Professor Thump

 

I love my job!

If i need a pat on the back now days all I have to do is go to Apple or Amazon's websites or Google and find a review about S4i.

Here is one from a customer with some savvy for sound...

 

 

Beautifully Balanced Sound ...............      Written by HE from San Jose

Sep 17, 2009

 

I just picked up a pair of S4i headphones at the Los Gatos Apple Store after reading the reviews here and on other sites. I put them on just outside the store, and at first was not happy with the sound. I almost took them back. I decided to fiddle with them, I'm glad I did. Once seated properly in the ear they came to life. They sounded pretty good, but at this point not as rich as my Bose in-ear phones. I decided to take them home and try the different ear pieces. Once I found the right size ear piece for my ears the sound REALLY came to life. These phone outclassed my Bose, Sennhieser, and Sony phones in a noticeable way.

Once dialed in the sound is very well balanced with enough sizzle at the high end to make cymbals convincingly real without fatiguing the listener. Mids have more presence than all my other phones including my HD-650's. I was transported back to the 70s when I heard my first pair of Klipsch Ls Scalas, one of the most memorable musical experiences of my life. Ella was singing and the sound was so clear, I swore I could hear the fabric in her clothing as she moved about the stage on a live recording. When seated properly these inexpensive audiophile quality phones had a similar effect. I was hearing things in the music that I hadn't heard before. Bass is also nicely defined with great reach into the lower frequencies without being muddy or artificial. To those who made negative comments I would advise you to give them a second try with the right ear-pieces attached. I was this >< close to returning them, I'm so glad I didn't. Comfort is high and getting to phones to seat in the ear canal is very easy. The remote works as advertised with my iPod Touch 3rd Generation. Buy these phones they are worth every penny.

Read this review and others Here

 

I always wanted to be on the cover of the Rolling Stone, I guess because of the song, but I will settle for the cover of Klipsch Webpage.  I mean we are getting a lot of hits here right?

So now that Professor Thump has blabbed on about speakers and headphones, is there anything that YOU, the Klipsch Fan, would like to hear about from me?

I have some things in mind that have been suggested.  Here are a few of them:

How do you evaluate the quality of sound?
How loud is too loud?
How do you design a bandpass box?
Where do you get your Energy?
    …Speakers that is?
Why do more guitar speakers sound better when you are jamming, but one Klipsch loudspeaker sounds better for music?
How do you get a job at Klipsch?
What do Acoustic Engineers eat for lunch?
What kind of Klipsch Headphone should we design?

I could go on… But I want to hear what YOU have on your mind.  Shout it out!

P Thump 

 

P.S. Don't forget to check out my Tech Blog... Where it really gets dicey!

 

 

 

                                             

                               S4                                                           S2m

 

Many people are wondering why Klipsch price points on headphones are so varied.  S2 sells for $49.99 and X 10 sells for $349.99.  Both products have a place in the market and both products have their reasons for their cost.  I am here to tell you that it is all in the technology when it comes to sound and cost. 

There are different strokes for different folks when it comes to headphone requirements.   Some people can’t afford big buck for critical sound others understand and require the best in audio while enjoying the ultimate in comfort. 

Take Image S4 or S2m for instance.  Both of these designs are moving coil technology as I have explained previously.  Both have their advantages of being great value at low cost with compelling audio.  That is what a moving coil gives you.  You can see the technology of the driver below in the animation.

This design has very few limited parts and a large diaphragm, so it is easy to have big bass in the response of the design.  The diaphragm works like an air pump in a pressure field pumping the sound to your ear canals.  In the scale of things the moving mass is heavy in relationship to the magnetic flux density.  This tends to give most moving coil designs a tubby, under damped sound to the bass.  Some would consider this design not fast.  The S4 minimizes this effect with an extra magnet in the pole piece section.  This is a very uncommon design in the industry thus the S4 cost a little more to make than the average 10-15 mm driver.

 

                                                      

                                          X10                                                  X5

 

Image X10 Balanced Armature compared to a US penny  

The photo above shows the extremely small micro engineering that Klipsch has had to do with Sonion’s premium transducer.  Hold a penny in your hand and imagine working on parts the size of Lincoln’s head.  Now that is small.  Even Professor Thump had to get a new pair of super glasses to see what is going on.  The letter on the penny is as large as the acoustic snout or exit on the can. 

 

Wanna take a peek inside?

