REVIEW – I love music and podcasts, and I like to experiment with all kinds of headphones: over the ear, in-ear buds, noise canceling… but up until now, I had never experienced bone-conduction headphones. The Bonetalker Adder headphones promise quality sound and open-ear design. How did they fare?

What is it?

The BoneTalker Adder is a lightweight wireless headset utilizing Bluetooth 5.0 for a strong audio signal and bone conduction technology for listening to music without blocking ambient sounds.

Hardware specs

• Speaker type: bone conduction transducers
• Frequency response: 20Hz_20KHz
• Sensitivity: 100 ± 3dB
• Microphone: -36dB ± 3dB
• Bluetooth version: 5.0
• Wireless range: 15 m (49 ft)
• Battery: rechargeable lithium ion
• Playback time: 4 hours
• Standby time: 15 days
• Charging time: 1.5 hours
• Weight: 35.5 g (1.24 oz)

What’s in the box?

• BoneTalker Adder headset
• micro USB charging cable
• foam earplugs

Design and Features

At first glance, the BoneTalker Adder (I’m just going to call them the BoneTalkers for the rest of the review since the Adder is the only headset they currently make) looks a lot like a typical behind-the-neck style sport headset. Instead of earbuds or small over-the-ear receivers, there are bone-conduction transmitters that rest on your cheekbones, just at the base of your ears. The speakers transmit the sound through the bones of your cheeks and cartilage of your ears instead of pumping it directly into your ear canals.

The BoneTalkers feature a flexible, durable band that rests slightly above the neck, behind the head. This band didn’t really land right on my neck, exactly, but seemed to instead curve around and bump into high shirt or jacket collars. Unless I just had a t-shirt on, I seemed to hit that band against collars and hoods quite a bit and it made me self-consciously hold my neck still. Your mileage may vary.

The headset has all the normal controls you would expect: volume, play/pause, and forward-reverse. The placement of these buttons are great. It also includes a small rubber cap on the micro-USB charging port for added water resistance. Lastly, there is a microphone built into the headset which features noise cancellation. I got a chance to test the call functionality out and it seemed to work just fine. I could be heard fine on the other end. Overall, the construction of the headset is excellent.

Bluetooth pairing and charging are what you would expect from any other Bluetooth headset. It utilizes the latest version of Bluetooth for fast pairing, low power consumption, and good signal.

Usage and Sound Quality

As mentioned, I was excited to try out the BoneTalkers to see how they would sound while keeping my ears completely open and free of obstruction. Like, the actual sound quality.

The sound is similar to hearing headphones being played very close to your ears, but not inside or on them, allowing other sound to enter your ear canals. I wondered sometimes if I was using them properly, but no matter how I positioned the transmitters, I just couldn’t get a loud, solid sound. Only if I pressed them against my cheekbones at the base of my ear, the sound seemed to work well, but I couldn’t keep them tight enough in normal use.

Considering this placement to be normal, I felt like the audio quality as below what a normal ear-enclosing headset could provide. That is, of course, a huge concession. The sound is tinny and far away. Bass is almost nonexistent. You get used to the sound, sort of like getting used to a cold pool, but it’s not enjoyable. Merely serviceable.

The BoneTalkers do come with foam earplugs, which made me chuckle. It’s like, here’s this thing that allows sound to get into your ears in exchange for poor audio, but also, here’s earplugs so you can’t hear anything but the poor audio. Or instead of all that you could use the headphones that came with your phone and be better off.

Maybe It’s The Right Situation…

Providing good sound is kind of the only job headphones have. So to accept that sort of sacrifice in audio quality, I can imagine a couple of scenarios where these open-eared headphones would be ideal. For instance, if you worked in an office space that required constant interaction and interruptions. I know I hate to have to take off my headphones every 10 minutes because of phone calls or drop-ins, so the BoneTalkers would simply continue to pump in audio while you engaged in a quick conversation.

There could also be people who are sensitive to having earphones inside their ears, or who feel sort of “claustrophobic” with earplugs, over the ear cans or noise canceling headphones.

The other situation would be where you simply must be aurally aware of your surroundings such as riding a bike in busy city street traffic or working in a potentially dangerous place like a warehouse or construction site. Having full use of your ears would be a good idea if a forklift could speed around a blind corner. However, I have to wonder if headphones are allowed in situations like that.

