I bought this for listening to television late at night without waking up sleeping family members and to prevent the associated discomfort of wearing headphones/earphones for long periods. The Bluedio HS CAN be heard if someone is sitting next to you, but I can turn up the volume quite loud without disturbing anyone else just a few feet away.I own both this (retails at around $20) and the Bose Soundwear Companion (retails around $300, if you can still find one) . This is a much lighter unit than the Bose. The Bluedio HS is a rigid plastic horseshoe and is not flexible like the Bose (but it is still comfortable for long periods of wear). The Bluedio HS can only connect to one device whereas the Bose can connect to two devices at once. Soundwise, they are not all that terribly different. The Bluedio HS seems to even have a better connection range than the Bose. The Bose is more comfortable than the BluedioHS, but if you are mostly just walking or sitting, you would'nt notice a difference. This type of wearable speaker is not designed to stay on during heavy activity. If you are jumping around, changing direction suddenly, leaning forwards or backwards a lot, this type of wearable speaker WILL fall off. If you are mostly just walking or sitting, this speaker is very comfortable and it is quite likely you will forget you are even wearing it.If you are looking for a wearable speaker that does not insert into your ears nor cover them, and allows you to maintain some degree of audio awareness of your surroundings, then this is certainly a great alternative, and at 7% of the cost of the hardware it is intended to compete with, you can't really go wrong.