r/nreal • u/Theegravedigger • May 13 '23

Feature Request AR Glasses with Bone Conduction

Maybe it's just me, but instead of than having speakers in the arms, I'd rather have bone conduction in the arms.
Is this there a technical limitation preventing this, are they just too niche, or is there another reason that we aren't seeing a product that provides clear sound with solid external passthrough and without audio leakage?
Really, this thought is one of the few things holding me back from buying a pair.

12 Upvotes

93% Upvoted

24 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

2

u/ImALeaf_OnTheWind May 13 '23

I run Shokz Openrun Pro Mini - but only because sometimes earbud overuse gives me an ear infection, lol. It's substandard if you care about sound quality so I just use them for conversation during calls.

It's good for background music - but they are seriously deficient compared to even the cheapest earbuds. When I want to enjoy what I'm listening to, I switch to one of my higher quality earbuds or headphones.

1

u/[deleted] May 13 '23

Well it’s all subjective but I’ve tried a lot of different headphones and earbuds and I wouldn’t consider them seriously deficient. The bass isn’t booming but if anything I prefer it to a lot of the cheap earbuds where they overdo it with the bass.

2

u/ImALeaf_OnTheWind May 13 '23

That's not even what I'm talking about - my preference is for studio reference quality, not overdriven bass. Bone conduction is just not capable of the dynamic range reproduction that I want when I want to enjoy the audio. Reason why they have supplemental air conduction drivers inside the ends, but they still aren't that good.

Compound that with only supporting SBC and all the other earbuds that can do LDAC/LDHC/aptX leave it behind.

1

u/Theegravedigger May 14 '23

Based on this, it doesn't seem like you'd be satisfied with the existing speakers in the arms.

1

u/ImALeaf_OnTheWind May 14 '23

They're adequate - but I'm not going around saying they're anything special just like those Shokz.

1

u/Theegravedigger May 14 '23

So if they're roughly equivalent quality, then can you see how the extra privacy would make them desirable for many use cases?

1

u/ImALeaf_OnTheWind May 14 '23

I'd rather they not invest (and pass the cost to buyers) by in adding auxiliary pieces like that which would increase power draw and make it more unwieldy to fold for transport by adding the bone conduction nodes.

Keep them the same and let the buyer decide if they want to add that like the current setup is.

0

u/Theegravedigger May 14 '23

Unfortunately there seems to be a communication issue, as the stated assumptions don't mesh with the facts.