Balanced Armature In Action    

   * Refresh the web page if this video is not moving animation.

 

When you look under the hood you can start to understand why the KG 926 or KG 623 balanced armatures are complicated to work on.  Imagine tuning the box on this enclosure.  It is easy to understand that the port is uber small, so small that it is difficult to see with the naked eye.  Even with my super glasses on. 

Following through the animation we can imagine electronic audio signal travelling to the fixed coil.  With this magnetic charge occurring the armature gets excited and repels the magnetic field as it sit between two Neodymium magnets.  The armature then servos the push rod, which in turn moved the diaphragm creating acoustic signal in the form of compressed and rarified air pressure.  This air pump pushes air down the snout of the design to the nozzle on the headphone and through the eartip to your ear canal.  As the pressure builds up in your ear canal your ear drum reacts by moving out.  The electronic signals from your MP3 player have now converted to sound in your earballs.  (Earballs... That’s a technical term)  And sound is recreated from your favorite tunes… 

The benefit of this design is that the armature is very light thus the sound is very fast.  Transient attack occurs instantaneously so your highs are buttery smooth and your vocals crystal clear while your kick drum slams your brain to the skull.  Now that’s THUMP!

Cools stuff from none other than Klipsch.

Let the concert begin in YOUR HEAD!

 

P Thump
Peace Out!

 

School is upon us again...

Don't forget to buy your S2m's for jamming out while you study.   These headsets include a mic with a mute button so when you get a call you can switch over with one push of the button.

 

 

*Works with most cell phones that have a 3.5 mm phone jack

 

 

                                         

                                                                                                      

Klipsch is ahead of the pack with two perfect scores from Apple Customers for Klipsch Image X5 and Custom 3 headphones. 

 

 

Apple Link:                    http://tinyurl.com/lfdkex

 

Here is an example of the comments from one of our customers:

"These headphones are by far (I believe) the best earphones ever! WOW! Amazing job Klipsch! I also like the Apple In-Ear Headphones but they have some a few issues. But these Klipsch takes care of ALL those problems and leaves the Apple In-Ear Headphones in the dirt. The sound is amazing and the bass is perfect and there is no music that these headphones can't make it sound phenomenal. These headphones make any genre of music to sound great. These headphones are also very light and very comfortable. Please don't judge these headphones right when you try them. Give them a good 20-minutes or so, I noticed some breaking in and the sound just got better. I have found THE ONE. I have been searching for a headphone I can keep and appreciate for a long time. And I don't think I will ever sell or give away these, the only way I am going to buy another pair of headphones is probably when I lose these. Even then if I lose then, I'll probably just buy the same one. Yes, I LOVE them that much. But I highly recommend not buying them for the full price. Hint: Amazon "

 

 

You can buy our award winning headphones here:

http://www.klipsch.com/na-en/products/image-x5-overview/                        

 

http://www.klipsch.com/na-en/products/custom-3-overview/          

   

 

 

Competition is a wonderful thing for consumers.  It breeds a competitive nature among companies to design and build better products everyday at affordable prices.  S2m Headphone from Klipsch is one of those products.   Use it with your older generation iPhones or a latest generation Blackberry.  Once you realize the benefits of the noise isolation for understanding speech you will wonder how you ever lived without it.

Get yours here...

 

  

Let’s think about what happens when an ear cup headphone is placed over your ear to give you sound.  The sound travels through the electronics to the speaker in the cup from there the signal converts to acoustic energy waves.  The sound is dependent upon where that speaker is located in reference to your ear canal.  Every reflection is a distortion of sound which we call reverb.  Cancellations from standing waves change the frequency response.  

The closer your headphone transducer is to your ear drum the more accurate the sound is.  This is why X10 is such an optimum design not only for comfort but for accurate reproduction of sound.  It is right next to your ear drum, so you are “direct connected” to the audio without all the additional complications of ear transfer functions.   That's why Klipsch wants to get into your head. 

To see how accurate and precise the design of Image X10 is refer to the picture above.  The penny is shown in reference to the size of an X10 transducer.  This balanced armature is one of the smallest in production.

Get your X10's here... 

 

 

Small IS Better...when it comes to comfort!

If there is anything that I have learned about headphones it is that people take it personal when inserting a foreign object in their ear holes.  That is why size matters.   When it comes to In Ear, (IE) headphones, the smaller the body the less potential for discomfort.