Personally, every minute I wore the BoneTalkers, I missed having the music or podcast I was listening to completely envelop my hearing. I love music. I love spoken word. And missing a sentence or two because a truck drove by while I was out for a safe stroll on the sidewalk was annoying. Perhaps that’s where the earplugs come into play, but there are many more times I’d rather block outside noise than letting it in, so I’d rather use in-ear headphones in those cases anyway.

What I like

• allows ambient noise in, as advertised
• comfortable to wear for extended time

What needs to be improved

• blocks zero ambient noise (yes as advertised) but audio gets drowned out easily outdoors or in other noisy environments
• optimal position of earphones is hard to keep in place
• audio quality is very lacking in bass and volume
• placement of rear neckband rubs against collared shirts/hoodies

Final thoughts

Bone conduction is an interesting technology to bring into a headset, but while there are a few niche situations where keeping your ears open would be beneficial, I feel they’re too far and in-between to recommend these over a regular set of earbuds. And for $100, you could get some pretty great high-end cans and simply pop them out when you need your ears.

Price: $99.00
Where to buy: You can pick up the BoneTalker Adder headphones directly from their website.
Source: The sample of this product was provided by BoneTalker. You can find out more about their headphones and bone conduction technology on their website.

Filed in categories: Reviews

Tagged: Bluetooth headphones

BoneTalker Adder Bone Conduction Bluetooth Headphones review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on March 7, 2019 at 11:17 am.

Note: If you are subscribed to this feed through FeedBurner, please switch to our native feed URL http://the-gadgeteer.com/feed/ in order to ensure continuous delivery.

REVIEW – Let’s be transparent— I’m a big fan of Grado headphones and earphones. Their 325e headphones are one of my favorite open-backed headphones and the GR10 earphones are a go-to pair I still love and use. However, it’s becoming a wireless world and it appeared that Grado was being left behind—until now, that is.

What is it?

Grado’s new GW100 headphones are the world’s first wireless headphones that are open-backed. If you’re unfamiliar with the term open-backed, it means that you can see through the headphone ear cups. This openness makes the speakers sound like they are not sitting on your ears, but rather away from your head giving music an expanded soundstage. (However, this soundstage is not as pronounced as on other Grado headphones—more on that later.) Some people prefer the open-backed approach so much that they refuse to listen to any other type of headphone. Add Bluetooth wireless to the mix and you have something special. 

What’s in the box

• GW100 headphones
• Mini plug audio cable
• Mini USB charging cable

Specs

• Bluetooth Version: 4.2 with apt-X
• Battery Capacity: 320mAH
• Working Distance: 30+ ft.
• Battery Life: 15 hours (at 50% volume)
• Frequency Response: 20Hz~20KHz
• Mic Sensitivity: 42dB +/- 3dB
• Transducer Type: Dynamic
• Operating Principle: Open Air
• SPL 1mW: 99.8 dB
• Nominal Impedance: 32 ohms

Design and features

These are Grado headphones. That may sound a bit obvious, but if you’re familiar with the Grado brand, you get it. One look and that Grado look is immediately apparent. The overarching design language of these headphones has not changed much since the first Grado headphone in the early 90s. The look is a postmodern/mid-century classic style that looks old, but never dated.

The ear cup design, the sliding sizing rod, those foam ear pads are all Grado. The ear pads on these are on-ear like the SR60 and SR80 headphones as opposed to over-ear like Grado’s more expensive models. The GW100s are clad in an abundance of matte black plastic and faux leather. On some headphones, this would look and feel cheap, but the pieces fit together well and there’s no rattling or squeaking. Plus they are incredibly light. I’ve worn them for hours with little to no discomfort. The one comfort issue I do have is the foam on the ear pads. My skin mildly reacts to whatever the foam is made of and can sometimes become itchy. It could be something worth noting if you have sensitive skin.

The headband on the GW100 headphones could use more padding, but it’s almost identical to the headbands of Grado’s upscale headphones. It feels fine to me but might not have enough cushion for someone with thinning to no hair.

One design flaw I noticed is that if you want to wear the headphones around your neck, the ear cups only swivel one way and that way is backward. Let me explain: when headphones are around your neck, the foam part of the ear cup should face your body so they won’t get dirty. However, when worn correctly, the ear cup’s foam on the GW100s only face outward—unless you flip them around which then makes the right speaker be on your left side and left on right. Who wants that? Maybe this shouldn’t bug me so much, but it feels completely backward. 

