Some Thoughts On Earbud Design

Posted on 23 May 2009 by


maisy at the lake

It is was a perfect holiday weekend up here in eastern PA (before the rain arrived), and “the princess” (that would be the canine who owns me) and I have just returned from a 2 1/2 mile walk around the lake. A few things became clear during our trek…

1. Maisy is the happiest dog in the state right now. (New smells and a swim… what could be bad?)

2. I am terribly out of shape.

3. We are the only people in PA who clean up after their dog.

4. Jamiroquai and The Arctic Monkeys make for some good walking music

5. Manufacturers need to rethink earbud design.

Before we left, I grabbed my Nano and a pair of Scosche headphones I keep in my pocket at all times. I’m impressed with how good even mid-level earbuds sound these days. (Then again, the iPod isn’t known for its high fidelity.) The buds have a typical design- the earpiece, an in-line mic, a fairly long straight cable and the male plug that goes into the iPod.

In order not to fuss with a swinging cord, I ran the cord inside my shirt and down my back, plugged in the headphones, put the Nano in my pocket and placed the buds in my ears. (Yes, I know, the new shuffle would take care of this but I’m not using it until companies like Etymotic release high-end buds for it.)

Problem was, within a few minutes of walking the very weight of the cord was pulling on the buds. They never felt right and I had to completely adjust them no less than a dozen times along the way.

This does not, however, have to be the case.

A while back I reviewed a set of earbuds from i2i that had a rather different design. Instead of a single cord coming from the iPod and then breaking into a Y… like this…

picasa-web-albums-tsti-2009-05-24-by-eye-fi

these buds complete the circle like this…

i2i earbuds worn

The effect of doing so is that instead of any stress caused by movement or the weight of the cord and/or the iPod being transferred to the buds (the issue I encountered today), it is placed on the back of your neck. The result is that the buds themselves remain in place more securely.

The design looks funky when the headphones are lying on a table…

i2i earbuds

but if you are doing  anything active, they can’t be beat.

This post was written by:

- who has written 2793 posts on Gear Diary.

Having a father who was heavily involved in early laser and fiber-optical research, Dan grew up surrounded by technology and gadgets. Dan’s father brought home one of the very first video games when he was young and Dan remembers seeing a “pre-release” touchtone phone. (When he asked his father what the “#” and “*” buttons were his dad said, “Some day, far in the future, we’ll have some use for them.”) Technology seemed to be in Dan’s blood but at some point he took a different path and ended up in the clergy. His passion for technology and gadgets never left him. +Dan Cohen

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  • http://www.s-consult.com/index.php Wayne Schulz

    That’s a really great point about the dog mess. I notice that a lot.

    Oh, good catch on the earbuds too ;-)

    I assume there’s some type of extension that comes with them for when you have to connect to a regular iPod?

  • Dan Cohen

    Yes, it comes with a nice long extension. Unfortunately I neglected to bring it with me this weekend so it didn’t make it into the picture… but should have mentioned it.

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  • doogald

    That bugs me as well. I tie a slip-knot and make a loop in the cord and wrap the loop around something to take tension off – around a zipper, a button on your shirt, whatever.