really didn't happen. It was a minimal drop, which was a cool unexpected factor. The second huge benefit is the open ears. You can hear everything going on around you: the cars, other runners, animals, the splash as you accidentally run through a puddle while you're thinking too much about the headphones... you hear it all. While it wasn't unexpected, but it was one of those things that was hard to wrap your head around. It's pretty cool how you can hear both so well.
The headphones are very easy to use. They paired as simply as you would expect, no problems on my Android phone. It feels a little weird at first, not in an uncomfortable way, but weird that they're not on your ears. They're a little heavier, given the solid wrap around then my current headphones but were still comfortable. They are also IP55 certified for moisture and dust, so no sweat worry either. I even took a call on them, which worked surprisingly well. They were easy to hear, and reported no issues hearing me clearly.
The Takeaway
These are perfect piece of tech for any runner who wants to run with music. I enjoy running with music but it was also a tough line to walk to have the music but still be safe out there. I'm lucky enough to have a lot of paths to run, but they still cross the street. With these headphones, I can legitimately feel safe while running even with my music. Any trade off in the sound quality is made up for in the safety. These may not be my headphones when I need music to decompress on the couch but they are my go to running headphones.
Do you run with music? What's your go to track?
#bibchat
As you may have guessed, this week's bibchat will feature AfterShokz. Stop by on Tuesday, April 19th at 9pm EST to join in the good times that is bibchat. Interact with the team, with other BibRavePros, and all the other like minded runners that participate each week. You can plan on a giveaway, as always, so there's always that added bonus.
Always appreciate your honest reviews and the pros and cons of these. I've seen them around lately too. Your little one has gotten big!
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