 

Generic Ear Model with X10

Pictured is a computer CAD model of Image X10 in both a generic ear (above) and a very small ear model (below).  It will be hard for some people to understand these pictures but it is important to understand the concept if you want to know what is going on with YOUR EARS and the relationship to COMFORT.

 

Small 3D Ear Data with X10

Ear impressions were taken of many people at Klipsch and the Indiana University campus.  From this data Professor Thump was able to look at the range of needs for ear comfort.  Imagine if you will now that the outer cavity of the ear is presented in this CAD block and that the ear canal is the smallest sections of the cavity.  The geometry is very complex and the direction of the ear canal changes several times.  It is safe to say the designing an IE headphone to fit everybody’s needs is quite a challenge.  But Image X10 is the best case for fulfilling this requirement because it is so small.

This particular CAD model is data from my daughter Nikki’s ear.  She is an adult with very small ears.  This makes her a perfect test case for the “hard to fit” people.  If she thinks it is comfortable most everyone will think that the design is comfortable.  We actually started off with an ear tip that was an Extra Small size just for her ear.  We didn’t go to production with it but maybe we will offer more sizes if the demand justifies it.

The ear tip shown is a production small size that is placed on the X10.  Notice how easy it is for her to wear the X10 headpone?  The model shows clearance with the body of the IE not touching Nikki’s ear.  This allows her to freely move the headphone around in the ear to get that proper fit at the ear canal.  

 

 

Looking at Nikki’s Ear again with a large headphone example above, you can see the pressure occurring where the headphone pushes on the bottom of the concha.  This is a straight nozzle chassis prototype that does not fit her well.  I have highlighted the pressure point in pink in the picture below.  This is what you want to avoid with any headphone.  The eartip should approach the ear canal from the correct angle and the body should not interfere with the user's ear.

As the consumer trends shift for audio products so has Klipsch.  The company is over 60 years old and still makes the original "Klipschorn".  As the company evolves there are new growth opportunities.  Headphones for example are one of those areas of growth.   Growth not by making products larger but growth by making them smaller…much smaller.

So “Stick It In Your EAR!”

Klipsch Headphones that is, and enjoy the comfort.

 

You can get Image X10’s here…

 

As the consumer trends shift for audio products so has Klipsch.  The company is over 60 years old and still makes the original "Klipschorn", but we are expanding our horizons.  Headphones for In Ear applications are one of those areas of growth.   Growth not by making products larger but growth by make them smaller…much smaller. 

Pictured above is a microphone for Image S4i headphone.  To get an example of size… the round object is the mic diaphragm.  This surface moves with the vibration of air to translate acoustic waves into electronic waveforms.  The mic is 0.75 mm in diameter which is equivalent to the width of 3 human hairs.  How’s that for small? 

 

You can get your Mini Me Mic’s here…

 

 

Klipsch just won another award for PC Mag Editors Choice!  Hurrah!   Congratulations to the Klipsch S4i Team.

 

Get your pair here...

 

 

People tend to be immune to any claims today.  I don't blame them.  The hype on TV alone is beyond belief.  With constant bombardment from companies selling their products to the news agency getting you excited so you won’t flip the channel, people have become immune to claims of revolutionary improvement.  So it is no surprise that some people have become cynical of Klipsch claims of “Best Comfort in Headphones” when using our new patent pending oval eartip. But here is the evidence as to why Klipsch Ovaloids work. 

Klipsch yer Busted!

 

Photos were recently taken of one of our “in house models” for S4i headphones.  (Thanks Christen!)  After further review it is evident that Christen is benefiting from the comfort of Klipsch Ear Gels.  This is due to the fact that the gels are emulating the natural shape of her ear canal.  Simple is always better.  Right?  You don’t easily put square blocks in round holes and you don’t comfortably put round eartips in oval ear canals. 

 

Let's look a little closer...

 

  

But you don’t have to believe me.  Try it for yourself with four inexpensive Klipsch earphones: 

S4i

S4

S2m

S2 

 

Or get the maximum comfort benefit from: 

X10

X5 

 

Or the stellar performance of:

Custom 3

 

 

Try it for yourself and report about in this blog or our Klipsch Forum.

 

I am Professor Thump, Telling you to...............................................

......................................................STICK IT IN YOUR EAR!

