Thanko's Vonia bone conducting earphones

It's official: bone conduction technology just jumped the shark. Meet the Vonia bone conduction headset from the makers of such items as USB slippers and USB hubs for pirates -- Thanko. These skull rattlers won't work underwater and they won't enhance your gaming skillz much... but they might be of some benefit to the hearing impaired for the ¥9,800 (about $82) required to strap a set on. Want noise cancellation? Just add earplugs. Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

[Via Impress]

[Matt B @ Feb 15th 2007 10:32AM]

Hmm... I think that if I saw someone with earplugs and a set of headphones in from of the ear that this person would be quite crazy.

[Andrew Paul Baisden @ Feb 15th 2007 10:56AM]

I think it is a great idea imagine letting deaf people hear. without expensive bionic ears.

[Brandon West @ Feb 15th 2007 11:34AM]

Just because it's using bone conduction doesn't mean it will let deaf people hear. Sure you can feel the vibrations, but without a functioning inner ear apparatus to translate those vibrations in audio signals your brain can process, you won't hear anything.

The only reason bone conduction is good for hearing impaired (NOT deaf) people is that the sound is very isolated from background noise, thereby improving clarity.

[HeadMajor @ Feb 15th 2007 3:07PM]

Actually, this this might be good for hearing impaired people, but it depends upon their impairment.
My brother in Law is hearing impaired. Specifically, he had ear infections as a child which damaged his middle ear bones, thus he can hear fine but very little is transmitted from the ear drum to his cochlea. So this going in via the skullbone might be perfect for him.

[Jeff @ Feb 15th 2007 11:39AM]

Thanko and Elecom are like Danny DeVito and Ah-nuld in Twins. Thanko's definitely on the Danny DeVito side. They should change their tagline to "Thanko. Answering questions nobody asked."

[max andrews @ Feb 15th 2007 12:12PM]

Engadget, can you please test these with a hands-on? I think these are cool, but it would be nice to know if they suck.

[KYDS3K @ Feb 15th 2007 12:17PM]

Those aren't earphones . . . they're CHEEKphones!

[Joe Henson @ Feb 15th 2007 1:00PM]

Oh my!
He really doesn't look like he's enjoying the music

[Scabrous Vermicelli @ Feb 15th 2007 2:45PM]

The foam pads around the perimeter do what, exactly?

[crackpipe @ Feb 15th 2007 3:45PM]

finally the word HEADphones makes sense... you know, because back when they were on peoples ears, I was all "that ain't his head, it's his ears." but now I'm all "hey!" and you're all "huh?" and I'm all "I got your bone for conducting"

[Eric Liberatore @ Feb 15th 2007 4:03PM]

What have if you have a fat head like mine? Will my chunky cheeks require me to turn up the volume to get to the bone?

[will @ Feb 16th 2007 3:01AM]

i second the notion that you guys should do a review, i have a shitty problem of breathing loudly when i put normal headphones on but it seems like this might help me uhh regulate that problem if i could still hear mostly

[Keith @ Mar 14th 2007 8:19PM]

With a little hacking, a motorcycle rider can use these under a helmet and still hear all the traffic. On a different note, we used to use this technology on helicopters so we could hear over the noise. These and throat mikes and you've got the perfect intercom in a high noise environment.

[bolgposts_taf @ Jul 1st 2007 9:57PM]

For those who asked, a review.

I ordered the unit from raremonoshop in Japan on Sunday the 24th (east coast US), and received them Thursday the 28th; I don't get things that fast from CA...so A+ on customer service.

The packaging is nothing to speak of, just the phones in a plastic bag inside a plain cardboard box with a label stuck on, wrapped in bubblewrap and stuffed in an envelope. No shipping damage, so good enough there.

They work fine with my iPod. With the iPod at max volume, you can hear the sound even without the transducers touching your head, it just isn't overly loud; nor is it terribly loud when the phones are on your head. I expected it to be much louder. You can hear the music clearly, but it most certainly is not loud enough to drown out the background. Which may be exactly the point/benefit. You can listen to music (sort of in the background) while still hearing what is going on around you. If you place the phones just right and crank the volume, you can reach a level where you couldn't easily carry on a conversation (too confusing for me, anyway), but you wouldn't be so isolated that you wouldn't respond to really loud noises. If someone is listening to one type of music, and you another, things sound decidedly odd.

