Listening Without Ears


Is it even possible? If we are neither speaking figuratively nor in spiritual terms is it feasible to have an audible experience without the ears? Well, in a manner of speaking, yes and this post will explore one way of hearing without using the ears per se.

Imagine you were a soldier in the battle field and need to be conscious of the hostile environment you're in as well as pay attention to instructions from your communication device (or comms as they call it). Or you're listening to music while jogging on the busy streets of Ojuelegba and need not be run over by a vehicle you didn't hear coming. One thing is constant in these two scenarios, you want to listen to your audio device and be conscious of your environment at the same time.

With on-ear, over-ear and in-ear headphones (your everyday ear buds and ear phones) you will have to sacrifice your environment for the music, except you want to listen really low or use only one ear. These conventional headphones favour a lot who want to drown themselves in music but for sportsmen, soldiers and others who might operate in high risk environments, it's necessary they equally hear whats going on in their surroundings too.

Using a technology called Bone Conduction, companies like Aftershokz have pushed out commercial headphones that transmit sound to your inner ear by sending vibrations through your cheek bones; thereby bypassing the outer ear. So in a manner of speaking you can listen without ears and this technology has long been used medically for patients whose hearing is impaired.


This might seem like a lot to swallow with all its technicalities but once you see these new age bone condition headphones you'd forget all that science and crave for one. They're so trendy and cute. Aftershokz is the number one international brand renowned for making these headphones and your number one online audio store Shmproaudio.com has the Aftershokz Treks Titanium, Blues 2S and more in stock.



Word on the streets is that conventional headphones still sound better, but if you need to listen to your environment as well as your music, you know where to find us.

Written by
Chidi "Tite" Nnadi

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