Modern headphone tech has managed to pretty much
nail things when it comes to delivering really isolated sound: you can pop on a
pair of headphones with real big noise-dampening pads, or even better, one with
some advanced noise-cancellation circuitry. And when we want to totally block
everything else out, those are great options to have. But in the active,
social, challenging real world in which we live, that kind of isolation can
also be a hindrance.
Bone-conduction tech sounds promising, but the audio
quality isn't quite on par with traditional speaker-and-air systems. For the
past several months now, we've been hearing about another possible angle to
approach this problem from, as Sony works on an intriguing new project, the
Xperia Ear Open-Style Concept.