Category: Tech

In our post on active noise cancellation, we made many references to the fact that sound exists in the form of waves, but what does that actually mean? What is it that’s waving when sound travels from a speaker or headphone to your ears? After all, it’s not as if there are threads running through the air from point to point, like the ones we’ll be using on this post to explain sound waves and music.

The wiggles in the image above represent electrical signals. Higher and lower peaks and valleys represent higher and lower voltages. Another way to think of those wiggles is as representations of higher and lower pressure, because that’s what sound waves are.

Those electrical signals are converted by speakers or headphones into vibrations that push and pull the air, bunching up the air molecules or thinning them out. More molecules of air bunched up into the same amount of space equals high pressure. Fewer molecules thinned out in the same amount of space equals low pressure. And those alternating waves of high and low pressure are what make up the sounds we hear.

How sound waves are converted into electrical signals?

You can see below a rough visualization of how electrical waveforms translate into soundwaves. It’s not a perfect representation, because a static image can’t convey one of the most important aspects of sound waves in music: time. But imagine each of the little blue dots in the image as a molecule of air, and imagine each of the pressurized groups of molecules traveling from left to right as they bump into one another, and you start to get the picture. It’s a little more complicated, but this is close enough for a basic understanding.

As you can see in this image, higher peaks in the waveform translate into higher pressure in the air. Roughly speaking, the way we perceive this is as louder sounds. The rate at which these waves of pressure reach our eardrums and make them wiggle is also translated into the pitch of the sound. Waves of roughly equal pressure that reach our eardrums with greater frequency (say, 500 to 5,000 times per second) are perceived as high-pitched sounds, like the sound of a piccolo. Waves of roughly equal pressure that reach our ears with relatively lower frequency (say, 30 to 60 times per second) are perceived as low-pitched sounds, like the lowest notes on a bass guitar.

This way of visualizing sound may also help you better understand how things like active noise cancellation work. Think of it like this: higher-than-normal air pressure plus lower-than-normal air-pressure equals normal sound pressure—in other words, no sound.

Is music a noise?

It also helps to explain why noise interferes with our music-listening pressure. When comparing noise vs music, you can think of noise as random pressurization of the air, with little to none of the regularity that helps us perceive high- and low-frequency sounds, and everything in between.

In visual terms, that noise, when added to the signal from above, might look something like this if we could see each individual molecule of gas in the air around us:

Translate that into sound, and you can see that you’re losing out on a lot of the “quieter” parts of the signal, and a lot of the definition in the music overall. Our natural tendency is to turn up the music to overcome that noise. But remember, we’re talking about air pressure here. The louder you play it, the more pressure you’re subjecting your eardrums to, and the more you’re stressing the little hair cells inside your cochlea. The result can quickly become physical damage, resulting in hearing loss.

Minimize noise with active noise cancelation

So, treat your ears kindly. Try to minimize noise as much as you can when listening to music through active noise cancellation found on models like the Curve BT 120 NC water resistant wireless earphones or 900 Legacy wireless earphones with touch interface, and even true wireless earphones like the BOLT BT 700, which features a charging speaker case that doubles as a speaker. Either way, you’ll know for sure that the sound waves reaching your ears are the ones you want to hear. 

By Dennis Burger

Recommended Reads:

How Do Noise Cancelling Headphones Work: A Simple Explanation of the Physics of Sound

Earphones vs Headphones: A Sound Debate

What Is Noise Cancellation

You’ve made up your mind that it’s time to upgrade from the free earbuds that came with your smartphone. You want something nicer. Something more durable. Something that sounds better. But how much, exactly, should you expect to pay for a reasonable upgrade?

Unfortunately, the answer to that question isn’t so simple. Headphones and earphones run the gamut in terms of pricing, ranging from less than ten bucks all the way up to many hundreds of dollars. And the reality is that a lot of those double-digit offerings sound great, whereas sometimes really expensive cans just don’t deliver the goods. Instead of asking whether price matters when shopping for headphones or earphones, a more helpful question would be this: what sorts of things affect the price of different headphones?

And the answers to that question are many. Sometimes it’s just as simple as branding—in other words, the logo on the side of the box and the marketing dollars that went into the brand behind it. But more often than not, what makes one headphone or earphone more expensive than another (especially within the same brand) boils down to three key categories: design, materials and technology.

