With these clips you can turn any glasses into earplugs

Everyone seems desperate to tie smart glasses to their faces (or at least technically) companies seem desperate to sell us with this solution), but the closest to it is now the $ 200 Bose Frames or the $ 250 Amazon Echo Frame. The problem is they delivers sound only. It’s a lot to pay for a headphone alternative that does not sound as good as real headphones, so rather consider the new DIY solution from JLab Audio, which allows you to easily upgrade your existing glasses with wireless sound.

The JLab JBuds are not really buttons in the sense that you bump them in your ears like with some AirPods. Rather, it is designed to cling to the arms of your glasses – whether it’s a prescription or just a pair of sunglasses – and then blow sound into your ears with speakers pointing downwards. This is another open-ear headphone solution like the Bose Sport Earplugs announced earlier this week, which let yourself listen to your music while still hearing everything around you. It makes they are ideal for runners or anyone who does not want the world around them to be silenced. Unlike earbuds and earphones, they also do not make physical contact with any part of your ear, which means that it is longer comfortable to wear.

The JBuds is IPX4 rated for water resistance, which means they will easily have to survive both sweating and a heavy rain, but will not survive an immersion. This is probably due to the large speaker opening that makes the sound of the 16-millimeter drivers of the JBuds come to your ears. This is the same approach that uses over-the-ear headphones (the drivers sit slightly outside your ears), but without the earcups, so there’s a concern about these types of personal audio devices that everyone can hear what you are listening to. JLab promises that this is not a problem, as the sound is directed to the ear canal, but it is not a black hole from which no sound can be reflected. If you play tunes, you can probably expect someone nearby to rock as well.

The JBuds contain buttons to adjust the playback volume, answer calls and even change the EQ settings, and the battery life is more than eight hours. It’s surprising to see that a set of $ 50 headphones includes their own charging cable, which in this case is divided into two magnetic compounds to help reduce the open ports on each speaker. But at the same time, own charging cables are never a welcome solution, not even with the ease of magnets.

The JBuds are available this spring for $ 50.