For situations where it is not safe to isolate yourself from the environment
Most conventional headphones, both those that we put in our ears and those that surround our ears, isolate us from the environment. And manufacturers do their best to isolate our hearing organ as much as possible, so that as little ambient sounds reach our eardrums as possible, this allows us to enjoy music without interference. It is great when we want to distance ourselves from the sounds of the environment and immerse ourselves only in the world of musical sounds. However, it is not safe to be isolated from the environment while running or walking through city streets, riding a bicycle or scooter, or working at work. Open ear headphones are designed so that ambient sounds are not completely blocked. This does not mean that you will hear all the sounds of the environment as clearly as without headphones – they will be much muffled, but when listening to the songs of your favorite artists, you will still hear car horns and people’s voices, which is safer and more practical in many situations. If you listen to music while working, with open headphones you will always be available – you will be able to immediately answer a colleague’s question, respond to a reply, and talk without taking off the headphones. When headphones isolate a person’s ears from the environment, they often have to be approached several times or even waved to get them to respond.
Another advantage is that open-back headphones are generally more comfortable to wear for long periods of time because they don’t put pressure on the ears. They are also worth paying attention to for those who would like to have compact headphones, but don’t buy them because they don’t like in-ear headphones.
Two different ways of transmitting sound
Open headphones can be of two types:
- some use the conductivity of our skull – they do not directly send sound waves to the eardrums – sound waves are transmitted as vibrations traveling through the human skull, so such headphones are called bone conduction headphones;
- the second type of headphone has on-ear speakers that are generally larger than in-ear speakers (which is what the new „Xiaomi OpenWear Stereo“ headphones).
The biggest disadvantage of the first type of headphones is the poorer sound quality, because the vibrations are not able to reproduce the subtle nuances of music as well as the speakers do, when the sound travels directly to the ear in the same way that all other sounds enter it.
Although many manufacturers claim that open-back headphones maintain the same sound quality as regular headphones, this is not entirely true: high-quality open-back headphones sound great in the midrange and high frequencies, while the low frequencies are a little less, and this is due to elementary physics, because there is no closed cavity in which low frequencies would resonate.
The elegant design of Xiaomi OpenWear Stereo
Although at first glance, holding the new Xiaomi OpenWear Stereo headphones in your hand may seem like a strange design, but when you put them on your ears, the picture changes – then these headphones resemble the headphones used by singers and musicians at concerts, which are usually custom-made for famous artists. order. For singers and musicians, the cable goes over the top of the ear – Xiaomi OpenWear Stereo’s flexible headband also hugs the top of the ear. True, singers’ headphones are inserted into the ear and completely block the sounds of the environment, Xiaomi OpenWear Stereo headphones only fit to the ear and do not separate the person from the environment. The outer part of the flexible bow of these headphones is made of non-slip, very soft structured silicone, and the inner part is made of flexible, very strong and durable nickel-titanium alloy wire, which supports the shape of the bow. Although the Xiaomi OpenWear Stereo headphones may seem like they might fall off when you put them on for the first time, this is not the case – they hold very reliably and stay in place during fast movement or intense training. In addition, their shape is selected in such a way that it does not interfere with wearing glasses. Each earbud weighs just 9.6g, which is light considering their construction.
The headphone box is very different from traditional in-ear headphone boxes. First of all, it is bigger, because the headphones themselves are more massive, and secondly, it really looks luxurious – this feeling of luxury is created by its design, glossy finish and the texture of the plastic case cover material.
The water and dust resistance of the headphones meets the IP54 class (protected against coarse dust, splashes of water falling from any angle).
Much larger Xiaomi OpenWear Stereo speakers
Since the housing of the Xiaomi OpenWear Stereo is more massive than in-ear headphones, the manufacturer was able to fit a much larger speaker into it. These headphones have a wide-range, 17 x 12 mm, elliptical driver with a composite DLC (Diamond-Like Carbon) coated membrane that reproduces high, mid and low frequencies well. DLC coating reduces speaker diaphragm vibration and sound distortion and increases sound clarity.
In terms of software, we should mention the LHDC codec, which determines how information will be transmitted over Bluetooth (codecs are responsible for how data will be encoded for wireless transmission). The very low latency and high resolution LHDC codec used (up to 96kHz) meets the Hi-Res Audio Wireless certification standard. It should be noted that due to the low delay, the LHDC codec ensures very good synchronization of audio and video, which is very important when you not only listen, but also watch the image on a phone, tablet or TV.
Xiaomi OpenWear Stereo Confidential
Perhaps you have a question about confidentiality: if the headphones are open type, their speakers are bigger and more powerful than in-ear headphones, so during a phone conversation, those around you will be able to hear what your interlocutor is saying? This will not happen, because the headphones have additional 10 mm speakers, to which the generated inverted phase sound waves are sent, neutralizing the sound waves emanating from the main speakers into the environment in real time, so already 25 cm from the headphones, you practically cannot hear what your interlocutor is saying.
Each earpiece has two microphones. During the conversation, the sound captured by these microphones is processed by special algorithms, distinguishing your voice, eliminating noise, so your interlocutor will not complain that he cannot talk to you through the noise.
Battery and app
Each Xiaomi OpenWear Stereo headset has a 60 mAh battery and can work autonomously for up to 7.5 hours. The battery of the case has a capacity of 780 mAh, so the earphones will work for up to 38 hours on just one charge (10 minutes of charging (from 0%) allows you to listen to music for about 1.5 hours).
The headphones connect very quickly to the Xiaomi Earbuds app, where you can choose one of three sound options (standard, enhanced treble, enhanced voice), enable certain functions related to noise reduction or volume control, and various control gestures, all of which there are eight assigned specific functions.
Xiaomi OpenWear Stereo headphones are produced in shades of gray and beige. They cost about 140 euros.
The author of the review is R. Kažmēkas.
2024-09-02 23:41:28