Even though the GW100s are wireless, they can also be used with the included mini plug cable for (slightly) improved audio quality or if you forgot to recharge the battery. The headphones are charged via a mini USB plug, also included. I would have preferred a newer, faster, more durable USB-C connection that many wireless headphones now employ. Also, the Bluetooth is version 4.2 instead of the latest version 5. 

As far as extras go, that’s it. They are housed in cheap foam inside a thin cardboard box. Plus, there’s no case included, but that’s true of most if not all Grado headphones—no matter the cost. It appears that Grado puts all of their money into the product instead of extras that have no effect on audio quality.

The GW100 headphones may be Grado’s first wireless model, but you would never know it. Out of the box, the GW100s are easy to pair and easy to use. I didn’t even need to read the manual—I was able to figure out the buttons fairly quickly. The buttons are on the large-side making them easy to feel and use. When pressed, there is a voice prompt that tells you if you are powered on or off and either connected or disconnected. It’s nice that I don’t have to translate what different beeps mean as with other headphones. Oh, the voice is female and has a trace of a British accent—nice touch.

Call quality is so-so using the GW100 headphones. People I spoke with could tell I was not using my iPhone (unlike the crazy good call quality of the Apple AirPods). I was told my voice had static in the background. Even so, I could hear the other person quite well. However, the open-backed design lets me hear myself talking—something sorely lacking on regular headphones.

It’s worth noting that even though the GW100 headphones are open-backed, Grado has noticeably reduced audio “bleed.” People next to you may still be able to hear what you are hearing, but it won’t be as loud to them as with other Grado models. Note that this also reduces the soundstage a bit, so if you’re looking for that ultra-wide Grado soundstage, you may be disappointed.

So what is that Grado sound? Grado headphones are tuned to middle to slightly higher frequencies, but without being too bright-sounding in any way. Bass is present but well controlled. They are well suited for rock and jazz but can be easily used for any genre of music—except for bass prominent hip-hop or some electronica.

Since I’m a fan of classic rock, the GW100 headphones sound just right, whether it’s the Beatles, Stones, Bowie or even more recent rock. It’s a “mama bear” kind of headphone. However, if you’re a bass-head, I would look elsewhere. If you’re used to a brighter, ”Etymotic” type of sound, The GW100s may come off as a bit flat sounding. They still sound energetic, but not to the point of becoming harsh.

But what’s really nice about the GW100 headphones is that they can disappear. The Grados put music first and when coupled with their open-backed design, it’s easy to become lost in the music where you can forget you’re wearing headphones. It’s a weird sensation and it doesn’t happen with many headphones.  

What I like

The GW100 headphones are extremely light and comfortable. They can be worn for hours with little to no discomfort. Oh yeah, they also sound great.

What needs to be improved

The GW100s are almost all plastic which can feel a bit cheap when first held. Be careful cramming them into a backpack—the ear pads easily come off and can be misplaced. The ear pad foam can be scratchy feeling for sensitive skin.

Final Thoughts

Grado took their time making a Bluetooth headphone, but the wait was justified. The GW100 headphones have managed to retain that illusive Grado character that fans love. It’s a Grado headphone, period.

Price: $249 US
Where to buy: Amazon
Source: The sample for this product was provided by Grado.

Filed in categories: Reviews

Tagged: Bluetooth headphones

Grado GW100 Wireless Bluetooth open-back headphones review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on January 9, 2019 at 9:00 am.

Note: If you are subscribed to this feed through FeedBurner, please switch to our native feed URL http://the-gadgeteer.com/feed/ in order to ensure continuous delivery.

REVIEW – Over-ear headphones have always been my favorite go to for immersive listening. Audeara reached out about reviewing their A-01 headphones and since I’ve been traveling quite a bit for my day job, the timing turned out perfect. A good set of noise-cancelling headphones are a must-have for long flights to help reduce fatigue or even just to be able to enjoy media in-between fitful bouts of sleep. The A-01s have a key feature for customizing the sound profile unique to your own hearing. Seeing as I turned half-ninety a couple of years ago and have been increasingly concerned that my hearing is not what it used to be, that was a feature I was most excited to check out.

What is it?

The A-01s are over-ear headphones that support both Bluetooth, 3.5 cable connections, active noise cancellation, and sound profile customization.

Hardware specs

• Connectivity: Bluetooth and 3.5mm wired
• Range: ≤10m (BT)
• ANC: Active Noise Cancellation
• Listening Time: ≤65 hours
• Drivers: 40mm Mylar
• Freq. Response: 20Hz-22kHz
• Impedance: 32 Ohm
• Charging: MicroUSB

What’s in the box?

