[Phil Hobbs[_2_]]

On 08/13/2011 08:01 PM, Les Cargill wrote:
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.


It isn't _my_ music that justifies the earplugs. Properly fitted
earplug headphones are far safer than ordinary ear buds in noisy
environments such as airplanes (I just got to gold frequent-flyer
status, so I care about that. If business continues to be good, I may
make platinum this year.)

You have to crank up the volume so high to get any S/N ratio that you
can easily damage your hearing. Give me the occasional case of diver's
ear any day.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs



--
Dr Philip C D Hobbs
Principal Consultant
ElectroOptical Innovations LLC
Optics, Electro-optics, Photonics, Analog Electronics

160 North State Road #203
Briarcliff Manor NY 10510
845-480-2058

hobbs at electrooptical dot net
http://electrooptical.net

[Spehro Pefhany]

On Sat, 13 Aug 2011 20:23:10 -0400, the renowned Phil Hobbs
wrote:


It isn't _my_ music that justifies the earplugs. Properly fitted
earplug headphones are far safer than ordinary ear buds in noisy
environments such as airplanes (I just got to gold frequent-flyer
status, so I care about that. If business continues to be good, I may
make platinum this year.)

You have to crank up the volume so high to get any S/N ratio that you
can easily damage your hearing. Give me the occasional case of diver's
ear any day.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

Bose noise-cancelling headphones. Well worth the cost if you spend
more than 20 hours a year in aircraft.


Best regards,
Spehro Pefhany
--
"it's the network..." "The Journey is the reward"
Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com
Embedded software/hardware/analog Info for designers: http://www.speff.com

[Phil Hobbs[_2_]]

On 08/13/2011 09:19 PM, Spehro Pefhany wrote:
On Sat, 13 Aug 2011 20:23:10 -0400, the renowned Phil Hobbs
wrote:


It isn't _my_ music that justifies the earplugs. Properly fitted
earplug headphones are far safer than ordinary ear buds in noisy
environments such as airplanes (I just got to gold frequent-flyer
status, so I care about that. If business continues to be good, I may
make platinum this year.)

You have to crank up the volume so high to get any S/N ratio that you
can easily damage your hearing. Give me the occasional case of diver's
ear any day.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

Bose noise-cancelling headphones. Well worth the cost if you spend
more than 20 hours a year in aircraft.


Best regards,
Spehro Pefhany


Are they the around-the-ear or the mash-the-ear-flat kind? I have some
Panasonic ones that work fine but squash my ears hard enough that they
hurt after an hour or so.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

--
Dr Philip C D Hobbs
Principal Consultant
ElectroOptical Innovations LLC
Optics, Electro-optics, Photonics, Analog Electronics

160 North State Road #203
Briarcliff Manor NY 10510
845-480-2058

hobbs at electrooptical dot net
http://electrooptical.net

[Spehro Pefhany]

On Sat, 13 Aug 2011 21:32:12 -0400, the renowned Phil Hobbs
wrote:

On 08/13/2011 09:19 PM, Spehro Pefhany wrote:
On Sat, 13 Aug 2011 20:23:10 -0400, the renowned Phil Hobbs
wrote:


It isn't _my_ music that justifies the earplugs. Properly fitted
earplug headphones are far safer than ordinary ear buds in noisy
environments such as airplanes (I just got to gold frequent-flyer
status, so I care about that. If business continues to be good, I may
make platinum this year.)

You have to crank up the volume so high to get any S/N ratio that you
can easily damage your hearing. Give me the occasional case of diver's
ear any day.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

Bose noise-cancelling headphones. Well worth the cost if you spend
more than 20 hours a year in aircraft.


Best regards,
Spehro Pefhany


Are they the around-the-ear or the mash-the-ear-flat kind? I have some
Panasonic ones that work fine but squash my ears hard enough that they
hurt after an hour or so.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

They don't go around your ear... they have very soft cushions that go
against your ears. And they don't have the background hisssssss that
I've heard with some of the (much) cheaper Japanese ones.


Best regards,
Spehro Pefhany
--
"it's the network..." "The Journey is the reward"
Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com
Embedded software/hardware/analog Info for designers: http://www.speff.com

[Phil Hobbs[_2_]]

On 08/13/2011 09:43 PM, Spehro Pefhany wrote:
On Sat, 13 Aug 2011 21:32:12 -0400, the renowned Phil Hobbs
wrote:

On 08/13/2011 09:19 PM, Spehro Pefhany wrote:
On Sat, 13 Aug 2011 20:23:10 -0400, the renowned Phil Hobbs
wrote:


It isn't _my_ music that justifies the earplugs. Properly fitted
earplug headphones are far safer than ordinary ear buds in noisy
environments such as airplanes (I just got to gold frequent-flyer
status, so I care about that. If business continues to be good, I may
make platinum this year.)

You have to crank up the volume so high to get any S/N ratio that you
can easily damage your hearing. Give me the occasional case of diver's
ear any day.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

Bose noise-cancelling headphones. Well worth the cost if you spend
more than 20 hours a year in aircraft.


Best regards,
Spehro Pefhany


Are they the around-the-ear or the mash-the-ear-flat kind? I have some
Panasonic ones that work fine but squash my ears hard enough that they
hurt after an hour or so.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

They don't go around your ear... they have very soft cushions that go
against your ears. And they don't have the background hisssssss that
I've heard with some of the (much) cheaper Japanese ones.


Best regards,
Spehro Pefhany

Thanks. I might try a pair, but all the ear-squashing ones I've worn
get uncomfortable pretty fast on a coast-to-coast flight. It isn't that
they aren't soft enough, it's just that they have to grip fairly hard
just to stay on.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

--
Dr Philip C D Hobbs
Principal Consultant
ElectroOptical Innovations LLC
Optics, Electro-optics, Photonics, Analog Electronics

160 North State Road #203
Briarcliff Manor NY 10510
845-480-2058

hobbs at electrooptical dot net
http://electrooptical.net

[Spehro Pefhany]

On Sat, 13 Aug 2011 21:51:02 -0400, the renowned Phil Hobbs
wrote:


Thanks. I might try a pair, but all the ear-squashing ones I've worn
get uncomfortable pretty fast on a coast-to-coast flight. It isn't that
they aren't soft enough, it's just that they have to grip fairly hard
just to stay on.

Cheers

I typically leave them on for most of a 15+-hour flight so you should
be able to handle them for four or five hours. ;-)


Best regards,
Spehro Pefhany
--
"it's the network..." "The Journey is the reward"
Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com
Embedded software/hardware/analog Info for designers: http://www.speff.com

[Phil Hobbs[_2_]]

On 08/13/2011 09:55 PM, Spehro Pefhany wrote:
On Sat, 13 Aug 2011 21:51:02 -0400, the renowned Phil Hobbs
wrote:


Thanks. I might try a pair, but all the ear-squashing ones I've worn
get uncomfortable pretty fast on a coast-to-coast flight. It isn't that
they aren't soft enough, it's just that they have to grip fairly hard
just to stay on.

Cheers

I typically leave them on for most of a 15+-hour flight so you should
be able to handle them for four or five hours. ;-)


Best regards,
Spehro Pefhany

Just because you have ears of steel is no reason to go round being all
superior about it.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

--
Dr Philip C D Hobbs
Principal Consultant
ElectroOptical Innovations LLC
Optics, Electro-optics, Photonics, Analog Electronics

160 North State Road #203
Briarcliff Manor NY 10510
845-480-2058

hobbs at electrooptical dot net
http://electrooptical.net