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The serial number dated this unit to 1974, barely five years after Orange was founded, and only two after the company began serious mass production with its first factory in Kent. The OR120 was a year-zero moment for Orange: a wholesale rejigging of the existing schematics, from which emerged a new tone that everybody would come to associate with the brand, with a design and sound that would influence the amp world, both Orange’s and other’s, ever since. And here was one of the beauties, right in front of us on the bench! BEGINNING OF A DESIGN EVOLUTION Interestingly, the shy treble doesn’t hurt the imaging accuracy. You can very distinctly hear sounds moving from left to right. As long as you aren’t listening to cymbals.
The true test though is how well that sound performs when you need to be aware of your surroundings. I’d say the mix of audio and environmental sound feels more weighted towards the latter. I found in even moderately noisy environments like running outside in the wind or next to traffic, in a gym battling music from speakers or on the train or bus, that exterior sound really wins the battle against hearing your own audio. It’s supposed to be balanced, but that’s just not the case here. We’d all seen pictures of the outside of the OR120 before this example arrived in the workshop. But perhaps the most interesting aspect of having one to investigate in the flesh was popping off the sleeve and seeing the creature’s guts. And what a perfectly clean, immaculately preserved example of an OR120 we had here, with the circuitry and build serving as an absolutely textbook example of how to construct an amp in 1974. The earphones also include a 16mm speaker that Orange claims is “over spec’ed” to be capable of 75mW as the amplifier maker claims their studies of other bone conduction earphones led them to take an approach that emphasises audio fidelity. The tingling vibrations are most noticeable when listening in a quiet place. On the other hand, you can barely feel the vibrations when you walk or run. However, at that point, you also barely hear the bass.
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Orange Amplification is delighted to add the O Bones ® wireless headphones to its range. Using state-of-the-art bone conduction technology, they transmit audio waves via facial bones to deliver clear, clean mid and high pitch frequencies as well as deep, rich bass tones. The overall sound profile is muddy and while they offer good top volume, those vibrations are more noticeable on bass-heavy music, which is characteristic you don’t like or expect to see on bone conduction headphones these days. Bone conduction’s main purpose is to safely listen to music while jogging on the streets and not sonic fidelity.
But this head in question isn’t just any old Orange relic. Removing the cover revealed an early-manufacture OR120, also known as the Orange Graphic 120 — the model that has a decent claim to be the foundation stone of the Orange sound as we now recognise it, well into its sixth decade. To summarize all the facts, Orange O Bones (and all bone-conduction headphones in general) aren’t for those seeking audio quality. The wireless Orange O Bones® offer great sound, and utilise 16mm speaker capsules to achieve a broad range of frequencies with surprisingly loud volume. Users not only hear the bass, they feel it, the mids are crystal clear and the highs are sharp and well defined. The ergo-dynamic design ensures a cosy, secure fit for comfortable listening whatever the activity. The O Bones® are also water resistant, making them perfect for running or cycling in the rain or even sweaty sessions in the gym or studio. Orange Amplification is delighted to add the O Bones ® wireless headphones to its range. Using state-of-the-art bone conduction technology, they transmit audio waves via facial bones to deliver clear, clean mid and high pitch frequencies as well as deep, rich bass tones.Powered by a lightweight rechargeable battery, the O Bones® can deliver up to eight hours of listening time and can be fully charged within an hour using the USB-C cable included. The headphones voice control is compatible with Bluetooth 5.0, Siri/Google Assistant for truly hands-free use. Moving to the soundstage, it’s big, pushing sounds further out of your head. However, a big soundstage only works well when paired with good detail. In this case, it only makes you feel like you’re listening to music in an echoey hall. Sound quality isn’t bone conduction’s strength. Lower frequencies are a known Achilles’ heel of bone conduction. However, at least with Orange O Bones, they seem to somewhat resolve the issue. One of these occasionallys happened last week: an amp head showed up at Orange HQ wrapped in a home-sewn leather cover with an accompanying note from the original owner. The amp had been kept in storage for a while, the note explained, but now the owner was looking to give it to his son, a promising guitarist. Before he did that, though, he wanted to have the unit looked at by our expert technicians, and so here it was with us. Furthermore, O Bones charge via USB-C, unlike their competition Shokz, which insists on proprietary charging ports.
