Audiophiles hifi appreciation thread old and new

Worth showing what I use today:
https://www.audio-technica.com/en-gb/ath-r70x

They weigh only 210g... don't put pressure on the head band, are extremely comfortable in fit and weight.

But still get hot and uncomfortable on the ears during long use... i.e. my next set of meetings last 5 hours, and by the end I'll be wanting these off.

It may be a case of IEMs and just swapping around to provide variety and relief from one thing.

other options are :-

1. Titanium frames
   
2. Monocle
   
3. Pince-nez
   
4. Oakley OTT Rx
   

Might just consider new pads to see how much difference they make. It's an inexpensive experiment.
https://www.brainwavzaudio.com/collections/headphone-pads/products/gaming-earpads-xl

tongue in cheek

Would be picked up by my microphone.

Surely https://www.bose.co.uk/en_gb/products/frames/bose-frames-alto.html with custom prescription lenses.

If its only for work calls / voice i say try aftershocks aeropex. I have used mine solidly for this purpose all through lockdown and they have been great. Its quite nice to be able to get up and walk about easily in calls.

They're not great for music or anything with bass, but for talk and general usage youtube etc they've been perfect. I get very sore inner ears from IEMs so its been a good compromise for me.

I see they do something for this purpose now:

https://aftershokz.com/products/opencomm

EDIT: Just seen that you dont want BT, which is fair enough but I will say I can stand on the opposite side on my flat 3 rooms away and talk without any problems with mine connected to my HP Elitebook. In fact on one extemely hot day this summer during a very long training session i had a brief cold shower with them on to cool off. I never have had a problem hearing anyone and no one complained about my voice but maybe thats just me.

How about just a second pair of headphones? It’s unlikely that any set will be comfortable for 10 hours, maybe just swapping between 2 pairs each meeting or every couple of hours to move the pressure spots would help?

I'm looking for perhaps the impossible.

Headphones / ear phones / IEMs that can be worn for 10+ hours a day, 6 days a week.

My partner has calls all day sometimes. For her, we went for a headset designed for all day wearing, eg, switchboard or reception work, rather than headphones for music etc. They do wired versions too. But it's really light and she has no issues wearing all day or with the sound quality.

Not sure this is the right thread but I need some help.
I need to build a mono headphone (L) output microphoned stethoscope that I can carry through the day, the Headphone must be over ear.
Why? Ive begun to lose hearing in my R ear and need to not put a stethoscope earbud in to it for the next month (at least)- and they really are not designed well for single sided wear. For the time being I have a shitty solution.

My thoughts are: microphone behind the tunable diaphragm, then some means of amplifying the sound to the earpiece.

Small size factor is key. I was thinking lavelier mic into the tubing+ amp + headset?

To give you an example of the alternatives:
https://www.stemoscope.com/
https://shop.ekohealth.com/products/core-digital-attachment
https://www.thinklabs.com/

Would a contact microphone work?

Have you seen this paper?
https://biomedical-engineering-online.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12938-018-0540-2

I honestly don't know. The big challenge for me is how do I pack the mic, an amp and a battery that will last 12hrs into a tiny space. I was looking at those 'spy' mics for a bit.

https://biomedical-engineering-online.bi­omedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12938-­018-0540-2

Not until you'd linked it, but as with many of the steth's produced- the focus is heavy on cardiology exam- which though I love to do- only represents 1/3 ish of what I use mine for.
The OG paper by Littman suggests I should be looking at 60-1k Hz, and I guess the optimal outcome would be to produce a filter that isolated sounds either side of that frequency range.
Then it would go Bell/Diaprhagm-tubing-mic-filter-output.

Would it not be easier to fit some kind of pad on the right ear tube which stops it from going in your ear. Some kind of silicon a bit like the suction cups that hold hooks to tiles or glass with the hook removed, the earcup might fit in the tube bit on the back. A piece of lint and surgical gauze could wrap it daily/hourly depending on how sterile you need it to be.

Maybe doesn't work to help them hang from the head though.

https://www.andertons.co.uk/zoom-f2-bt-compact-field-recorder-with-lavalier-mic-bluetooth

It seems something like this could solve the problem of what to have between the headphone and the microphone.

First impressions of getting the speakers onto wall mounts rather than having them sitting on the table. Sounds a lot better. It fills the room so much better, if that makes sense.

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Bit high up, aren't they?

Fuck knows lol.
Didn’t want them totally in the way, which they are anyway.

Wall mounts are often a compromise as they were put up there to get ‘em out of the way in the first place. Our little kitchen speakers are at around 2.5m above the floor: being angled down and in allows a decent listening experience for the dishwasher. That’s me.

Lol, I pointed them at the sofa, I sit on the sofa. The sounds that come out are nice. It feels like a win to me.

Get those grills off!

Wall mounts are often a compromise as they were put up there to get ‘em out of the way in the first place.

Well if you need them out of the way then you need them out of the way, and of course it works having them tilted down up in a corner to get a somwhat decent sound around the whole room.
Like in a pub.

But if sitting on a fixed spot (like on chair, at a desk) most of the time I'd really get them somewhat level with your ears and establish a stereo triangle, it sounds a lot better.

So in that sense wall mounts are not a compromise at all - but a way to get your speakers to the points they should be at when there doesn't happen to be a piece of furniture or whatever that you can put them on top on.

Silly question but I presume this is why you’ve ruled out using speakers? I would have thought some clever speaker/mic choice/placement combined with the app software NR might work for that level of use...

Yes.

I'm using a Shure SM7B microphone which is exceptional and avoids picking up a lot of ambient noise. This is brilliant, and I'm keeping it as an essential work tool.

The downside of a microphone is that it will pick up speakers, hence headphones. But it's a trade-off that is worth it. Crisp and clear audio for the other person is part of what I'm aiming for.