 Why Design Matters

“Design” is a versatile word that can be applied to any number of aspects of a good pair of headphones or earphones, from their overall look, to non-functional style elements. But more importantly, it can apply to unique engineered elements that affect day-to-day use, but not necessarily performance. Let’s take the touch enabled Phiaton BT 460. Those cost more to design, engineer and build, and it’s one of a handful of reasons why the BT 460 sells for a little more than the otherwise comparable BT 390, one of Phiaton’s best budget Bluetooth headphones.

Speaking of the BT 390 and the BT 460, does a compact, foldable design make your headphones sound better? No. But it does make the headphones more portable, easier to stash in your backpack or carry-on, and thus more likely to be at hand when you’re ready to listen to your tunes or podcasts. It’s said that the “best camera is the one you have with you,” often in reference to smartphone cameras. The same is true when headphones are foldable and easy to carry around.

 Why Materials Matter

 This one is pretty obvious when you think about it, but it’s still worth spelling out. Machined aluminum costs more than thin plastic. Textured, tangle-free, oval cables cost more than cheap wires. And it’s true that material choices are often a matter of style, comfort and convenience, but the choice of materials can also affect a headphone’s performance. Neodymium magnets, for example, cost a good bit more than ferrite magnets. Neodymium also generates a stronger magnetic force than a ferrite magnet of the same weight. So, with something like Phiaton’s BT 390, the use of Neodymium in the drivers results in better bass without adding to the weight of the headphones themselves.

 Why Technology Matters

While design and materials can have a huge impact on the price of a pair of headphones or earphones, let’s not forget all of the technology packed inside. Technologies like Bluetooth, water resistance, and noise-cancellation add significant manufacturing and testing costs. There are also technological considerations such as whether your earphones rely on dynamic or balanced armature drivers, the latter of which is much costlier to develop. Mind you, that’s not to say that all balanced armature earphones are super expensive.

 So, in short, as we mentioned above, spending more on a pair of headphones or earphones doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll get better sound, better comfort or an overall better listening experience. Sometimes you’re simply paying more for the logo and not getting the best value headphones in return. But all of the design, materials and technology that go into making a better pair of headphones do cost more.

By Dennis Burger

April 10, 2019

Recommended Reads:

Why Headphone Design Matters: How to Pick Between Headphone, Earphone, and Neckband Designs

Best Headphones for Conference Calls What You Need to Get You Through Your Next Call

Wireless vs. Wired Headphones: How to Pick the Right Pair for You

As discussed in our last post, picking out the perfect pair of headphones first involves figuring out which style of headphone will best fit your needs. For instance, should you go with in ear vs earbuds? Earbuds vs earphones? Last time around, we took a broad look at the three main styles: full-sized headphones, earphones, and neckband headphones. In this post, you’ll learn how to choose earphones specs for your needs. We’ll also take a bit of a deeper dive into two other categorical terms you may have heard, and help you decide which is right for you.

“On-ear” and “in-ear” overlap quite a bit with the categories we’ve already discussed. In short, on-ear headphones are full-sized headphones whose cups aren’t quite full-sized. Instead of wrapping around your pinna (the exterior anatomy of your ear) the way over-ear models do, the cups of on-ears like Phiaton’s BT 460 rest on the pinna.

In-ear designs cover the categories we’ve already described as earphones (like the Curve BT 120 NC neckband Bluetooth headphones). The way they deliver sound to your ears is via small casings, terminated by a silicone or foam ear tips, which are designed to insert into your ear canals.

So, which is better for you? It really depends on how you intend to use your headphones, and which factors of performance and ergonomics are more important to you. Let’s break it down into three main considerations.

• Comfort and Fit: In-ears typically come with an array of different ear tips, generally in three different sizes: small, medium, and large. Chances are pretty good that one of these will work for you, sealing out the sound of the outside world and improving audio performance. If you do find an ear tip size that works for you, you’ll be able to wear them even through vigorous workouts.

  If, on the other hand, you’re one of the unfortunate few with smaller or irregularly shaped ear canals, you can disregard all of the above. You’ll likely find on-ears to be far more comfortable, not to mention the fact that you’ll get better noise isolation. Of course, on-ears aren’t likely to hold their position well during a spirited run, which is something to consider. But they should still fit well without much pressure if you’re listening on the subway or a plane or using them for your next conference call.

