High fidelity insert earphones and methods of making same

Abstract

An insert earphone is provided in which a piece of foam material is used to resiliently mount a receiver within a chamber portion of a one-piece plastic housing member. The receiver has an output port extending through a central aperture of the piece of foam material and into one end of a passage defined by a tubular portion of the housing member with a damper being disposed in the other end of the passage. The tubular portion is inserted into an ear tip or other coupling device and has an enlarged diameter end section to achieve a locking action. Two such insert earphones may be coupled through cables to a junction unit and filters are provided for enhancing the drive of the earphones at high frequencies, the filters being preferably mounted in the junction unit.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001]This application is a continuation of the reissue application Ser. No. 09 / 489,441 filed Jan. 21, 2000, now U.S. Pat. No. Re. 38,351, which is a reissue of U.S. application Ser. No. 08 / 770,647 filed Dec. 19, 1996, U.S. Pat. No. 5,887,070 issued Mar. 23, 1999, which is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 08 / 597,940 filed Feb. 7, 1996, now abandoned, which is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 08 / 430,698 filed Apr. 27, 1995, now abandoned, which is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 07 / 880,244 filed May 8, 1992, now abandoned.<?insert-end id="INS-S-00001" ?>[0002]This is a continuation of application Ser. No. 08 / 597,940, filed Feb. 7, 1996, now abandoned, which is a continuation of application Ser. 08 / 430,698, filed Apr. 27, 1995, now abandoned, which is a continuation of Ser. No. 07 / 880,244 filed May 8, 1992, now abandoned.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0003]1. Field of the Invention[0004]This invention relates...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0011]Additional important features of the invention relate to features of construction which facilitate manufacture of insert earphones and which at the same time achieve reproduction of sounds with very high fidelity and with a high degree of reliability. Certain of such features relate to the provision of a housing member which can be readily molded from plastic in one piece and which serves the functions of connecting to an outlet port of a receiver, supporting a damper and providing a sound passage. The housing member also serves to releasably connect to a coupling device such as an earmold or ear tip and it performs all of such functions with a high degree of accuracy and reliability. Others such features relate to the provision of a resilient support for the receiver to minimize the effects of vibration and noise and to methods of making the earphone to facilitate manufacture at low cost.

Problems solved by technology

It was discovered that one serious problem with audiophile earphones has been related to the failure to recognize the need to compensate for loss of external-ear resonance when using an earphone and the failure to provide compensating acoustic characteristics between the ear canal of a user and the transducer or receiver used to develop an audio signal from an applied electrical signal.

Images