Earphones

[XiceWolf]

Ive been asked to research a product for my Advanced course in product design in school and i choose to do earphones as i thought i would be able to get plenty of information about them. Well i have emailed every known supplier and manufacturer about headphones asking for help on materials, technology and production lines and not one of them has came back to me. So iam either hoping you people may have some knowledge about the technology in earphones and are in the plastic manufacturing business or can help me by finding a decent site to help me. Any help would be mucho appreciated, and i remember some rather clever chap was on here discussing speakers and sound systems so hopefully this catches his eye. I may have to change product to investigate so any suggestions for that may be welcome aswell, bear in mind it cant have loads of electronics and something household with some mechanics in it would be brilliant such as a bike pump. I need to look into the ergonomics of the product aswell as the aesthetics.

Originally posted by XiceWolf
Ive been asked to research a product for my Advanced course in product design in school and i choose to do earphones as i thought i would be able to get plenty of information about them. Well i have emailed every known supplier and manufacturer about headphones asking for help on materials, technology and production lines and not one of them has came back to me. So iam either hoping you people may have some knowledge about the technology in earphones and are in the plastic manufacturing business or can help me by finding a decent site to help me. Any help would be mucho appreciated, and i remember some rather clever chap was on here discussing speakers and sound systems so hopefully this catches his eye. I may have to change product to investigate so any suggestions for that may be welcome aswell, bear in mind it cant have loads of electronics and something household with some mechanics in it would be brilliant such as a bike pump. I need to look into the ergonomics of the product aswell as the aesthetics.

I know nowt about headphones but I do know about the workings of large corporations - and email is about the worst way to try to get hold of anyone. Unless you target it at the correct named inbox first time, it's liable to keep getting forwarded round head office until someone just deletes it. It's human nature; everyone's busy and it's unlikely there's any one person whose job description perfectly matches what you're asking of them. So it's easier for them to just pass it on to the next guy.

Best thing you can do is pick up the phone, talk to switchboard, explain what you want and try to get put through to someone. If you can't, try to get switchboard to recommend a named email address you can use.

[XiceWolf]

Thanks ill try and contact them via phone tommorow if i can get some numbers.

[Theodoric]

I know it's a bit old fashioned nowadays, but why not go down to your local library and browse through the catalogue to see what books they have? You could also ask them if they could suggest any books that they could borrow from other libraries. They might be able to access the national science library (I forget its exact title), but they are bound to have books on earphones coming up to your, well, ears.

To complement Theodoric's suggestion, regarding the materials of construction, you could try a google on "rare earth magnet headphone" & "mylar headphone", for a start and see where that leads you.

Also try looking at technical specifications in magazines, or sites which sell headphones and google on anything that looks interesting.

Towny is right about emailing not being viable for stuff like this, - hope you have some luck with the phone calls - my suggestion is to try the "customer care" number - for example you could ask if they have any "company statement" on ergonomics - (btw imo, pose as a potential buyer, not a student looking for an easy way out )

- any project which shows evidence of using as many sources of information, as possible, will impress!

- remember to quote your source of information - and if you build a bibliography, even better!

that sounds pompous & patronising, sorry, but I wish my son had followed my advice for his project - he might have passed

Gaz