• Portability: Given that they generally only consist of a few wires and a small plastic or metal casing (or in some cases, just the latter), in-ears definitely take up less space than any other style of headphones. Even neckband headphones, with their rigid semi-circular collar, won’t take up much space in your bag when you’re not wearing them.

That said, many on-ear models feature compact folding designs that make them much easier to travel with them than their over-ear counterparts. The BT 390, for example, collapses down small enough to just about fit in the palm of your hand.

• Performance: As mentioned in our previous post, full-sized headphones generally deliver fuller sound and a more spacious listening experience. Mind you, most on-ears won’t deliver quite the impact of a good set of over-ear headphones, but they still have a sonic advantage over in-ears, especially in terms of the fullness of their bass, simply due to the size of their drivers.

In-ears do have one potential performance advantage over on-ears, though. Since their casings are so small, they can accommodate technologies like balanced armature drivers, which can deliver clearer, more accurate sound than traditional dynamic drivers, while also using less energy.

Despite their different strengths, no style of headphone is the clear winner over all others in all respects. When picking between in-ears, on-ears—and indeed, even over-ear headphones—the most important thing is deciding which style works best for your needs, your preferences, your lifestyle, and perhaps most importantly, your unique ear anatomy.

By Dennis Burger

April 16, 2019

Recommended Reads:

Why Headphone Design Matters: How to Pick Between Headphone, Earphone, and Neckband Designs 

Earphones vs. Headphones: A Sound Debate

Neckband Headphones: Why Is This Design Becoming So Popular?

 

There are few things in life as disheartening as firing up your smartphone or Bluetooth device of choice, only to find that your earphones aren’t working anymore. Unfortunately, if you’ve ended up here, chances are good that exactly that has happened to you. And chances are just as good that you’re looking to solve the problem yourself without shelling out for a new pair of earphones.

To get to the answers you’re looking for, we first have to ask a couple of important questions: are your earphones completely silent, or are they dead on one side and fine on the other? Are you hearing crackling noises or cutouts? And perhaps more importantly, are your earphones wired or wireless?

For Wired Earphones

If your earphones are connected to cables that plug into a headphone jack (remember those?), those cables are likely the source of any dropouts or scratchy sound you might be hearing. The good news is, you might be able to fix the cable itself with a replacement headphone jack, some solder, and a few shrink tubes. Before you go through the trouble, it’s probably a good idea to test the cable at a few spots with a multimeter to find where the cable might be shorting out.

The bad news is, depending on the price of your earphones, this may not be worth the extra effort.

What’s worse, the shorted cable may actually be inside the casing of your earphones. If you’re feeling pretty adventurous, you might be able to open the casing, find the short, and solder it yourself. Just know that if your earphones are water resistant, you may be undoing that resistance by cracking the case.

But before you do any soldering or case-cracking of any sort, the very first thing you should do is borrow a portable media player or smartphone that has a headphone jack from a friend or family member, and make doubly sure that your earphones are to blame to begin with.

For Wireless Earphones

If your earphones aren’t of the wired variety and you’re still experiencing dropouts, connectivity problems, or outright silence, you’ve probably already guessed that cables aren’t the problem.

But wait, what if they are? Were you using the Everplay-X feature of your Phiaton wireless earphones when the problems arose? First thing’s first, check to make sure that your earphones work well when connected via Bluetooth. If they do, you may just need a replacement Everplay-X cable. If so, contact support@phiaton.com or call 1 (866) 313-3203.

If you’re sure it’s your Bluetooth connection that’s giving you fits, you may find that your earphones don’t need to be fixed at all; it may be your phone that needs a bit of TLC. First thing’s first, try updating your phone’s operating system.

If that doesn’t work, try disabling Bluetooth, rebooting your phone, and attempting the connection again once everything is powered back up. If that doesn’t work, you may need to force your phone to forget the Bluetooth connection and start pairing from scratch, or as a last-ditch effort, reset all of your network settings.

For more information about fixing a faulty wireless connection between your phone and earphones, see this post.

