One of the most important inventions for the integration of music in everyday life are headphones. They allow people to listen to whatever music they prefer, without disturbing others, while traveling, studying, or working.
Headphones work in a very similar fashion to speakers, with the exception of performing on a much smaller scale. Compared to the air across a room being manipulated by speakers, headphones only affect the air within your ear canal.
Headphones work in a very similar fashion to speakers, with the exception of performing on a much smaller scale. Compared to the air across a room being manipulated by speakers, headphones only affect the air within your ear canal.
Headphones - Chris Woodford
The image above shows the primary components in earbuds: casing, wires, a magnet, a coil, and a plastic cone (Woodford, 2016). The casing holds all of the components and is designed to fit comfortably inside the ear. Some headphones are less ergonomic than others and can become noticeably painful after extended use. (You may have even heard of Yurbuds, a Saint Louis startup company that has recently had a massive amount of success due to their earphone design after the founder was tired of his earbuds falling out while running.)
Yurbuds (Yurbuds.com)
Two wires run the length of the headphones. One carries signals from the stereo to the speaker while the other wire completes the circuit. Electricity flows through the coil, an electromagnet, which gives the coil temporary magnetic properties (Woodford, 2016). The coil then attracts or repels the permanent magnet in the headphones, pushing the cone the cone, which acts as a diaphragm (Woodford, 2016). As the cone vibrates, air is manipulated and sound is produced! Loudness depends on the magnitude of electricity flowing through the coil.
Headphones can also offer some interesting audio experiences. Binaural recording uses two microphones and offers users with an extremely realistic sound that is improved with the use of headphones. This has a multitude of uses, such as therapy, relaxation, or virtual reality. The song below was recorded in binaural and is recommended to listen to with headphones.
Elastic Heart - Steven Maier
In addition to my post, I want to recommend another interesting blog by a friend of mine. John is interested in becoming a physician and has a deep interest in medicine. His blog covers strange or interesting topics regarding the medical field. Last week, he wrote an interesting article about gelastic seizures, which can be diagnosed by short fits of laughter. Unfortunately, this can go ignored for long periods of time until other seizures develop. If you are interested in medicine, you may want to check out his posts at Strange Medicine.
References
Harman Industries. (2016). Yurbuds. Retrieved from: http://www.yurbuds.com/en/content/4about-us
Steven Maier Music. (Jan 28, 2016). Elastic Heart Cover (Binaural Recording). Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2GOOJJxwl0
Woodford, Chris. (2016) Headphones. Retrieved from http://www.explainthatstuff.com/headphones.html
An excellent post on earbuds and how they work to distribute sound. A great promotion of John's blog! JM
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