By the same token, if you are in a loud environment, you aren't going to really hear the music very well, unless you stick in earplugs. Which was the next experiment. I put in ear plugs, put on the bone conduction phones, and cranked the regular stereo. I could hear the iPod just fine over the loud music that the ear plugs were blocking. So for noisy environments, these things should be pretty good when coupled with ear plugs. On my next airplane flight I'll compare them to my Bose noise cancelling units and report back. It will be interesting to see which is the better approach.

The foam serves two purposes - it protects your face from some sharp edges on the plastic, and is more comfortable against your ear (at least for me the best location was just forward or behind my ear), which it will touch.

The cable wasn't split far enough down to fit, but it peeled easily.

If you wear glasses, it can take a bit of tweaking to get the phones on in a comfortable manner.

I am a bit concerned about the structural integrity - we'll see how well they last in day to day use. They seem pretty lightly made.

Overall, I'd say they're not bad...if you hate ear buds as much as I do (I only use over the ear type phones like the Bose II or Sony MDR-V6), these things are probably worth the $94.17 Certainly they won't be nearly as hot to wear in summer weather, and the odds of being run over are much lower being able to hear what's going on around me.

I'd really like to try the Teac units to see if they're any better...

Tom Frank

[bolgposts_taf @ Sep 23rd 2007 11:45AM]

As promised, the in-flight review.

Took these and my Bose QC2's on a recent flight. After we got to cruising altitude, I put on the Bose. They removed most of the noise except for the high frequency air flow sound. Of course, they sound fine with the iPod.

Then I took them off and put on the Thankos. As expected, without ear plugs, I couldn't hear the music for all the background noise. So I put in ear plugs (the usual NRR 31 foam ones). The ear plugs block all the high frequency sound (even better than the Bose), but they do a very poor job on low frequency sound (the Bose is actually better than ear plugs there). Tried the Thankos with ear plugs, and still was not impressed. The low frequency noise still pretty much drowned out the music except at high volume. It may be that the low frequency noise is directly conducted into ones hearing.

So for airplane use, these things are not really suitable.

Conclusion. These things are fine for listening in quiet places where you want to still be in touch with what is going on around you. Great for walking, or in bed. They live in my night stand, and I do use them regularly. But they're of no value in high noise environments (I suspect they're not going to work real well under that motorcycle helmet).

Still hoping to try the TEAC's someday...if Engadget will provide a set, I'll review them!

[Steven Reiser @ Dec 11th 2007 2:27AM]

Hello,

A guy in my office got a pair of these when his Japanese wife went to visit Japan. I want a pair. WHERE CAN I BUY THESE??????
I have only found a raremonoshop.com (Japan)and www.dowumi.com (Korea) and NEITHER has a functional shopping cart.

Steve

[susan @ Jan 5th 2008 4:40PM]

USA Amazon have them. For people in UK - if you have a hearing loss ( conductive loss ) you might find it helpful contacting the RNID or NDCS ( for children and young people) to see if they have reviewed them or are prepared to do a review.
http://www.amazon.com/Bone-Conduction-Headphone-Alljoy-AG110/dp/B000OYF43A

[Don Root @ Aug 18th 2008 1:37AM]

Hi! I work in a VERY loud environment where we wear those 'skooshie' disposable earpugs 12 hours a day. It would be WONDERFUL to be able to listen to music while we make our beer bottles, but safety regs say we can't place regular earphones over our ears to listen to our nifty Ipods and such.

Bone conduction seems like an EXCELLENT answer, because I could still jam out to my Boston tunes and still hear warning buzzers and the occasional out of control fork lift.

I've had a HECK of a time finding a local place to buy a set (or three!) to try them out for myself. (Thanko's Vonia, Alljoy, etc.)

ANY ideas would be most appreciated! Thanks! -Don