Open earbuds have a purpose, but they’re not for everybody

Open-back headphones are a much-loved mainstay of many audiophiles’ headphone collections, since they’re made to have a wide soundstage, and have more of an open, airy feeling physically too, so you don’t get heat build-up around your ears. Many attest to them being more comfortable, and being able to pick out individual instruments better when listening to music on them. Lots of gamers like them too, and claim it helps them a lot when they need to be listening to what’s going on around them in a game, or the way that the openness feels immersive.

A lesser-known kind of open audio tech is open earbuds, which for a long time, to me, just meant something like AirPods that don’t seal around your ear but just rest inside. Those are relatively open because of the lack of silicone ear tip, which leaks to worse sound leakage and pretty weak bass.

But there’s actually a variety of open earbuds out there, from bone conduction earbuds that Shokz makes to Bose’s Ultra Open earbuds to Nothing’s new Ear (Open) earbuds. Designs vary a lot, but they are united in one thing that seems to be the main selling point: there’s no silicone going in your ear.

I can understand the appeal of open earbuds to a degree. I get that not everybody likes the feeling of silicone ear tips, or maybe their ear canals are too small or large to even have it as an option. But outside of that small subset of people, I have some bones to pick with open earbuds.

People around you will probably hear your music

I don’t know about you, but I don’t like being that guy with the loud music on the bus

People that love open-back headphones generally all acknowledge that they aren’t the kind of headphones you wear on the bus or at work. The open design makes it so everyone can hear the music you’re listening to, especially at higher volumes. It’s like wearing speakers in front of your ears with no seal — and you might irritate some of the people around you.

Open earbuds are no exception to this, regardless of if they’re utilizing bone conduction or air conduction to get the sound to your ears. If you’ve ever been around someone using Apple’s wired EarPods at a loud volume in an office, that’s exactly what I mean, but it can be even worse, since plenty of other open earbuds don’t sit inside your ear in the way EarPods do. The Nothing Ear (Open) sits atop your ear and it secured around it with a hook, and Shokz go around your head, making contact with your temples rather than your ear.

The reality of open earbuds is that because they’re open, you’re sacrificing a few things in favor of comfort. You get to not have the pressure or discomfort of ear tips, but your listening experience is a lot different, potentially for the worse.

The open design means you’re likely sacrificing bass and sub-bass

Not for the EDM lovers out there

By virtue of the open design, that also means that bass frequencies are a lot less audible with open earbuds and headphones than they would be from their closed counterparts. A seal is needed for strong bass and sub-bass, since our ears are less sensitive to these frequencies than higher ones.

So, if you really love bass and sub-bass, your listening experience will likely be pretty sub-par when using open earbuds, especially. There are open-back headphones with good sub-bass and bass since the part around your ear does seal, with only the back being open, but open-earbuds don’t have that seal.

That combined with the fact that outside noises in your environment will likely mask the bass frequencies makes it difficult to really enjoy lower frequencies in music with open earbuds. You might have an good experience in a completely quiet environment, but if you want to wear your earbuds outside, on the bus, at work, or while running errands, this will be a significant bass sacrifice to be made.

You might end up turning your volume up too loudly

Noise-induced hearing loss is no joke, and you don’t want to risk it

On the same note about other sounds around you masking your audio, this is likely to lead to you turning your volume up a bit too high to make up for the surrounding interruptions. The ideal situation being marketed to you by manufacturers of open earbuds is that you get to listen to your music without sacrificing the ability to hear the world around you, but let’s be real, the world around you is very loud a lot of the time. So loud that it is probably louder than the speaker hovering over your ear.

When you have to turn up your volume on open earbuds to make up for the volume of your environment, you run into a few problems. First is the first problem I mentioned, where everyone around you can hear what you’re listening to. It will obviously not be as loud for them as it is for you, but they will probably hear the higher frequencies pretty audibly coming from your earbuds.

The second issue is that when you turn up your music that loud, you are risking some noise-induced hearing loss. It’s really hard for a layperson to measure decibel levels, but when you’re turning up music to make up for a loud environment like a train or a busy grocery store, you’re likely not doing your ears many favors. The National Institute for National Safety and Health (NIOSH) recommends not exceeding 85dB over an eight-hour period as their standard for avoiding noise-induced hearing loss. If your music is exceeding 85dB, which you will likely be unable to actually tell if it is, you’re playing with fire with your hearing.

Ultimately, while I understand that open earbuds exist for very vaild reasons, I don’t see a reason why most people would ever consider them. If you’re able to wear in-ear earbuds that seal, you should generally opt for them. If you want environmental awareness, transparency mode is available with tons of earbuds, without necessarily sacrificing sound leakage or bass. In the same way that open-back headphones are relegated to at-home quiet listening sessions, open earbuds just aren’t optimal for a lot of environments, and will likely be more of a nuisance than anything.