Today I saw an advertisement for bone-conduction headphones at Sam’s Club.
In my young adulthood, I enjoyed stereo systems with awesome fidelity. I worked my way up to a Dual turntable that had stroboscopic speed adjustment, a top of the line Fisher amplifier and speakers, a Technics-by-Panasonic cassette deck, and Koss Pro-4AA headphones.
Today, fidelity has given way to compressability–how much music can be fitted into the smallest space. Almost everything is MP-4 or other streaming media, which is relatively low fidelity. And bone-conduction? That was once a last desperate method to convey sound into the auditory nerves when the natural routes failed.
Cochlear implants use bone-conduction, not fine music systems.
Or do they? Maybe bone-conduction is superior. I don’t know. The range of frequencies I can hear has narrowed with time, so maybe bone-conduction would be better.
I’m not quite ready for that. I’ll stick with my Koss Pro-4AA headphones. By popular demand, they began manufacturing them again.
sfnowak 