Not long ago, Sony launched a new true wireless headset LinkBuds, the unique shape is really eye-catching, some people say it is like a doughnut, some people say like mints, in short, there is a big difference from the usual design of the mainstream true wireless headphones in our cognition.
I can't help but think: what have the headphones gone through, the shapes can be so diverse, and what have the designers gone through in order to make the headphones firmly embedded in the ear?
The earliest headphones hung on the head
In ancient times, the headphones in people's mouths refer to headphones. In the 1890s, the originator of the headset was born.
Electrophone, a company based in the United Kingdom at the time, knocked on the door of the headphone category. In order to serve customers who are extremely obsessed with opera, they set up a special line to the London Theatre and the Opera House, and the customer holds this huge headphone connected by a long pole and places it between the ears to hear the live performance in the Opera House at this time.
The amount of delay depends on how close they are to the theater.
At that time, headphones were still used as entertainment equipment, but into the 20th century, soon the war broke out, the shape of headphones determined that they had a certain degree of privacy, in line with military needs, so as a wartime communication equipment has been rapidly developed. However, at that time, the headphones were still mostly in the form of ear cups.
In 1910, engineer Nathan Baldwin made the first pair of modern headphones in his kitchen, and this product form was later favored by the U.S. Navy, and after several improvements, it was finally mass-produced.
Baldwin later established its own radio company, which once grew into a company with 150 employees, although the company slowly fell silent over the years, but baldwin created the form of headphones, which has been used to this day.
Germany's Baia Power launched the world's first dynamic headphone DT-48 in 1937, which was finally discontinued in 2013 after countless iterations; the first ear-to-ear open headphones invented by Austrian audio manufacturer AKG in 1959; and sony launched the Walkman Walkman in 1979, popular in the streets and alleys, allowing people to enjoy their own exclusive world in public spaces.
▲The earliest Baia power DT-48, image source: Hifi Legenden.at
It has to be said that the birth of Walkman has shaped the fashion memory of a generation, and the MDR-3L2 headphones launched with it have inadvertently opened another door for the evolution of headphones:
Headphones are not only an evolutionary direction of sound quality, but also become lighter and more private.
Sony Walkman
After the Walkman for more than a decade, headphones have been "moving" in the human head, from "head hanging" to "neck hanging" and finally to "earhook". In particular, it is a type of headphone commonly known as a "flat head plug".
A little smaller, a little smaller
Ten years ago, smartphones gradually became mainstream, manufacturers would include headphones in the packaging of mobile phones, and most of the headphones sent at that time were still flat-head design plugs.
▲ Sennheiser MX500, image source: digital multi
As the name suggests, the ear end of this kind of headphones is mostly circular, and the headphone shell is usually wrapped with a sponge sleeve, in order to increase friction and make it less likely to fall. The headphones are comfortable to wear and have a larger interior space, meaning they can be tucked into larger sound units, so in general, the lower sound quality of the flat plug is higher.
Sennheiser MX500, AKG K314P are the plugs that were very popular at that time, of course, the original EarPods launched with the iPod.
▲Apple headphones born in the early 21st century
At the same time, there was another headphone design on the battlefield, which is now a common in-ear design. Flat-headed and in-ear, which is better or worse, was once an evergreen topic in audio forums, but with the development of technology, time has given the answer, entering the 20s of this century, looking around has long been the world of in-ear shape.
The main reason why the flat-head design was abandoned in the TWS era is that its inherently poor sound insulation performance is destined to go a long way on the road of wireless, and once the brand wants to do noise-canceling headphones, it can only bypass the flat-head design.
When the flat head plug declined, another design idea gradually became mainstream.
The original EarPods featured a flat-headed design, and for users with slightly narrower auricles, after wearing them for a period of time, they will have a noticeable foreign body sensation. Because it itself relies on the pinna to jam the entire earphone shell to fix, just like when we take the subway, we are tightly hugged by other passengers, and over time there is no pain and numbness, plus there are many capillaries and nerves under the auricle skin, and the pain will be aggravated accordingly.