• A-01 Headphones
• Charging cable – Micro USB to USB-A
• 3.5mm audio cable with microphone and single multi-function button
• Airline audio adapter
• 1/4 Phono plug adapter
• Microfiber pouch for cables and accessories
• Molded travel case
• Quickstart guide

Design and features

The overall design of the A-01s is a clean, traditional take on over-ear headphones. They’re a glorious matte black with understated graphics that are hard to object to. They are slightly heavier than I was expecting, but very much a positive as the construction is largely aluminum and feels very solid. Nothing about them feels cheap.

All the accessories are a notch up from what’s typically included with metal housings on the cables and tasteful Audeara branding across most of them. The molded EVA case holds all of it in a compact, fit-in-your-pack form.

From a fit perspective, the ear cups pivot 90º inward just above the yokes which provide about 30º of vertical rotation to seal against your head very well. The clamping force of headphones are directly related to their weight and nailing that balance can be pretty tricky. Audeara opted to have the headband extend further out from the head to help strike that ratio. I think they got it right, but it does stick out a bit as you can see in this photo.

The headband is a very soft synthetic leather (guessing) with a subtly debossed Audeara logo and a padded air mesh that rests against your head.

The sizing adjustment uses a friction slide with detents for positioning. The detents are not super positive, but they also do not slip once set.

The ear cups are comfortable foam wrapped with a soft synthetic leather material and sport very large R and L indicators on the inside speaker covers that you cannot miss.

The majority of all the controls are on the left ear cup, where you’ll find…
• Volume Up, Multi-function (play/pause/skip), Volume Down
• Power on (bluetooth) and corresponding LED
• 3.5mm audio jack
• A small hole which I’m assuming is the microphone for ANC

Over on the right ear cup are the following…
• ANC switch and corresponding LED
• Micro-USB charging port

Setup

1. Insert the micro-USB charging cable and fully charge the headset. Allow up to 6 hours for a full charge. The LED will be red while charging and will turn blue when charging is complete.
2. Download the Audeara app from the Play store for Android devices or from the App Store for Apple devices.
3. Turn on your headphones with the switch on the left ear cup. It may help to put them on your head before you flip the switch as there are voice prompts. Press and hold the multifunction button (center of the three) for three seconds to put your headphones in pairing mode. You’ll hear “pairing” and/or see the LED flash blue/red. Go into Bluetooth settings on your device and select Audeara A-01 from the new device list. You can set up a second device repeating the same step with a limit of two connected devices.
4. Now you get to personalize your headphones. This is technically a setup step, but I’m going to move into performance because it’s so intricately linked.

Performance

As I mentioned earlier, I was excited to jump into the hearing profile test. Their App offers 3 levels of customization; 8, 16, or 32 bands which translate to a test that is either 3, 5 or 10 minutes of listening to beeps and adjusting sliders to show what you can and cannot hear. You can run the test for yourself or for others. It’s a cool process where you can increase the volume of each tone until you hear it (know what you’re listening for) and then back it down until you select ‘barely audible’ and move on to the next tone. You’ll need a quiet place to do this as the tones get really faint at the bottom of each adjustment. I left noise cancellation off for this step as I did notice some suppression.

Here’s what my 32 point graph look like after going through the steps and instructions on how to read them.

I have a list of songs that I like to use for checking out new headphones, but in this case I also wanted to have some visual cues for should I be hearing something. For this I used two different videos. One of them is one of my go-to songs Snarky Puppy – Lingus (We Like It Here) which has a great video. I also watched/listened to Dave Grohl’s Play. The track itself starts around the 8:15 mark. It’s a trippy video where Dave is playing all the different instruments for this epically long instrumental, but it’s cut in a way where you can see a lot of what you want to hear. It ended up being a great piece to test the A-01s as there are some sparse moments with clear notes, great percussion and then some heavy sections as well.

On a pure listening side, I ran through a ton of Tom Misch (thanks for the recommendation Satch!), Mike Shinoda’s new album (“Crossing a Line” is a great track) along with a bunch of my other favorites.

The App has personalization settings that let you set 0-100% personalization based on your hearing test which you can access through the saved user profiles. They suggest that you start your experience at 50% and work your way up to 100%. Each time you select a new percentage, you’ll need to hit the “Apply” button to have them take effect.

