Andrew Liszewski is a elder newsman who’s been covering and reviewing the latest gadgets and tech since 2011, but has loved each things physics since he was a kid.
Audio-Technica has announced a caller type of its open-ear cartilage conduction headphones the institution says present improved sound and amended artillery life. The headphones usage a exertion that’s akin to bony conduction headphones from companies for illustration Shokz and Suunto but alternatively present sound done the softer cartilage astir your ears. The attack still leaves the receptor canal unfastened truthful you tin perceive what’s going connected astir you, but the headphones are much comfortable to deterioration and connection amended sound separation.
The Audio-Technica ATH-CC500BT2 are presently disposable successful the UK for £119.00 and the remainder of Europe for €139. That’s astir $145 to $150, but the institution hasn’t said if aliases erstwhile they mightiness beryllium disposable successful the US.
The exertion down the headphones is based connected investigation first shared successful 2004 by Professor Hiroshi Hosoi, who’s now the president of the Nara Medical University successful Japan. Instead of sending sound to the eardrum arsenic vibrations passing done the bones successful the skull, vibrations from the ATH-CC500BT2 recreation done cartilage causing the wall of the receptor canal to vibrate and make sound waves that yet scope the cochlea.
Cartilage conduction headphones require little unit against the caput than bony conducting headphones to efficaciously transmit sound, perchance making them much comfortable to deterioration for longer periods. The exertion is besides amended astatine producing stereo sound, Audio-Technica claims, because bony conduction headphones thin to merge near and correct signals successful the cranial cavity.
The astir compelling logic to take the Audio-Technica ATH-CC500BT2 could beryllium artillery life. The institution says you tin perceive to euphony aliases podcasts for up to 20 hours betwixt charges aliases usage them to make calls for astir 10 hours. For comparison, the bony conducting Shokz OpenRun Pro (which don’t characteristic an further aerial conduction speaker for illustration the newer OpenRun Pro 2) only connection up to 10 hours. However, the OpenRun Pro characteristic smaller artillery modules connected their headband and measurement 29 grams — compared to 32 grams for Audio-Technica’s headphones.
The ATH-CC500BT2 are charged utilizing a modular USB-C cablegram and plugging them successful for conscionable 10 minutes erstwhile they’re dormant gets you astir 2 hours of use. There’s nary ANC, but they do see AI-powered sound simplification exertion designed to select retired unwanted inheritance noise, including wind, picked up by the microphone while you’re making a call.
The headphones are IPX4 water-resistant truthful you tin deterioration them retired successful the rainfall aliases during particularly sweaty workouts, see Bluetooth multipoint connectivity truthful you tin easy move betwixt utilizing them pinch 2 different devices, and support some Siri and Google Assistant for sound commands and receiving audible notifications.