So in 2012, Apple designed earPods into a semi-in-ear design. At first, people were worried about this unfamiliar shape, worrying about whether it would not be worn securely.
After the product was officially launched, all doubts were left behind, it has a more rounded line than the flat head plug, reducing the pressure on the ear pinna, wearing it for a long time, just "hanging" on the wearer's ear pinna, this design is still widely used today, and even on the third generation of AirPods can find some of the imprints of earPods of that year.
However, in the camp of true wireless noise-canceling headphones, the in-ear design dominates the world, and a new problem ensues: it is not firmly worn. These headphones have a catheter design on the front to reduce the distance between the eardrum and a ring of silicone ear caps, like an umbrella that is propped open in the ear canal as a way to support and fix.
Theoretically, as long as the right size of the ear cap is put on, the in-ear headphones can ensure both good sound insulation quality and comfortable wearing. Unfortunately, some people happen to have oily ears, and the ear canal will secrete oil, reducing the adhesion of the ear cap.
In addition, in-ear headphones are not very suitable for wearing in sports scenes, and sweat will also play a role in reducing friction.
Once again, the engineer with the infinite brain hole acted as a savior, taking inspiration from the shark and adding ear fins to the headphones, Bose patented the shark fins for the design, and the erect ear fins were properly placed at the outer pinna and securely fixed.
Using this design, Bose SoundSport Free has accompanied me for more than a thousand kilometers at night until the battery in my right ear can no longer be charged.
Sony LinkBuds also makes use of a similar design
Even if such a "big killer" as the ear fins are sacrificed, a pair of headphones cannot fit the ears of everyone on the earth. Then you may wish to change your thinking: since the headphones can not adapt to everyone, let a pair of headphones recognize only one owner.
For the ultimate experience, customization is an option
Custom headphones, since birth is destined to be niche. In the early days, it existed as a personal tool for musicians, and later with the advancement of science and technology, people's enthusiasm for high-quality music has become increasingly high, and the threshold for creative work has been lowered, so that the business of custom headphones has a larger audience.
But even today, customizing a pair of headphones still needs to pay a high price, the "price" mentioned here, both time cost and price cost.
Domestic audio brand NF Audio Ning Fan Acoustics in the early days is to do custom headphones to start, the founder of the old sheep in 2016 in the knowledge of the answer to custom headphones related questions, which detailed the production of custom headphones difficulties.
Simply put, in order to make the headset fit the wearer's ear canal as much as possible, the custom factory needs to obtain a model of the user's ear canal, that is, the ear mold, generally to go to the hearing aid store or hospital, operated by professionals, first put a cotton barrier in the ear canal, and then inject ear mold paste into the ear canal, to be cured after removal, there are many doorways here, but as long as you follow the operation instructions, there will not be too much of a problem.
The next step is the most critical step: the ear mold. The old sheep wrote on Zhihu:
In the case of a good ear mold, there is a more important step, that is, the ear mold is trimmed. After all, the shape of the ear mold taken out is not the same as the final custom headphones, which involves the part of the mold trimming, and this part seriously affects the wearing feeling of the headphones. To take the simplest example, how long the ear canal is left, how much is repaired, how much is repaired, the sound is leaked, the repair is less, and the swelling is painful.
Because this process plays a decisive role in the sense of wear, sound quality, and sound insulation, this puts forward extremely high requirements for the craftsmanship of engineers, and also means that it needs to be exchanged for a lot of costs.
Also because a pair of ear molds is not easy to come by, some custom headphone manufacturers will retain all users' ear molds.
One is to facilitate users to make subsequent adjustments, and the other is that this ear mold, which has accumulated is a huge human ear shape database, which can be used as research data when developing mass-produced headphone product lines for designers to refer to and then design more universal headphones.
Small headphones, deep into the head is the Tao, all thanks to the tireless pursuit of better sound quality and better body feeling.
I believe that the evolution of the form of headphones will not end there. Perhaps the emergence of Sony LinkBuds marks a new starting point.