Why would you be unable to wear headphones? It's just a pair of goggles an elastic band stretching around your head. I think in one interview they had noted that they'd like to include high quality earpeices in either the consumer or future releases.
The virtual boy is stone age compared to this, because the virtual boy had the console built in. These are apparently much easier to wear. All this is, is a replacement monitor that connects to your game system. The main guy behind it (Palmer Luckey?) is a VR enthusiast, and he basically built this because this is the VR he's wanted his whole life, and nobody else cared to make it.