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Michael Black[_2_] Michael Black[_2_] is offline
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Default [CM] Headphones

On Wed, 19 Apr 2017, The Real Bev wrote:

On 04/19/2017 11:55 AM, Mike Spencer wrote:
Adrian Caspersz writes:

On 19/04/17 12:05, geoff wrote:

Kind of depends if you want headphones for high quality sound, or as a
fashion accessory.

Or as a covert DIY hearing aid ..

The future is going to see them rather prominent and fashionable like
eyewear, and additionally integrated with the music/phone (possibly that
made the user deaf in the first place[1]).


AFAICT the circuit design and tuning controls are sophisticated,
albeit straigtforward, electronics but the big bucks are for fitting
all that into a widget the size of a fava bean.

I'd be happy to wear headphones or earbuds and carry a widget the size
of a large cell phone if it worked for my hearing loss and cost a few
hundred bucks instead of the ca. $2,000 per ear.


FWIW, the $2K ones aren't necessarily good either. My mom had hers adjusted
repeatedly, but they never got it right. All she wanted was to be able to
understand the women on TV, but the adjustments to improve higher voices also
heightened annoying higher-frequency sounds. That was in 2005, maybe the
tech is better now. Equalizers have been around for quite a while, though.

I don't think the fact that they're made from a mold of the person's ear
canal is important. I asked my ENT guy about using hers if I ever needed
them, and he said Fine, just have them adjusted for you. Not much hope, but
it won't cost $2K/ear to try!

I think early hearing aids used actual transducers like those that used to
come with transistor radios. But somewhere along the line, the transducer
stayed in the hearing aid (certainly after the ones that fit over or in
the ear), and so there's just audio coupling to the ear. The fitting of
the piece to one's ear just seems comfort, and I maybe for best coupling.
Now that all the rock stars are using in-ear monitors, they all have
custom fitted ear pieces.

I wonder if the hearing aids now have become like other things, they make
the hardware really cheap, and it applies to all, but the more money you
spend, the better the software or adjustment. Or featurs kick in as the
money paid rises, but it's the software that makes this hearing aid better
than that one, rather than the hardware.

Michael