These ‘air conduction’ earbuds let you hear the music and the world around you

Audio brand Shokz is best known for its bone-conduction headphones but for its new OpenFit wireless earbuds, the company is doing something different: air conduction.

One of the problems with bone-conduction headphones is the audio they output isn’t as good quality as a traditional pair of headphones. The sound reproduction isn’t quite the same. Seemingly because of this discrepancy, Shokz is equipping the OpenFit with DirectPitch, a feature that will gauge both the “distance and angle between” the earbuds and a person’s ear in order to deliver high-quality audio. It's the air being vibrated; not the inner ear. The company claims the tech introduces a sound “that perfectly balances bold highs, clear mids, and [a] surging bass”.