By Dennis Burger

 April 26, 2019

Recommended Reads:

Headphones Not Working with Your Smartphone? Three Tips to Find a Fix

How to Clean Earphones: Four Rules You Should Always Follow

Tell-Tale Signs You Need New Wireless Headphones

 

These days, the batteries in our smartphones are bigger and beefier than ever before. And yet, making it to the end of a workday or travel day without dipping into dangerously red territory on your battery life meter is almost cause for celebration.

So, what gives? Why is iPhone X battery drain such an issue? If you’re giving your wireless headphones or earphones the side-eye right now, you’re not alone. But is Bluetooth really sucking the life out of your iPhone?

The simple fact is that anything that requires power to operate will siphon off some of your battery. And the antennas and chips that make Bluetooth work do require power, but the amount of energy used by newer versions of Bluetooth is relatively negligible, especially when compared to all of the other things that send your battery racing toward 0% every day. Not to get too mathy on you here, but the Class 2 Bluetooth modules employed in smartphones use about 2.5 mW of power (a mW, or milliwatt, is one-thousandth of a watt). Meaning the 3,174 mAh battery found in the iPhone XS Max could power a Bluetooth connection for weeks or more, if that’s the only thing it had to power.

So, what’s killing your battery life?

A lot of things. If we just limit ourselves to the question of why using your wireless headphones seems to up your phone’s energy consumption substantially, the blame partially lies with our increasing reliance on streaming music apps for our daily entertainment. Apps in general are energy vampires.

On iOS, you can do a quick check of how much of your daily charge is going toward powering different apps by hitting the Settings icon and searching for “Battery.” Sort by the last 10 days and you’ll get a decent idea of how much juice it’s costing you to play Pokémon Go. Or really, any game that relies heavily on graphics and sound.

You’ll also likely find that the Facebook app is one of your biggest battery drainers, although you can ameliorate that a bit by navigating to Settings again, searching for “Background App Refresh,” and turning that feature off for Facebook. That way, your social media app isn’t sitting there, chugging along, downloading pictures of your mother-in-law’s latest quilting project even when you’re not scrolling and liking.

You can also curb the amount of power your music apps are using by downloading the songs or albums you listen to the most. Most streaming apps like Spotify allow you to store files locally rather than accessing them via Wi-Fi or cellular data every time you press Play.

You could also turn off your phone’s EQ and conserve a lot of energy. It’s true that the EQ might help compensate for earphones with wimpy bass or muddy midrange, but it’s an incredibly battery-intensive process. You’d be better off buying better-sounding headphones.

Oddly enough, though, the number one thing depleting your phone’s energy reserves probably isn’t streaming music or games or wireless connections or EQ or anything of the sort. What’s sending your charge levels into a downward spiral is likely that big, beautiful, brightly lit screen you’re staring at. Putting that many pixels in front of your eyes takes a lot of power, and the brighter your screen, the more it’s sucking down your battery. On iOS, you can search your settings app for “Magnifier” under “Accessibility” and turn on “Auto-Brightness,” and that’ll help a lot. What’s more, you can open your Control Center (by swiping down from the upper righthand side of the screen on iPhone X and newer or swiping up from the bottom of the screen on older iPhones) and manually adjust screen brightness yourself.

If you have an Android phone, you’ll also find similarly named features by digging around in the settings, although what they’re called and where they’re located might depend on your phone’s manufacturer and the version of Android it’s running.

Last trick to try is Phiaton’s Everyplay-X feature, a handy technological trick that transforms your favorite wireless Phiaton headphones or earphones into their wired equivalents. How does it work? Well, take the BT 120 NC, for example. If you find yourself running out of juice and you’re just not ready to stop rocking yet, all you have to do is pop open the USB port cover on the bottom and plug in the included Everplay-X cable. Attach the other end to your phone, tablet, or other portable device, and you’re ready to keep on rocking.

Did any of these tips help get you through the day without depleting your battery? If so, or if you’d like to share your own energy-saving tricks, let us know in the comments below. Whatever you do, though, stop blaming your wireless headphones.

By Dennis Burger

April 29, 2019

Recommended Reads:

Are Headphones Illegal While Driving?

Does Price Matter When Buying Headphones?

How to Fix Earphones: A Step-by-Step Guide to Getting Your Music Back