Monday, October 6, 2008

Earphones: Splendor SP-107MV Soft Aircushion Earphones (from Korea)

A friend sent to me an intriguing set of earphones from Korea called the Splendor SP-107MV Soft Air cushion Earphones. A run on yahoo and Google did not find anything about them? They are open air dynamic type air buds and the novelty about them is the inner tube like silicone ring which runs the circumference of each driver (what they deem to be their soft air-cushion). The packaging seems up to date styling with little English and mainly in the Korean language.

They have a volume control on the cord and the cord is grey silicone rubber of 125cm length with a gold plated 3.5mm stereo jack. Plugging them in and listening to them did not yield any interesting findings. I found the design uncomfortable and the placing of each ear bud in each ear had to be very carefully aligned in order to obtain the proper and wanted frequency response from them. The sound is light and undramatic, I would venture to say bland and uninteresting.

At first hearing they do not appear to show promise, just only a little bit better then the general run of the mill ear buds that often come with MP4 players. Generally the music was uninteresting and unenlightening. Bass extension did not seem to be there. All in all they did not create an interest for the listener to listen to the music. I will however let then burn in for 15 to 20 hours to see if there is any further improvement. But the general discomfort and the difficulty in proper alignment means that it is difficult to replicate consistent tonal performance each time. Given the above scenario it is difficult to even give them a solid 3 out of 5, I would say 2.8 is a max that I would give.

They are a novelty since they are a gift from Korea, the only thing is that they are not made in Korea but in China. Well one more pair to my ever growing collection. Pressing them against the ear canals was altogether a different story with the whole frequency range opening open, the bass extension was there, the punch to the music became more evident. It is obvious that the drivers are of good reproduction quality, it is just the ear bud design that let's the performance down. If these drivers were in a better casing I think it would be a different story! Anyway, I will let them burn for some hours.

Their Specs:

Type: Open Air Dynamic Type (Air Cushion)
Frequency: 18~25,000Hz
Sensitivity: 110dB/mW
Max power: 500mW
Imp.: 32 ohms
Plug: Gold plated 3.5mm stereo Plug
Cord: 125cm with volume control

Running further searches I found:

US Patent 6731772 - Cushion cover for preventing pains in using earphones

US Patent Issued on May 4, 2004

Abstract

The prevent invention is related to a cushion cover to improve adherence and to prevent pains when wearing earphones which deliver sounds of various portable small-sized recorders, radios, etc. by inserting them into earholes inside of earflaps for a long time. The cushion cover which covers the circumference of the insertion portion of earphones in the present invention is composed of the fixing-in portion which is grounded to the above insertion portion, the ear connection portion which is grounded to the inner earflaps, and the air chamber which absorbs the pressure added to the fixing-in portion and connection portion in order to soften adherence to earholes.


Claims



What is claimed is:

1. A cushion cover for an earphone for preventing pains in wearing, which includes a radially inner annular earphone fitting portion for connecting to an earphone and a radially outer ear connection portion sized for insertion in a human ear, characterized by an air chamber formed between said earphone fitting portion and ear connection portion of said cushion cover to give a cushion effect, and said earphone fitting portion being made of an elastic material, and said cushion cover being round with a diametrical width greater than its axial length.

2. A cushion cover for an earphone for preventing pains in wearing, which includes a radially inner annular earphone fitting portion for connecting to an earphone and a radially outer ear connection portion, characterized by an air chamber formed between said earphone fitting portion and ear connection portion of said cushion cover to give a cushion effect, and said earphone fitting portion being made of an elastic material, and wherein said air chamber is formed by a circumferential arrangement of radial air pockets.

3. A cushion cover as set forth in claim 1, wherein said air chamber is formed in the form of an enclosed tube in said cushion cover.

4. A cushion cover as set forth in claim 1, wherein the air chamber has an annular shape and is enclosed by the the earphone fitting portion and the ear connecting portion.

5. A cushion cover as set forth in claim 1, made of an elastic material.

6. A cushion cover as set forth in claim 1, wherein the earphone fitting portion and the ear connecting portion are made of an elastic material.

7. A cushion cover as set forth in claim 1, wherein the air chamber has an annular shape and is closed to the interior of the cushion.

8. A cushion cover as set forth in claim 1, assembled on an earphone.

9. A cushion cover for an earphone for preventing pains in wearing, which includes a radially inner annular earphone fitting portion for connecting to an earphone and a radially outer ear connection portion sized for insertion in a human ear, characterized by an air chamber formed between said earphone fitting portion and ear connection portion of said cushion cover to give a cushion effect, and said earphone fitting portion being made of an elastic material, and wherein there is no provision for user inflation of the air chamber.


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