Phil Hobbs wrote:
On 08/13/2011 07:44 PM, Les Cargill wrote:
RichD wrote:
I have the standard earpod set, which came with my
armband MP3 player. It pops out every 2 minutes.
How did these things become the standard design?
Kids these days...
They suck.
Yep. The cheap ones tend to sound bad, too.
So now i'm looking for the earbud style, i.e. inside the
ear. They range from $8 to $40, and Shure offers a set,
over $100?!?
They have sets over $400.
For something so small, how can there
be such a range?
It's a micro machined (or cast or molded) thing.
It's a transducer.
Is there really such quality difference?
Yeah, there apparently is. They are, as you note, a total
pig in a poke.
I would tend to resort to brand name choice, mainly Shure,
because Shure get used as in-ears by people who perform with
them for a living. We're down to what amounts to folklore,
since you can't try them on.
They are all sealed in blister packs, there's no chance
to compare. Even if there were, differences in
environment, time of day, etc. swamp perceptual
discernment.
How would you go about testing these things, in the lab?
--
Rich
I am not Shure 
I'd estimate my ear canal geometry, use
a model of that to connect them to a measurement mic or
a standalone, Panasonic omni electret element, and run
an impulse ( and maybe white noise and maybe swept sine
tones ) through 'em. That's got to be fraught with
error - my tympani is not much like the back of an
electret element.
What would be interesting ( and might even be worth $20
or so ) would be a subscription service where people do
empirical reviews of these items. Problem is: how do
you establish credibility? Do people even care? If I
were considering such a purchase, and I could hedge 10:1
a purchase error, I'd probably do it.
I don't see one, so I figure there's a good reason
for the lack of them.
--
Les Cargill
One approach would be to make a casting of the outer part of your ear
canal with something like ShapeLok. I've been meaning to try that myself.
I never stick anything in my ear smaller than my elbow. There's
obviously the Etymotic thingies, but they cost too much.
A piece of surgical tubing seems close enough. It'd
be like making measurements at the end of an organ pipe, so it
all sounds eminently futile
I've been using Koss PRO35A on-the-ears for more than ten
years now. Good known quantity. And I don't want to
play music loud enough to justify earplugs any more.
Cheers
Phil Hobbs
--
Les Cargill