Open Ears and the Bose Ultra Open Earbuds in Review

I tested the Bose Ultra Open Earbuds and I'm Keeping Them. They sound great and allow listening at safe levels while being aware of what other people say. These make a great case for Open Ears and that's the topic of this article where I have inserted my review of the Bose Ultra Open Earbuds and I provide examples of how the industry has been exploring alternative designs that avoid in-ear occlusion, from loose-fit earbud shapes to the recent air conduction craze.

The result of an intense research effort to achieve the most effective approach for an open ear design, Bose just introduced the all-new Ultra Open Earbuds, a completely new form-factor. Described as "a breakthrough audio wearable" the Bose Ultra Open Earbuds are designed to let users hear the world while still enjoying music. The approach is to use air conduction to feed audio to the inside of the ear, while resting on the lower ear. OpenAudio delivers the air conduction, while signal processing adds Bose Immersive Audio to enhance the experience.

Hyphen, an audio brand created by Rolling Square is pitching the Hyphen Aria true wireless earbuds, a new design intended to provide a more natural sound experience, avoiding the occlusion effect and leveraging air conduction to expand on the open-ear form-factor. While the Hyphen Aria earbuds resemble some of Bose's earlier TWS designs, the new product now being promoted on Kickstarter targets an audience that is more familiarized with the problems of current earbuds and is looking for more "healthier" alternatives.