With a few different tracks, I started at 0% and then adjusted up. The difference was noticeable in a way I can’t quite describe. At 25% – 75% it kept sounding better in a way that was different than just messing with the typical EQ. Bouncing back down to 0% suddenly started sounding thin, almost like I was missing something. 100% sounded too polished? I don’t have the right word for it but would equate it to that ‘motion smoothing’ or ‘judder’ setting on your TV that makes things look too smooth.

I settled at 75% for my listening. My media all sounded great. Songs sounded clear and balanced. In tv shows, the quiet dialogue sections were much easier to hear without cranking up the volume only to have my ears blown out at the sudden explosion or whatever action happened next.

Here are a few things you’ll want to be aware of…

• I was able to wear the headphones for good long stretches of 4 hours and beyond without issue. The headband did not ever feel heavy on the top of my head and my ears didn’t overheat the way they do with some much more common ANC headphones you might be familiar with.
• The headphones must be powered on to use the personalization settings
• The app requires cellular or wifi connectivity to function. (You should only need the app if you’re setting up or changing personalization)The audio test requires Bluetooth. It actually will connect to your phone with two separate BT connections. One for the test and one for general listening. It was a bit confusing to see in the settings panel of my phone, and more so, when I was obviously connected to audio, but the Audeara app was telling me I wasn’t. It wasn’t mentioned in the literature, or on the site, but their customer service team helped me understand what was going on. 
• The hearing test can be a bit glitchy. I had no issues with the 8 tone test, but the 16 and 32 tone test got progressively harder to use. The tones started delaying and getting behind what I was doing. I had the best luck manually scrolling to the lowest tone to start the tests and then timing my responses after each beep. Took a bit more time, but ultimately you’re likely to only go through this process once or every so often. It was pretty frustrating, but the end result personalization was worth the trouble. (I was able to confirm that my review set had an as of yet unreleased FW version, so hoping they continue to work out the bugs.)
• At the pivot locations and edges of the sliders, the corners are a bit on the sharp side. It’s not major, but you might feel one of them if hanging around your neck for any length of time.

The A-01s are super versatile. You can plug in the 3.5mm headphone cord and just start listening right away (and it looks like the audio cord takes priority over the Bluetooth connection). To get any of the custom profiles, you’ll need them powered on.  When you flip on the ANC, there’s a brief audio drop while the processing kicks in. No big deal, as you’re likely not toggling it on and off frequently. ANC is also optional which is great if you were to reach the end of your battery, at which point you can listen with the audio cable again (unpersonalized).

Speaking of the battery. I made sure I had a full charge before leaving on my trip. I hit about 40+ hours of plane, train, and long taxis before getting ready for my flight home where I charged them just to make sure I did not run out mid-flight. Audeara’s estimate of ≤65 hours looks to be pretty accurate.

The multifunction and volume buttons are super small. I was able to use my thumb instead of a thumbnail, but in the end, it was actually easier for me using my phone to make those adjustments as it was usually right in front of me.

[Sidebar/open question here, and aimed more at Bluetooth headphones as a category – Why are power and Bluetooth LEDs on the outside of headphones? One generally flips the on button and looks at the LED before putting them on their head, and you’re definitely not going to see that LED once you’re wearing them. Couldn’t all that flashing be inside the ear cup and not annoy your seatmate on the flight? Just a thought.]

What I like

• Build and aesthetic quality – solid, sturdy, clean
• Sound quality – clean and clear (w/ & w/o ANC)
• Custom sound profile based on your own hearing
• Rechargeable battery and its running time

What needs to be improved

• Hearing test app is glitchy
• Volume and multi-function buttons are really small
• Edges on each side of the sizing adjustment are a little sharp

Final thoughts

I’m really happy with these headphones. They’re not cheap, but they’re sitting in the same price zone as all the major players with some killer features that make them stand out. I have had multiple generations of Bose QCs over the years. I can confidently say that Audeara has nailed it with the A-01s. The headphones are built solidly, look great and then paired with sound profile customization that is fantastic. I’m looking forward to an official FW update that hopefully resolves some of  the test issues. Overall… very well done.

Price: $249.99
Where to buy: Audeara and Amazon
Source: The sample of this product was provided by Audeara.

Filed in categories: Reviews

Tagged: Bluetooth headphones

Audeara A-01 Wireless Headphones review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on January 5, 2019 at 11:00 am.

Note: If you are subscribed to this feed through FeedBurner, please switch to our native feed URL http://the-gadgeteer.com/feed/ in order to ensure continuous delivery.