 

Controlling Apple…

Well, no one really controls Apple Computer other than Apple exec’s themselves, but Apple has allowed third party companies to control their 3Gs iPhones and the latest Shuffle, Touch and Nano MP3 players.  We are seeing everything from headphone remotes to bikini's with remotes for the iPod.  Which would you prefer to use?  You be the judge, but ours is probably the lowest maintenance to use, if not the funnest.  Besides, can you fit in this bikini?

S4i Announcement...

By now you have probably read the Klipsch announcement for the S4i headset.  We are excited to be the first company to come out with a production headset that will control the latest Apple products.  Besides being the first third-party headset to be compatible with the Apple VoiceOver feature of the tiny third-generation iPod shuffle, it also exploits the voice and music control of the second-generation iPod touch, 4th-gen iPod nano and the iPod classic 120GB.

 

New Functionality for iPhone…     VoiceOver Technology...

The biggest function to benefit iPhone and iPod users is the voice-control.  This is a hands free application which many phones have.  It allows the phone to listen to the verbal commands of the user to step through functions such as calling a phone number or playing other songs in that genre with the genius.  You can even generate a Genius playlist from Voice Control. Just ask iPhone to “play more songs like this."  Apple again has a nice video for this function.

When you are using the remote to navigate through tracks or change the volume, the display pictured below will pop up for a new touch or iPhone.  As you adjust the volume the control will move on the display.  As you navigate through tracks with the middle button on the remote, the display will track your changes by displaying the name of the album, artist and song.

For those with the new third generation shuffle, you will need this headset to control the use of the player.  By holding down the middle button, the shuffle will walk you through the menu system verbally.  This is handy if you are jogging on a treadmill because it allows you to keep the iPod tucked away for safe keepings.  We don’t endorse using these devices in environments that could be dangerous such as biking on the city streets and highways.  Driving around vehicles is dangerous enough without the lack of external hearing. But with reasonable judgement, you will know the appropriate applications for listening to music in the Klipsch "Cone of Silence".

According to Apple...

"VoiceOver works with all of the built-in applications that come with iPhone 3GS, such as Phone, iPod, iTunes, Mail, Safari, and Maps. So, you can place and receive calls, surf the web, text and email your friends, check your stocks and the weather, and much, much more. Apple is also working with iPhone software developers so they can make their applications VoiceOver compatible." Learn more

 

 

 You will get this prompt for the iPhone pictured below when it is ready to listen to your verbal commands.  This technology has been used by other cell phone companies in the past, but Apple has been a leader in this area with their computer platforms and handicap assistance (accessibility).

Recieving Phone Calls...

The best feature of the S4i is you can listen to music with our award winning sonic signature, and when a call comes in you just press the middle button on the remote to receive the call.  The noise isolation allows you to hear your call much better in a noisy environment and of course both of your hands are free to use for whatever.  Now if you need to mute for a second you can hit the button again to mute the mic. If you can't hear the person on the other end of the call, you can adjust the volume to hear them better.  Of course all of this control fuction can be operated on the iPhone itself as shown below, but this requires you to dig it out of your stow-away pocket instead of just reaching down to the remote on S4i. 

Klipsch is changing how you live by giving you options to your listening experience and phone conversation. Once you use S4i's you will feel naked without them. 

 Voice Memos...

If you are like me you forget things.  Now you can make a verbal note and store it for later use.  Of course this would require you to remember that you stored it earlier, but I won't get into that. 

Record audio using your S4i headset. Monitor audio levels to keep your recordings distortion-free. 

Capture a thought, a memo, a meeting, or any audio recording with Voice Memos. When you’re done, edit your recording, then email it or send it via MMS.

 

VOIP with S4i

Most people don’t know that you can use the Touch and iPhones to make FREE Fring calls anywhere in the world using Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP).  This will be a cool function for students because it doesn’t cost you anything to use.  All you need is Wi-Fi to communicate over the internet.  Will this replace a cell phone?  Maybe, but I suspect that they will coexist in the future.

 

TheFring icon is depicted above with the number 7.   Just click on that icon, select the person to call and press the call command.  If your Wi-Fi connection is dependable, the service usually works pretty good and... HEY, I am a sucker for free services.  It uses either Skype, ICQ, Google Talk, MSN Messenger / Windows Live Messenger, AIM, Yahoo Messenger and SIP providers.

Apple does a good job of defining the features for the new 3Gs iphone.  They have a video that you can see here.

Great Sound...

So all of these features are ground breaking benefits, but let’s not forget that S4i has the same great driver technology as S4.  You can see Professor Thump's blog about this critically damped speaker design HERE!

