Showing posts with label headphones. Show all posts
Showing posts with label headphones. Show all posts

2024/02/20

Nank(was Naenka) Runner Neo: Bone Conduction for the (Active) Soul music

Bone conduction headphones have risen in popularity with runners, cyclists and other sports enthusiasts as listening to music doesn't mean you can't engage with your surroundings and you're aware of what's going on around you.

Product Box

The Nank(was Naenka) Runner Neo's come in three colours, red, grey and green (though the red is quite orangey and the green quite light). A great improvement to other Nank and competitor products is the wireless charging, The charger connects via USB A and has a white LED to showing it's powered. The right control section magnetically sits on the charger and the white LED in the arm will flash (along with the LED in the charger) when it's charging, both light are steady white when fully charged.

Tech Features: -

  • IP66 water resistant
  • Bluetooth 5.2
  • Skin-friendly silicone
  • 10-hour Playtime (2 hours charge time)
  • Dual-mic Noise Reduction, Clear Sound Quality
  • QCC chips from Qualcomm (High Performance with Low Power Consumption)

Also included with the headphones are 2 Earplugs, 6 sound quality enhancers and a user manual.

Headphone in box

The Runner Neo boasts a sleek, minimalist design with a one-piece, fully-silicone frame. This not only contributes to a cool, futuristic aesthetic but also enhances durability and sweat resistance – ideal for workouts. The headphones are lightweight, weighing just 28 grams, and sit comfortably on your skin without causing pressure or irritation.

Sound quality enhancers

The core of any bone conduction headphone is its audio delivery. The Runner Neo utilises advanced bone conduction technology to transmit sound vibrations through your cheekbones. This approach keeps your ears open, allowing for ambient noise awareness, which is crucial for safety during outdoor activities.

The sound quality is surprisingly good for bone conduction headphones. While it won't match the bass punch of over-ear options and some in-ear options, the Runner Neo delivers crisp highs, clear mids, and a decent amount of low-end rumble. Podcasts and audiobooks come across clearly, and music playback is enjoyable, especially for genres like pop, rock, and electronica.

The sound is enhanced when the "sound quality enhancers" are placed in the ear, but that sort of removes the ability to hear what's going around you, which is the main point of bone conducting earphones.

Charging cable

The wireless charging is a great feature, as it removes the need to plug anything in or have contacts exposed, which makes the whole system waterproof and little chance of sweat or rain getting into the internals.

Charger on earphones

Call quality is decent, with the dual microphones effectively picking up your voice well.

Controls are simple and intuitive, with three buttons located on the right earpiece. These buttons handle power, volume, playback, and call functionality.

Showing charger attached


The headphones can do multipoint pairing and connect to two devices simultaneously.

Though they are comfortable, if the volume is too loud they can vibrate on the skin which gives a tickling sensation which can be annoying.

Maybe not as high fidelity as some competing bone conduction headphones, but for the price they perform pretty well. They are currently £60.31 from Nank's site.

2021/04/28

Want the perfect microphone, then be sure with Shure

Shure has been in the commercial microphone and in-ear phone space for many years (almost 100 as it was founded in 1925) starting in AM radio, then in the 30's developing microphones, then in the 40's developing headphones for the allies. The 50's produced the first stereo phono cartridge in conjunction with Columbia records. The 60's went swingingly with a dynamic microphone used by the White House ever since and the SM58 (studio microphone) favoured by rockers the world over. The 80's moved into teleconferencing products and cardiod microphones suitable for high gain while being resistant to feedback. The naughties (90's) went wireless and in ear personal monitoring system (earphones).

Moving into the millennium Shure acquires Tripp Ribbons Microphones and launches their SRH range, then in 2010's it's all about 24bit wireless, pro in-ear and the MOTIV digital line and now in the 20's it's working from home and partnerships with Logitech, prosumer home microphones and Ionic wireless in-ear.

That's a lot of products, so what's suitable for you?

There's a plethora of microphones, though all could be used, some are better suited to particular uses vocal, loud etc. and Shure have designed a simple quiz to help people select the best microphone for it's intended use and budget.

It's really designed for musicians and singers and it would have been nice to add sections for bloggers/vloggers, Zoom and other non-music activities, but it's quite useful as is.

Shure do make some very nice audio products and now with Home/Prosumer do have a look.