Best Bone Conduction
Headphones For Swimrun

Updated November 2024

Nank RunnerDiver2 Pro

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For the best Bone Conduction headphones for swimrun, look at the RunnerDiver2 Pro from Nank. These Bone Conducting headphones have several features that make them great for listening to music and making phonecalls via bluetooth to your phone while training.

While these are up there with the best headphones for running, there are one or two things to bear in mind when it comes to swimming. Are they also the best headphones for swimming?

Nank RunnerDiver2 Pro Headphones

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What's in the box?!

We have just received our NANK Headphones to review!

The headphones box

But first, watch our unboxing video below to get an idea of how these Bone Conduction headphones look and feel.

Best Bone Conduction Headphones

What is bone conduction?

According to techradar.com;

"Bone conduction headphones are placed right at the top of your cheekbones so vibrations pass through the bone of your upper jaw, bypassing your eardrums. Sound is passed directly into the cochlea via the bone, rather than using vibrations moving through the air as is the case with conventional headphone designs.

An obvious benefit is that there’s nothing being pushed into your ear canal, but the real appeal with bone conduction headphones is that you can carry on with your outdoor pursuits while also remaining fully able to hear what’s going on around you. The fact the sound waves are passing through the bone instead of through your eardrums can also make conduction phones a potential solution for some people with hearing disabilities."

Out of the box, these Bone Conducting headphones have a solid, premium quality feel and look. I like the soft matt surface, which seems to help prevent the headphones from sliding around on your head.

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Best Bone Conducting Headphones

The connector piece between the control section and the bone speaker has a hinge, which means you can angle the bone speaker and earpiece forwards to expose the ear canal or backwards to cover the ear canal, making the music louder. There's also a hinge in the same spot on the other side.

Bending the earpiece back into the ear

Earpiece pushed back into the ear for noisy environments

In the picture above, you can see the control unit behind the ear, with 3 small buttons to control the function and volume.

In the box there is a small silicone strap with a loop and a 'button' at each end. This can be looped around the neck cable, pushing the 'button' through the loop to secure it, on both sides left ad right. You can see how this adds security to the fit of the headphones.

To be honest, I'm not sure it's needed; on a training run doing hill reps I did not notice any movement at all, even when shaking my head to try to dislodge the 'phones!

Nank Bone Conduction Headphones, a Rear view showing the silicone strap across the back of a man's head

The silicone stabilising strap

After unpacking the headphones from the box and looking through the instructions, I attached the charging lead with the magnetic plug to the headphone charging socket. The other end has a standard USB plug, which I plugged into my laptop.

When the headphones are charging a blue light appears, to confirm the connection. While charging, I also opened Music on my Mac and dragged 80 music tracks over to the Nank icon on my desktop, and the music transferred over smoothly, although it took a few minutes.

When the headphones were fully charged, I put them on. This is an over-the-ear design, and the ear loops felt very comfortable and stable. Despite these 'phones having a solid feel, they are very light, and did not cause any pressure on my ears.

When I turned them on (hold the function button for 3 seconds), a voice comes on to announce that they are in bluetooth mode, by default. If you have your phone nearby you can connect the two devices by bluetooth and listen to music from your phone, or take a phone call.

Pressing the function button 3 times rapidly switches the 'phones to internal memory, and the playlist starts automatically. I was surprised at how good the headphones sound, and also at how loud they could go! While not having the bass performance of full over-ear headphones, the sound quality is excellent - I am a convert to bone conducting headphones!

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As noted above, when out on a training session doing hill reps, I did not notice any movement of the headphones on my ears or head - nothing.

Swimming with the Nank Headphones

So far, so good when it comes to running; how about swimming?

There are a couple of issues to bear in mind when swimming with these bone conducting headphones:

According to Nank, you should not wear them in water for more than 40 minutes.
If swimming in salt water, the charging pins may corrode over time - be sure to rinse the salt water off!
Wearing a swim cap; does it go over or under the headphones?
Volume - there is a volume setting for swimming, which is louder. You may also want to use one of the ear inserts to reduce water getting into your ears and also to improve the sound.Are these bone conduction headphones the best headphones for swimming?

Richard in a green swimcap with the Nank bone conduction headphones

Swimcap folded up to show the headphones

Swimcap folded down to cover headphones

Goggles on; I can still reach the control buttons

Set to go!

I wore the headphones for a 20-minute swim session at our local training spot on Gozo, Malta. Although some water did get into my ears, it did not seem to affect the sound.

With the volume set to "Swim", (in MP3 mode just press the Volume button briefly to toggle between Standard sound and Swim sound), the music was clear, with great volume and decent bass.

The headphones were comfortable under my swimcap without any pressure points or uncomfortable pinching.

So, the best headphones for swimming? Yes, compared to other swim headphones I have tried, the Nank SwimmerDiver2 Pro are definitely the best!

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Disclosure: These bone conducting headphones were sent to us by Nank for review. We have no financial arrangement with Nank.