What’s even more impressive is how stable these headphones are. The design uses ear hooks to keep them in place, and it’s very successful at doing so. Orange O Bones offer a secure fit that doesn’t budge, even during intense workouts. Though Orange recognizes that the 16-mm driver capsules in the 32-g (1.1-oz) O Bones won't be a match for the kind of audio quality delivered by over-ear headphones, users are promised bass they can feel as well as hear, crystal clear mids and sharp, well-defined highs – all at a "surprisingly loud volume." There’s a knob marked F.A.C. (supposed to stand for Frequency Attenuator Control, or is that Frequency Adjustment Circuit?), actually a six-point notched dial that subtracts increasing amounts of low end from the tone, and the two treble and bass dials marked just “KHz” and Hz”, respectively. Along with another marked “HF. Drive”, it suggests an amp being labelled up for an end user who already understood scientific terms and was comfortable with undescribed acronyms. The OR120’s “Echo” effects loop The OR120’s two-band EQ To that end, the O Bones support the AAC and SBC codecs, as well as the HFP V1.6, AVRCP V1.6, A2DP V1.2, DI V1.3, HSP V1.2 BlueTooth profiles, but do not feature multipoint connectivity. This does mean users will need a consistent audio source, but given the practicality of bone conduction headphones for users with active lifestyles, this is less of a concern than it would be for earphones meant for everyday usage. The built-in mic is positioned on the bottom of the right transducer, directly facing your mouth. However, it doesn’t offer the best quality. Even in a quiet room, O Bones make your voice somewhat muffled and compressed.Orange Amps says the O Bones are also water resistant, carrying an IPX4 rating, which means they’re resistant to splashes of water from all directions. I’d say the headphones should hold up well against sweat and some rain. There’s not been a lot of rain to test them out in, but in the sweaty confines of a gym during tough running and rowing workouts, the O Bones have survived without issues. Features Orange O Bones have a stable Bluetooth connection with an above-average range (but some occasional stutters; more on that later). There’s also no audio lag when watching videos. Unfortunately, the valves had had become unmatched over the years, so that they were drawing differing amounts of current to one another — a simple function of old age — and the original Plessey capacitors, proudly stamped with “British Made”, needed replacing. However, what the meticulous attention to detail shows is how these heads were built to last. “British made” Plessey capacitors LEGACY Just ensure that before you pair them to another device, turn off the Bluetooth on devices that are already connected to the O Bones. The O Bones boast eight hours of battery life through 180MaH battery that will only require one to two hours of charging using the dedicated charging accessory, and are equipped with Bluetooth 5.0 featuring Siri and Google Assistant voice control functionality.
However, despite the poor sound quality, headphones’ primary function is to play music, so let us dissect how well the O Bones do. Orange O Bones headphones in all their glory. Bass: Pleasing quantity but only in a quiet room Adding high-quality codecs like an aptX wouldn’t make any sense and would only bring the cost up. Is There an Audio Lag? Like all bone conduction headphones, you’re going to have to accept some compromises in sound quality. That’s ultimately the nature of the open–ear headphones and bone conduction technology. The good news is that in general, things are getting better with bone conduction but in the case of the O Bones, it’s not raising the bar in terms of performance. Battery life is merely OK, and for the best audio you’ve really got to listen loud – at which point anyone nearby will be listening in as well. Ergonomics could also be a little better, and the competition promises better water resistance too. Battery life is quoted as being seven hours, but that clearly depends on how much you crank that volume up. I found from an hour’s listening outdoors at near top volume, which was necessary to get the best performance, the battery dropped 20% (100% to 80%). That would actually work out to about five hours and is short of the quoted seven hours.
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While most bone-conducting headphones promise up to eight hours of battery life (even Orange advertises only 7 hours per charge), the O Bones reach much further. Even the indoor range is impressive, receiving the signal up to 60 feet (or 18.2 meters) in the distance. Battery life is generally OK, averaging between six and seven hours with the volume cranked to about 80%. That falls short of Orange’s eight hour estimate, and can’t compete with the pricier Shokz OpenRun Pro and its near nine-hour runtime. Turn down the volume and it’ll last a little longer, but that also defeats the object of buying a pair in the first place. Sound quality: feel the vibe
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