Bones and DirectPitch: Why Shokz is Betting on 2 Different Ways to Deliver Sound

There are many excellent in ear buds and over ear headphones available on the market, such as the Sony WH-1000XM5 noise cancelling headphones which I use on noisy public transport and for listening to TV/movies at night while my family is asleep.

However for innovative audio products that enable listening to music, podcasts, audio books and more in different ways without blocking ears like earbuds or covering them like headphones we have to look elsewhere than the traditional headphone companies like Sony and Bose.

Since it was founded in 2004 Shokz (formerly Aftershokz) has been a leader in creating and developing alternative listening tech.

As these technologies continue to evolve, companies like Shokz are demonstrating that the future of personal audio isn’t just about better sound quality, it’s about finding innovative ways to deliver audio in a variety of situations while keeping people connected to the world around them.

Legendary Kenyan long-distance runner and the first person to run a marathon distance in less than 2 hours, Eliud Kipchoge (pictured below) is a Shokz global ambassador.

Two notable approaches have emerged: bone conduction and DirectPitch, each offering unique solutions for listeners who want to stay connected to their environment while enjoying their audio.

Neither pretend to provide as rich an audio experience as high end earbuds or headphones but they do enable listening in environments where those two older tech gadget categories are not appropriate like swimming and marathon running.

Shokz bone conduction technology, works by converting audio into vibrations that travel through the facial bones directly to the inner ear.

When you wear a pair of Shokz bone conduction headphones, the transducers rest on your cheekbones, sending these vibrations through the temporal bone to your cochlea.

This bypasses the outer ear entirely, leaving your ear canals open to ambient sound. A crucial feature for runners, cyclists, and anyone who needs to maintain environmental awareness such as warehouse workers.

The technology has found particular popularity among outdoor enthusiasts and individuals with certain types of hearing impairments.

Since bone conduction bypasses the outer and middle ear, it can effectively deliver sound to people who have conductive hearing loss but retain inner ear function.

My friend Ant uses Shokz OpenRun Pro bone conduction earphones because he’s partly deaf and they enable him to hear music/phone on his left side. How cool is that!

However, the technology does have its limitations, particularly in reproducing deep bass frequencies, which has led companies like Shokz to explore alternative approaches.

Enter DirectPitch, Shokz’s newer technology that takes a different approach to open-ear audio.

Unlike bone conduction, DirectPitch uses traditional air conduction but employs sophisticated phase cancellation principles.

The earbuds feature carefully engineered vents that control sound wave behavior, canceling out audio in directions away from the ear canal while amplifying it toward the listener’s ear.

This creates a more focused listening experience while maintaining the open-ear concept that Shokz is known for.

The development of DirectPitch appears to address one of the main criticisms of bone conduction: audio quality.

By using air conduction with phase cancellation, DirectPitch can deliver fuller bass response and overall better sound quality compared to bone conduction, while still preserving some degree of environmental awareness.

This makes it an attractive option for users who prioritize music quality but don’t want to completely isolate themselves from their surroundings.

These technologies represent different points on the spectrum of audio solutions but both offer the benefit of keeping your ear canal clean (ear buds have a habit of getting clogged with ear wax) and not blocked with pressure.

Bone conduction remains superior for situations demanding maximum environmental awareness or water resistance, such as urban running or swimming.

DirectPitch, meanwhile, positions itself as a middle ground between traditional earbuds and bone conduction, offering improved audio quality while maintaining the ability to hear surroundings.

I like using my OpenFit Air on one ear at a time when I need to maintain some situational awareness but still want to listen to things like a podcast or an audiobook which don’t require high quality audio. If I want to pause/resume a simple tap does the trick. The ear hook is a lot more comfortable than in ear buds.

The Openrun Pro 2 is great for use when I want to listen to things or have phone conversations while doing outdoor exercise or even outdoor home tasks like gardening because the band keeps it firmly on your head so it can’t fall off, without being uncomfortable. A bonus feature is direct USB-C socket charging.

The other day I asked someone who had just gone swimming what they were listening with and it turned out to be a Shokz OpenSwim Pro.

Being older than me in their late 40’s, they actually owned an MP3 music collection so had loaded it onto the OpenSwim Pro onboard 32Gb storage and listened to it while swimming laps.

Is it Hi-Fi quality? Of course not but it does enable listening to music or any other MP3 audio like podcasts in a chlorine pool environment.