Headphones are a pair of small loudspeakers, or less commonly a single speaker, with a way of holding them close to a user's ears and a means of connecting them to a signal source such as an audio amplifier, radio or CD player. They are also known as earphones, earbuds, stereophones, headsets or, informally cans. In the context of telecommunication, the term headset is used to describe a combination of headphone and microphone used for two-way co...
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Headphones are a pair of small loudspeakers, or less commonly a single speaker, with a way of holding them close to a user's ears and a means of connecting them to a signal source such as an audio amplifier, radio or CD player. They are also known as earphones, earbuds, stereophones, headsets or, informally cans. In the context of telecommunication, the term headset is used to describe a combination of headphone and microphone used for two-way communication, for example with a telephone.
The telephone earpiece such as the one pictured at the right was common around the turn of the 20 century. From the earpiece developed the headphones. Sensitive headphones were the only way to listen to audio signals before amplifiers were developed.
Very sensitive headphones such as those manufactured by Brandes around 1919 were commonly used for early radio work. These early headphones used moving iron drivers, either single ended or balanced armature. The requirement for high sensitivity meant no...
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