HAYLOU PurFree BC01 Wireless Bone Conduction Headphones Review – Perfect Sporting Partner

HAYLOU PurFree BC01 Review Video

Build Quality

Well, the build quality from HAYLOU is excellent. 

The packaging is probably more than you need, but they are very well put together in the box and securely fixed. The box comes with the headphones, the charging cable, which is a wireless magnetic connection, and some manuals, which are really all you need.

The finish on them is quite superb. There’s a good flex in the armband. The overall surface is really quite smooth, well put together, and you definitely feel like you’re getting a quality product when you take them out of the box. 

You can see why they were a Red Dot Design winner in 2022.

On the right ear conductor, at the bottom, there’s the power button and a plus and minus volume button, which are easy to access and easy to turn on and turn off. 

These feel good and don’t feel like they would wear out or break down over time. 

On the left ear bone conductor, there is a simple push-button, which can handle your play, pause, and other single button functions. And, if you’re wondering if there’s a mic that you can use for taking calls while you’re running or doing your exercise or whatever else you’re doing in these, then that exists as well.

The core specs on this include a Qualcomm QCC3044 chip and an IP67 waterproof rating, so you could really take these out and get them really wet before you’re gonna need to worry about them at all. 

This will be a very attractive feature for people who might be doing surface water sports.

Features

The battery life boasts up to 8 hours of continual play, and when you put them on, you realize why it’s no longer. There’s a hell of a lot of work going into running these drivers inside the bone conduction tips, so you can understand why that might use a little more battery than your typical dynamic or balanced armature drivers in your other pairs of earphones or headphones. 

You can also do a dual-device connection and as I’ve mentioned there’s a dual-mic coil with noise cancellation included in that to try and reduce any external noises while you are on the phone.

First Impressions

First impressions are really quite surprising. As I say, this is a fairly new field for me, but I can’t imagine that many of the bone conduction headphones are dramatically different. 

The premise is that the ear tips resonate with the music, and also include a quite heavy movement of what I’m guessing are magnetic coils or similar inside each tip.

If you take them off your head and hover them over your ear, you will still hear the music, and there is essentially music resonating from each earbud. But the bone conduction really occurs best when you put it very close to the front of your ears and connect it to obviously the top of what is essentially just above your jaw line connection. 

The sound is best obviously when it’s closest to your ear. So, when I put these on for the first time I was really quite blown away at how immediately I was experiencing actual music. I think my belief was that I would just feel some vibration and maybe some very high-end tweeter frequencies. But actually, these surprised me.

Comfort-wise, they are pretty great. I wouldn’t want to wear these for extended periods of time. It’s not that they’re tight, but obviously having something resting on that bone for a long period of time is a little odd. But, they fit really well.

Comfort

As I say they fit well, and the overall comfort is good. The flex in the band is good. You can move your head around, jump up and down, and these things stay on. 

They’re very lightweight, so it’s surprising that the amount of pressure from the wire running through the back is able to keep them on really quite tight, which makes them again perfect for sporting or any energetic activities that you want to do where you also want to be listening, be that cycling, yoga, aerobics, running, or surface water sports, like kayaking.

Sound Stage

Normally, with a set of headphones or earphones, or in-ear monitors I would provide some commentary on how I felt the sound stage was. With these, it almost seems unnecessary because you’re not going to experience that deep immersion that you’ll get from anything from a closed-back or an open-back headphone. 

But, the sound stage is kind of unnecessary to cover at this point. 

You’re not looking to pull out individual instruments and find them in the sound stage, you’re really just providing yourself with an audible experience for any activities you want to undertake while still being able to hear around you.

Bass

I’ll be critical at the beginning, but it’s not really even a criticism, because again, bass and music are really made through the movement of air, which these things do a great job of, but the bottom end is obviously not going to be particularly strong. It’s certainly better than hanging earbuds over your ear in front of your ear canal. 

There’s still a lot more umph in there, but you’re not going to experience any low-frequency doof, doof from these. 

That’s not their point though. Their point is that if you’re undertaking an activity and you would like to hear the world around you, then they provide a musical experience that you can take with you. 

It’s not going to be hi-fi level. These are not audiophile headphones. 

Although, if you’re an audiophile undertaking sporting activities, then this is probably the closest you’re going to get to really enjoying your music while you’re out and about, if you want to hear the world around you.

It’s fair to say that these are better than just transparency mode on any true wireless earbuds, as they leave your ear canal completely open to the world.

Mids

The mids are definitely the strongest element of these in-ear monitors and while there aren’t particularly heavy sub-mids, the mids do shine strong, and this is where you realize that bone conduction headphones really bring their A-game. 

Again, it’s not going to be headphone quality or even high-end earbuds, but you are going to experience nice, clear vocals, snare, guitar, etc. Don’t expect the depth that you’ll get from a full unit, but I definitely think if I was running, listening to music, then there would be, you know, better than cheap earbud alternatives. 

The closest comparison I can think of is to put a large set of headphones over your ears but lift the cups. You’ll still get lots of mids, but you might not have a lot of bottom-end.

Treble

Treble’s sharp, and quite prevalent. But, that’s the nature of these as well, treble and mids definitely stand out stronger than anything else. Both the treble and mids benefit from not being too loud. Your first instinct might be to turn these up loud but you really don’t need to to get the benefit of the music.

I did finally ‘get’ these

After accepting that the HAYLOU bone-conducting headphones were not going to compete with my DT-1990 Pro, I relaxed and let them do their thing. 

The point of these as I’ve said isn’t to enjoy HiFi quality audio but to enjoy music in an unobtrusive way, wherever you are. That could be in sporting events, doing the housework or working in the office. The waterproof nature means you can use them in water sports and fitness events where sweating might be a thing.

I found myself walking around the house with them on, and the office and not really feeling the need to take them off my head, or turn them off as I could hear the world around me and my music. 

It’s like background music everywhere you go.

Conclusion

I think I’ve said all that needs to be said. I really like these, and that is something I didn’t expect. They offer something nothing else in my headphone, earphone, and in-ear monitor collection.

They allow music on the go in a comfortable, effortless way.

Definitely worth adding to your collection.

Questions? Let me know in the comments below.

This post was last updated on 2024-12-14 / Some images from Amazon Product API & some links may be affiliate links which may earn us a commission from purchases.