Just in case the word "conduction" triggered the question about health risk: in this case it just means the sound is transferred by direct contact of the resonator on the speaker with your cheekbone (well, as direct as going through the skin can be). There's no electrical signal going into your body, just vibration moving through your skull directly to the inner ear, rather than via air into the air canal.

Music is actually pretty unsatisfying at any volume above background levels in an otherwise-quiet room, since any significant bass through the conduction 'phones actually makes them jump out of contact with your head, resulting in a buzz you can feel + hear. Calls, podcasts, YT videos, etc. all work great.

Yes, I understood that is through direct contact. My question is: doesn't the vibration affect your bones?

How are they for tinnitus, I wonder. Tinnitus doesn’t really like closed back headphones, or generally pressure on your drums.

Got massively worse after a few days of use for me. I also used them with earplugs because I didn't understand tinnitus.

What do you do to listen to music? I try to use some Edifier desktop speakers during the day for most things, but seem to be okay with some airpod pro use. I kind of need that for walking the cat and sometimes to distract myself doing chores.

I sometimes allow APM's but I have to keep the volume really low and the duration short. I probably shouldn't use them at all but I miss the richness of music too much.

I really liked the Airpod Pros until I started to associate their use with worsening tinnitus. Now I'm trying big headphones with no ANC. But I definitely don't have any solutions.

Why was the earplugs + bone-conducing headphones bad for tinnitus? Sounds like a good combination on paper - block out external noises with the plugs and play white noise on headphones to cover tinnitus. I currently use noise-cancelling phones for that, but of course the earplugs will do better for noise cancelling.

This is just conjecture, but I think tinnitus is caused by vibration of the inner ear that doesn't come from the eardrum. The inner ear is designed to be resonant for audio frequencies, and the earplugs contain them, maybe too much. Just N=1 longitudinal study involving an early stage career and now way too much podcast listening. Covering tinnitus doesn't make it better. Covering the 'noise' is futile. The best you can do is try not to make it worse. You'll never get relief. But you can achieve surrender.

I have been (just barely) covering my tinnitus for the past ~9 years and I'm better off for it. The sound that I replace it is much less annoying than the tinnitus sound. I believe Tinnitus Retraining Therapy is about doing something like that.

This was actually the intent of my question, my initial phrasing was confusing.

I was asking if by not exposing the inner ear to sound pressure, but instead vibration through the bone, it would do less damage.

I wasn’t looking to cover tinnitus, but to avoid making it worse.

What I’m saying is that bone conduction, including tight seals of earbuds, or even use of earplugs in certain environments (roadies etc), might actually be far worse than the sound coming into the ear canal by air conduction. This seems to be my experience.

Bone conduction headphones are kind of like the opposite of noise cancelling. I like them primarily for sport use. Whether trail running, MTB, or in the gym, bone conduction headphones do not block outside noise. So wearing them I am more aware of my environment, which is important if people are coming up behind me on a trail.

They are better for calls than music. I didn't find any health risks when i looked into them. Anecdotally my ears feel better since switching to them

How do they work for audiobooks/podcasts in noisy environments? (traffic mostly)

Not always great. A good rule of thumb: could you easily hear someone talking next to you at a normal speaking volume? If so, you'll be able to hear with the headphones just fine. If not, you probably won't.

My Aftershokz are good for spoken word in noisy/trafficy environments unless I'm inside a car at freeway speeds, or operating a lawn mower. They could work in a car if they got a little louder.

Just be aware that they make it practical to tell that something is happening around you, but with spoken word you'll usually have to pause to tell what is happening around you. I.e., I can't understand what someone is saying to me if a narrator is already speaking into my ear.