AfterShokz Aeropex bone conduction headphones

The AfterShokz Aeropex wireless bone-conduction headphones are a good choice if you want to listen to music while also paying attention to other stuff that's going on. The reproduction quality isn't as good as even a cheap set of in-ear buds but it's generally good enough, and the Aeropex headset is comfy to wear and fully waterproofed. If you like to listen to music on your rides and still hear what's going on, they're a good option.

Bone conduction you say? If you're not familiar with the concept it's fairly simple: instead of feeding sound waves through the air into your ear, a bone-conduction headphone sits just in front of you ear, and a moving diaphragm vibrates directly onto your skin. The vibrations work their way through the bone structure of your skull and they're picked up by your inner ear, which translates them into sound.

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That means your ear is empty, so you can also hear environmental sounds, like your mate shouting that they've punctured, or an Audi revving six inches from your rear wheel. It also means that you can still hear someone coughing two rows back on the plane, or the din of your lawn mower, so AfterShokz includes earplugs for the times you don't want to hear anything else but what you're streaming.

In the box you get the headphones, two charging cables and those earplugs, all in a nice silicone case with a magnetic clasp. Two cables? Well, the Aeropex headphones are the first AfterShokz headphones to move to a fully waterproof construction. You can do that with a standard micro-USB charging post but the tiny terminals and their close proximity mean that any moisture in there when you're charging can eat away at the connections by galvanic action and they don't tend to last that long.

Instead, AfterShokz has opted for a magnetic charging port and a proprietary cable. You get two, so that means you can charge at home and at work; or, more likely, put one safe for when you inevitably lose one.

It's swings and roundabouts: the proprietary connector is the price you pay for proper waterproofing. They're not recommended for lap swimming, but a long ride in the rain should be well within their limits.

The headphones use the Bluetooth 5.0 protocol and claim connectivity up to 10m. They were simple to pair to everything I tried to pair them to (phone, laptop, PC) with no dropout issues even when I was walking through the house to make a coffee. The connection seems really stable, and there's a built-in microphone if you like to take important business calls when you're out on your bike. It works well.

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This is not the first pair of AfterShokz bone-conduction headphones, nor the first we've tested. It's the new range topper, though, and pricey at £149.95. So what's changed? Well, the sound is better, says AfterShokz. 'Re-engineered technology delivers the widest dynamic stereo sound that bone conduction can offer,' it says. 'Say hello to deeper bass, less vibration and louder volume.'

If there are gains there, they're reasonably marginal. I also have a pair of the AfterShokz Trekz Titanium headphones to hand which we tested back in 2016 and are available for half what the new Aeropex headphones cost. And there's not a great deal of difference in the overall volume or the sound clarity, though the new headphones are slightly better.

Bass and volume

Bone-conduction headphones struggle with two specific things. Firstly, they find it hard to transmit bass frequencies. The Aeropex headphones are a bit better here than their predecessors, although I'd suggest it's more of an EQ tweak than necessarily that there is more bass available. Out of the box they sound bassier, but with earplugs in they're also a bit muddier overall with lots of mid and not enough high frequencies.

I've generally found that I need a headphone EQ app on my smartphone to get the best out of bone-conduction headphones, and for both open ears and earplugs the EQ is cutting the mid frequencies quite a bit. With earplugs in I need high frequencies ramped up basically as far as they go to get a balanced sound. With a bit of fiddling, though, it's pretty good.

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The other issue is volume. The maximum volume you can hear is dependent on how much vibration the headphones can send into your skull, which is limited in the most part by how tightly they're held there. The narrow headband on the Aeropex headphones has a similar spring tension to the Trekz Titanium headphones, and the overall volume is comparable. If you turn them up too loud then they bounce off your skin which is tickly and affects the sound quality.

They're loud enough to hear out on the open road, and still have ear-room for approaching traffic or other cues. With your ears open you get plenty of wind noise when you're travelling fast, like you normally would on a bike. The headphones are ideally placed to stop that: all you'd need is a small wind baffle stuck on top to disrupt the air over your ear. Something like the ones designed to stick over a camera's internal mic would probably do the trick, although I haven't tried yet.

The tension band sticks out a bit from the back of your head, which it does with all the bone-conduction headphones I've tried. This can be an issue with some helmets: sometimes it's where the retention system sits, and urban helmets with a low rear can foul the band too.

If you get a chance it's worth trying out the headphones with your usual riding gear to see if you're going to run into any problems.

Lighter and longer lasting

Two things have drastically improved over the older, cheaper Trekz Titanium headphones. The first is comfort: these Aeropex headphones are just miles more comfortable than any other bone-conduction headphones I've tried. They're lighter and smaller, and they have a full silicone outer that's kind against the skin. I haven't reached a point where they've become uncomfortable.

Secondly, the battery life has improved even though they're smaller. AfterShokz claims a battery life of eight hours for the Aeropex heaphones, and although I haven't quite got that I have managed over seven, which is really good considering their size.

Conclusion

Overall, these headphones are better than the Trekz Titanium ones I've been directly comparing them to because they're to hand, and they're also better than the Trekz Air headphones that we've also reviewed and were launched at the same price, although they're widely available for under £100 now.

If you want to listen to music and also hear what's going on around you then bone conduction is the way to go and these are the best ones I've tried so far. At £150 they're expensive. Are they five times as good as a no-brand £30 set from Amazon? Probably not, although we have just ordered a pair to find out. But like the others we've tested before them, they're a good investment if they fit your needs.

Verdict

Comfortable to wear with decent sound clarity and good battery life