It’s an epidemic, really. When most people put on their earphones, they become dead to the outside world. The cyclist can’t hear the car honking at him. The runner can’t hear the person screaming, “Look out!” We’re not about to give up our music any time soon, so what do we do?

SafeSound products has come up with an interesting solution called AIRbudz. These aren’t a separate set of earphones; instead, they work with your existing set to let you simultaneously listen to your tunes and hear the ambient sound around you. The concept is actually really simple: AIRbudz effectively replaces or supplements the silicone insert that you’d normally slip onto your earphone. There are specially designed air channels that allow outside noise to creep in, while still letting the music come through.

This isn’t exactly ideal, but neither is getting side-swiped by traffic when you go out on your jog. You can find AIRbudz on Kickstarter. A minimum pledge of $10 lands you ne of hte first packages of AIRbudz, including a Kickstarter-exclusive carrying case. They’re seeking $22,000 in funding and have until June 9 to do it.

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I like music, and I like it loud. That might explain why my hearing isn’t as good as it used to be. That also might mean it’d be a good idea for me to consider the Philips GoGear Muse 3. Yes, standalone music players still exist and some people prefer them over using smartphones for music. Or they don’t have a smartphone.

In the case of the GoGear Muse 3, you get something called the SafeSound function. Basically, it monitors the sound level of Marilyn Manson and Def Leppard, alerting you if the volume is probably a little too high for your eardrums to handle. You could heed this warning and lower the volume yourself, or you could let SafeSound automatically adjust the volume for you.

Your sense of hearing will probably thank you, but it kind of takes the fun out of rocking out with super loud music. Even so, if you still want to be able to hear in 20 years, lowering the volume is likely a good idea. This PMP will even pump out daily and weekly overviews of your listening patterns, making sure that you’re still in sound health. Other specs include the SoundPersonalisation graphic equalizer, 3.2-inch touchscreen, noise-isolating in-ear headphones, built-in speaker and plenty of format support (including video). The 8GB and 16GB models are on sale now for about $175 and $223.

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