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Originally Posted by mrdeadfolx
I hate how UE (and M-Audio) advertises these as if they have 3 speakers with a 3 way passive crossover on their site. Thats simply not true, and has been pissing me off for a while now. It's tricky and deceptive wording on UE's part, notice how they avoided coming right out and saying THREE-WAY PASSIVE CROSSOVER. It so happens the "dedicated" speakers for both low end frequencies and vocals happen to be identical bass drivers.
thanks for confirming this, its what i was trying to say not so long ago, but people didnt seem to realise what i was pointing out, ultimate ears chooses to have mids coming from the bass drivers, shure does not, the bass drivers in shure are completely dedicated. im not saying that is the better choice (although logic says it is) but maybe that explains why the triple fi just dont have as full mids and bass.
the same goes for shure tho, the mids go through the highs driver so maybe that is why the highs are not as great,because they are attacked by mids aswell.
anyway the point i was making is ultimate ears seem to talk the talk, and lead many to believe they are 3 way when they just aint. |
Here is some pertinent information that might help you in understanding these designs. Although this design uses dual diaphragms for the lows, mids, I think the only difference is one of cost for a dual armature. Sorry for this long post.
In-ear monitor with hybrid dual diaphragm and single armature design
US Patent Issued on March 20, 2007
Inventor(s)
Jerry J. Harvey
Assignee
Ultimate Ears, LLC
Application
No. 11044510 filed on 2005-01-27
Current US Class
381/328 , Ear insert 381/324 Component mounting
Examiners
Primary: Sinh Tran
Assistant: Brian Ensey
Attorney, Agent or Firm
Patent Law Office of David G. Beck
US Patent References
4870688
Mass production auditory canal hearing aid
Issued on: September 26, 1989
Inventor: Voroba, et al. 6072885
Hearing aid device incorporating signal processing techniques
Issued on: June 6, 2000
Inventor: Stockham, Jr., et al. 6137889
Direct tympanic membrane excitation via vibrationally conductive assembly
Issued on: October 24, 2000
Inventor: Shennib, et al.
Abstract Claims Description Full Text
Description
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates generally to audio monitors and, more particularly, to an in-ear monitor.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
In-ear monitors, also referred to as canal phones and stereo headphones, are commonly used to listen to both recorded and live music. A typical recorded music application would involve plugging the monitor into a music player such as a CD player, flash or hard drive based MP3 player, home stereo, or similar device using the monitor's headphone jack. Alternately, the monitor can be wirelessly coupled to the music player. In a typical live music application, an on-stage musician wears the monitor in order to hear his or her own music during a performance. In this case, the monitor is either plugged into a wireless belt pack receiver or directly connected to an audio distribution device such as a mixer or a headphone amplifier. This type of monitor offers numerous advantages over the use of stage loudspeakers, including improved gain-before-feedback, minimization/elimination of room/stage acoustic effects, cleaner mix through the minimization of stage noise, increased mobility for the musician and the reduction of ambient sounds.
In-ear monitors are quite small and are normally worn just outside the ear canal. As a result, the acoustic design of the monitor must lend itself to a very compact design utilizing small components. Some monitors are custom fit (i.e., custom molded) while others use a generic "one-size-fits-all" earpiece.
Prior art in-ear monitors use either diaphragm-based or armature-based receivers. Broadly characterized, a diaphragm is a moving-coil speaker with a paper or mylar diaphragm. Since the cost to manufacture diaphragms is relatively low, they are widely used in many common audio products (e.g., ear buds). In contrast to the diaphragm approach, an armature receiver utilizes a piston design. Due to the inherent cost of armature receivers, however, they are typically only found in hearing aids and high-end in-ear monitors.
Diaphragm receivers, due to the use of moving-coil speakers, suffer from several limitations. First, because of the size of the diaphragm assembly, a typical earpiece is limited to a single diaphragm. This limitation precludes achieving optimal frequency response (i.e., a flat or neutral response) through the inclusion of multiple diaphragms. Second, diaphragm-based monitors have significant frequency roll off above 4 kHz. As the desired upper limit for the frequency response of a high-fidelity monitor is at least 15 kHz, diaphragm-based monitors cannot achieve the desired upper frequency response while still providing accurate low frequency response.
Armatures, also referred to as balanced armatures, were originally developed by the hearing aid industry. This type of driver uses a magnetically balanced shaft or armature within a small, typically rectangular, enclosure. As a result of this design, armature drivers are not reliant on the size and shape of the enclosure, i.e., the ear canal, for tuning as is the case with diaphragm-based monitors. Typically, lengths of tubing are attached to the armature which, in combination with acoustic filters, provide a means of tuning the armature. A single armature is capable of accurately reproducing low-frequency audio or high-frequency audio, but incapable of providing high-fidelity performance across all frequencies. To overcome this limitation, armature-based in-ear monitors often use two, or even three, armature drivers. In such multiple armature arrangements, a crossover network is used to divide the frequency spectrum into multiple regions, i.e., low and high or low, medium, and high. Separate armature drivers are then used for each region, individual armature drivers being optimized for each region. Unfortunately, as armatures do not excel at low-frequency sound reproduction, even in-ear monitors using multiple armatures may not provide the desired frequency response across the entire audio spectrum. Additionally, the costs associated with each armature typically prohibit the use of in-ear monitors utilizing multiple armature drivers for most applications.
Although a variety of in-ear monitors have been designed, these monitors do not provide optimal sound reproduction throughout the entire audio spectrum. Additionally, those monitors that achieve even a high level of audio fidelity are prohibitively expensive. Accordingly, what is needed in the art is an in-ear monitor that achieves the desired response across the audio spectrum at a reasonable cost. The present invention provides such a monitor.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides an in-ear monitor for use with either a recorded or a live audio source. The disclosed in-ear monitor combines a pair of diaphragm drivers and a single armature driver within a single earpiece, thereby taking advantage of the capabilities of both types of drivers. Preferably, the diaphragms are used to reproduce the lower frequencies while the higher frequencies are accurately reproduced by the armature driver. Such a hybrid design offers improved fidelity across the desired frequency spectrum and does so at a reduced cost in comparison to multiple armature designs. In addition to the three drivers, the in-ear monitor of the invention includes means for splitting the incoming signal into separate inputs for each driver. Typically this function is performed by a passive crossover circuit although an active crossover circuit can also be used. In at least one embodiment, acoustic dampers are interposed between one or more driver outputs and the eartip.
Further information regarding this can be found here:
In-ear monitor with hybrid dual diaphragm and single armature design - US Patent 7194102
