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We compare products from their published specs and features; the verdicts below are our independent editorial opinions.
Updated: 2026-09-28 · 7 min read · Independent comparison
• MARLALL Liquid Silicone Swimming — biggest strength: an IP68 waterproof build with 32 GB of built-in MP3 memory, so it plays music without any Bluetooth signal at all — which is exactly what swimming requires.
• MARLALL Liquid Silicone Swimming — biggest trade-off: with no noise control and no on-device light, it leans on open-ear awareness alone, and its Bluetooth range is a standard 10 meters.
• KLKE Bone Conduction Headphones — biggest strength: a built-in rear safety light plus switchable Indoor and Outdoor sound modes, backed by up to 10 hours of playtime and a 3-hour charge.
• KLKE Bone Conduction Headphones — biggest trade-off: IP66 means sweat and spray resistance, not swimming; it is a land-and-gym headphone, not a pool headphone.
• For pool swimmers and triathlon training in water → MARLALL Liquid Silicone Swimming.
• For night runners, cyclists, commuters and gym-goers who want to stay aware → KLKE Bone Conduction Headphones.
The MARLALL S800 is the more specialized device of the two, and it is specialized in a way almost no open-ear headphone is: it is rated IP68 waterproof. That rating is the whole reason this model exists. Bone conduction works by sending vibrations through your cheekbones to your inner ear, and the housing is sealed in silicone so the electronics survive being submerged. If you swim laps, this is the category to look at.
The second half of the story is the 32 GB of built-in storage. Bluetooth does not travel through water, so the MARLALL sidesteps the problem entirely by switching to MP3 mode: you load your music onto the headphones themselves and play it locally. The brand's own guidance is to use MP3 mode when swimming and Bluetooth otherwise. At roughly 8,000 songs of capacity, you are not going to run out of tracks mid-session. For land use it runs Bluetooth 5.4 with a 10-meter (about 33-foot) range, which is fine for leaving your phone on a bench or in a gym bag.
Physically it is light — the item weight is listed at 22.68 g, and the brand describes it as a 29 g lightweight build — with an adjustable strap and a 32-ohm bone conduction driver covering 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz. It charges magnetically, which removes an open port, and that is part of how it keeps water out.
Who should buy it: swimmers, triathletes, open-water and pool lap swimmers, and anyone who wants one pair of headphones for both the pool and the run. Who should skip it: if you mostly train at night on roads, you gain nothing from IP68, and you would be paying for a waterproofing capability you will never use — the KLKE's safety light is the more useful feature in that scenario. There is also no noise control here (the spec sheet lists noise control as "None"), so "aware mode" is not a switch you toggle — it is simply how open-ear bone conduction works, with your ear canal left open to the world.
The KLKE Z3 is built around the opposite priority: staying aware and staying seen. Its headline feature is a built-in rear safety light that improves your visibility during night runs, evening walks, cycling and low-light workouts. That is a genuinely practical addition for anyone whose training happens before sunrise or after dark, and it is the clearest single point of difference between these two models.
The second feature worth understanding is the dual sound mode setup. You can switch between Indoor Mode, which the brand describes as balanced clarity for calls, podcasts and gym sessions, and Outdoor Mode, which delivers fuller sound for outdoor running and cycling. In practice that means you can tune the output to the environment instead of living with one tuning. Both modes are bone conduction, so your ears stay open and you keep hearing traffic, voices and surroundings the entire time.
Durability is IP66, which covers sweat and heavy spray but not immersion — so treat this as a sweatproof sports headphone, not a swimming one. Battery life is up to 10 hours with a 3-hour charge time over USB-C, which is enough for multiple workouts, a commute, and a workday of calls. There is a microphone for clear calls, and controls are handled by physical push buttons rather than touch, which is the more reliable choice when your hands are sweaty or you are wearing gloves. The adjustable silicone back strap lets you size the fit, and the open-ear design avoids ear pressure across long sessions. It weighs 32 g and is finished in an orange polyurethane enclosure. There is no noise control listed here either, again because openness is the point.
Who should buy it: runners, cyclists, commuters, hikers and gym-goers who train in mixed light and want to hear what is around them. Who should skip it: swimmers. IP66 will not survive lap swimming, and there is no built-in MP3 storage, so you would be relying on Bluetooth — which does not transmit underwater.
• Best for swimming → MARLALL Liquid Silicone Swimming. IP68 waterproofing plus 32 GB of onboard MP3 storage is the only combination here that works underwater.
• Best for night-time visibility → KLKE Bone Conduction Headphones. The built-in rear safety light is unique to this model.
• Best for battery life on a single charge → KLKE Bone Conduction Headphones, at up to 10 hours with a 3-hour USB-C charge.
• Best for training without a phone → MARLALL Liquid Silicone Swimming. The 32 GB of internal memory holds roughly 8,000 songs, so you can leave the phone in the locker.
• Best for tuning sound to your environment → KLKE Bone Conduction Headphones, thanks to the Indoor/Outdoor mode switch.
• Best for the lightest possible wear → MARLALL Liquid Silicone Swimming, listed at 22.68 g item weight against 32 g for the KLKE.
• Best for call clarity and hands-free use → KLKE Bone Conduction Headphones, which pairs a clear-call microphone with easy push-button controls.
• Best for a mixed pool-and-road routine → MARLALL Liquid Silicone Swimming, since Bluetooth 5.4 on land and MP3 mode in water covers both halves of the week.
In my opinion, the KLKE Bone Conduction Headphones are the smarter buy for most people, and it comes down to the safety light. Most open-ear buyers are runners, cyclists and commuters, and a rear light that makes you visible on a dark road is more valuable in daily use than a waterproof rating you will never test. The 10-hour battery, USB-C charging, dual sound modes and physical buttons all reinforce that everyday-sports focus.
That said, the decision is really about water. If you swim — laps, open water, triathlon training — the MARLALL Liquid Silicone Swimming is the only one of the two that can go with you, and its 32 GB MP3 mode solves the underwater Bluetooth problem cleanly. I would buy the KLKE for a road-and-gym routine, and the MARLALL the moment a pool enters the picture.
what is ambient aware on headphones
Ambient aware is the general term for letting outside sound reach your ears while you listen — either through a microphone that pipes it in or by leaving your ear canal open. Both headphones here achieve it the open-ear way: bone conduction sends sound through your cheekbones, so traffic, voices and surroundings stay audible. Neither model lists a software noise-control mode, so awareness is built into the design rather than switched on.
how to turn off aware mode bose headphones
That is a Bose-specific control and does not apply to either headphone on this page. Bose headphones handle aware mode through their own app and on-ear controls. The MARLALL and KLKE models do not have an aware-mode toggle at all — because their ear canal stays open, there is nothing to turn off. If you want to block sound, you would need a sealed, noise-cancelling design, which is the opposite of what these are.
how to turn on aware mode on bose headphones
Again, that is a setting inside Bose's own app and hardware, not something these two models do. On the MARLALL and KLKE, awareness is the default state: open-ear bone conduction always leaves you able to hear what is around you. You simply put them on and go. There is no mode to enable.
how to turn off aware mode on jlab headphones
That is a JLab-specific function, so it does not map onto either headphone here. The relevant distinction for these two is simpler — the MARLALL is IP68 and swims, while the KLKE is IP66, sweatproof, and adds a rear safety light for low-light training. If you need price information for either, check the current price on Amazon, since it changes over time.
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