nwm Wired On-Ear Speakers (Open Ear Earphones) Prevent Sound Leakage with PSZ Technology Including Microphone Designed by NTT Sonority in Japan | Dark Brown

Pros: - Great for calls (if you have an external mic) - Very light weight, almost like they are not even there. - Great fit for small ears. Cons: - Very poor lows and mids. - Not a great fit for larger ears - Sound leakage - Poor quality mic - Not for games or music listening. These earbuds function pretty well for voice and video calls (if you have an external mic). They provide a very comfortable fit and present voices clearly. There are very little mid presence and absolutely no low end. This makes for a very poor gaming experience and an even more disappointing music listening experience. Although voices are clear, the high end is often sharp and tinny.

When used at a reasonable volume, I didn't notice and sound leakage at a distance of greater than a foot. Teens might notice from further away, but anyone over about 25-30 will be oblivious. Works best for spoken content, like audiobooks, podcasts and the like. For me at any rate. The problem is that the speaker doesn't land in quite the right spot for best transmission of more detailed sounds. Definitely not an audiophile choice for critical listening. On the plus side this allows it to better provide the other advantage open air headphones are most desired for: it doesn't block outside sounds, making them safer to use in environments where sound can be an important safety cue, or you need to be able to speak with others. If you're in an environment where communication with others is intermittently important, hopefully these will be able to communicate with your device and control the audio out. It has a multi-function button that, if supported by your device and software, will pause and restart audio. It can also be used to accept and hand up calls--though the manual makes clear this is not a guaranteed function, merely one they have made hardware available to support. Your device may vary. Where it works, it's great because you can switch from listening to the headphones to listening to whomever is trying to talk to you without removing an ear piece. Personally, I have a love/hate relationship with ear hook design in general. These particular earhooks, while small, are also very rigid, which reduces long term comfort. Unfortunately they remain as much of a nuisance as larger ear hooks if you are wearing glasses. The two things are always in conflict. If you are wearing both, neither can be removed or put on without disturbing the other. Assuming their larger circumaural headphones are at least as good as restricting sound leakage, these make for a relatively inexpensive trial of the technology, though the more expensive ones are clearly going to offer superior comfort. Unfortunately, they fall a little short as a demonstration because there is no "off" switch. No "on" switch for that matter, so whether or not they are doing anything special at all is a matter of faith as there is no way to compare having the extra tech on with having it off. As an additional test, I cranked up the volume of my Schiit Heresy headphone amp to see at what volume sound leakage occurred. At a "high normal", which is to say, a loudness people might use and not realize was way to loud for their health, there was a fair amount of soft leakage, about like one would expect with on ear headphones in general. Cranked up to about halfway, there was enough to sound like bad cheap desktop speakers, and around the 1 or 2 o'clock position (ludicrously loud) they started distorting. My conclusion is that for reasonably audiobook listening levels, people are unlikely to know what you are listening too, but if you're cranking on your favorite jam, bystanders will notice. While these are very useful for being able to be aware of background sound, that also means they aren't going to isolate you from it, so they are not a good choice for listening on a bus or in a similarly noisy environment. They aren't even going to be useful for listening while walking down a suburban street if there's traffic--but no on ear headphone will do that at a reasonable volume--and even at unreasonable volumes, tire noise is loud.

My wife still uses wired head phones. I had given her my old iPhone headphones, but she wore them out and were on there last leg. It took her a while to get used to the new open eared earphones. She said at first they seemed a little big, but after a while became comfortable. The sound quality was spot on without having to stick anything in the ear. the build quality is good for now or until she wears these ones out too. Overall these earphones work for what she needs them for.

The sound is adequate for casual use but lacks the true resonance of in-ear multiple driver ear buds. The harness over the ear is sturdy but after a while it was not too comfortable. For the price it is fine for intermittent use but not if you spend hours each day.

I gave my old wired headphones away so I needed new pair. I typically like to have pair of wired headphone with me when traveling so that I can listen to the movies on the plane. I love that is has a little part that wraps around your ear. I can't do the buds that just stick in your ear. I'll have two short trips this week and will be taking these with me on both flights.