S4i… Seamless performance in both the music and phone world from Klipsch!

Professor Thump went to the Indianapolis Speedway yesterday to witness the Nascar Brickyard 400.  See the pictures here!

"What is a moving coil speaker"

You ask Professor Thump...  I get this a lot, especially now that S4 headphones are part of the Klipsch lineup.  This speaker or driver is similar to the piston on your car.   The diaphragm or cone is similar to a piston moving up in down in the engine.  The power to drive the piston or cone comes from electricity...Audio Signal in this case.

 

If we cut away the cone and magnet we can see the inner workings of the speaker.  This is an S4i driver.  There is a copper voice coil that sits in the slot called a magnetic gap.  When voltage is applied to the coil the magnetic force in the gap repells the coil up or down.  Since the coil is attached to the cone the speaker cone moves up or down in harmany with the coil.  The cone movement is what compresses air which we called    ........................................................................sound....................................................................................................

 

 

And that is how sound is made... With a moving coil speaker.

 

Side note:  You can update your iPod with this Klipsch S4i headset here.  Get it while they last!

Buy Here!

 

Professor Thump says to..................................................

Stick It In Your Ear! 

Klipsch Headphones that is

 

This is a really exciting time at Klipsch! 

Now that we have launched Image S4 headphones, they have taken the public by storm.  So much so that we can't keep up with orders.  This is a nice problem to have these days, and hopefully we will be able to keep up with the demand.  

Everyone is special and sometimes earphones don't fit you well.  To avoid this issue, let's look at a case with some of our co-workers at Klipsch.

 

It seems like Klipsch has evolved with these new headphones, and this means workers have also evolved.  Some of them are stars!  Well, at least their ears are going public as we post there pinna's on websites all over the world.

Here is a picture of my friend and co-worker Andy.  While wearing the S4, Andy didn't think the product was comfortable for him.  We knew this would be an issue for some because the dual magnet driver in S4 is larger than anything else we have ever done.  Notice the red arrow showing the compression from the tragus of his ear and the S4 chassis:

You can see that the S4 fits him quite tight.  The tragus (flap of skin to the right of the headphone) is in the way of the headphone chasis, thus this is an uncomfortable fit with the proper ear tip.

In this picture of Sara you can see that the S4 fits quite nicely.  The tragus (flap of skin to the right of the headphone) is not in the way of the headphone chasis, meaning she has a good fit with the proper ear tip.

 

A user writes... 

"I also am having this problem.  I was wondering if I simply had disproportionately large ears!  Apparently I do!  :)

How should I go about accurately measuring my ear canal diameter?

 ... I am happy with my recent Image S4 purchase (though I wish I didn't have to wait so long to finally receive it via Amazon).

Thanks!"

The photo above with Andy is an example of how you measure your ear canal.  You can use a ruler also to get the width of the ear canal.  Your ear tip should be slightly wider than this dimension in the horizontal axis.  

Here is a picture of my ear with the wire down mode. 

For my ear, the tragus slot is a more undercut shape which allows the headphone to nest comfortably.  You can see this same calculation modeled below in 3D CAD with the cable going over the ear. This data was taken by creating an impression of my ear canal geometry, scanning it with a laser, and importing that laser data to a Computer Aided Design program (CAD).  This allowed me to move the headphone around in the 3D model to understand what angles are needed for the geometry of the design.

Klipsch has taken over 100 ear impressions to review the range of sizes and shapes of ear canals to understand what our customers need in their headphone design.  If it isn't comfortable, it doesn't matter how it sounds - you are not going to wear it if it hurts.

The next view shows an ear pinna 3D model in reference to the side view of the CAD model.  As you can see, the 3D CAD picture below is a much smaller ear (concha) than my own.  That is actually my daughter's ear. 

 

Reviewing a solution for Andy, I had him try the design with the wire wrapped over the ear and the headphone rotated up 180 degrees.  Now the angle of the nozzle has shifted allowing him to nest the entire body inside his ear concha.

This cured Andy's fit issue by wearing the ear phone in the wire up and over the ear.  You can see that the changing the way he wore the S4 eliminates the problems with the tragus being in the way.  

If you are having issues with the body of S4 interfering with your ear try rotating the body 180 degrees by wearing the wire over the ear as in this picture. 

I hope this helps you to enjoy the full wonders of Image S4!