How do headphones work?

appa

appa

Active member
i am doing a research report and i can not come up with any sources for my subject (i need to come to class tomorrow with 8 sources written down). i have to find sources to help me answer 8 questions all relating to "how do headphones work?"

here are the questions

1. How does the audio travel?

2. How does the plug work?

3. How is bass controlled?

4. What determines the sound quality?

5. How is volume determined?

6. How is the sound then put out by the speakers?

7. What is the difference in headphone jack sizes?

8. What materials are used to make a set of headphones?

Please let me know if any of these questions are dumb and please please please give me some answers if you know them. also post possible search variations i could use to find some sources. i already have http://www.explainthatstuff.com/headphones.html and my teacher says anything wiki is not going to be accepted. PEOPLE I COULD EMAIL INTERVIEW COUNT AS SOURCES so i have rick alden of skullcandy written down. Maybe i'll put down Dr. Dre. please help me i will give out karma if your post is helpful.

and post what question it is in relation to

thanks!
 
hahahahaha this is a great way to get all your research done!

ill try and help you by answering them to the best of my knowledge

1. How does the audio travel? as electricity

2. How does the plug work? a positive for the right traveling towards the speaker, a positive for the left, and a shared negative wire (not actually positive and negative just electricity moving out then coming back)

3. How

is bass controlled? i know this but i cant explain it haha

4. What determines the sound quality? quality of materials and magnets

5. How

is volume determined? amps put into the wire

6. How is the sound then put out by the speakers?

speakers have magnets and the electricity in the wire creates an electro magnet that pulls the speaker away and magnets back to its original positing making sound

7. What is the difference in headphone jack sizes? how much power can go through it

8. What

materials are used to make a set of headphones? copper, plastic, maybe aluminum

theres my 2 cents, good luck!

when i do essays i always just blaze a bowl and make the whole thing up and always get an A

 
haha thanks man! you sure know a lot about this and i would blaze one but it's not one of those things you can bullshit or else i would haha.

and you're sure about the ones you answered?

anyway could i maybe get your email so i could try to use you as a source?
 
no problem!

my email is on my profile if you need it

and im not 100% on those, i have taken a few physics classes before but not advance electro/magnetic

those are just my best answers, if you can understand what i tried to say on them i think they were all right for the most part
 
yea i've been doing that i'm just looking for different sorts of sources like email addresses and maybe facts that websites might not have. believe me i'm googling my ass off
 
just dont cite it and make sure everything is in your put pretty well into your own words. wiki wasnt accepted at my high school, and isnt accepted at any colleges i am pretty sure. that doesnt mean you can t use it though; they just dont want to see it on the works cited page.
 
So let me get this straight...

You are essentially asking other people to do your research for you and provide you with links to very easy to find information?

Incredible.
 
You really should just do the research on your own and not ask a bunch of skiers, but oh well

1. How does the audio travel?

It takes pre recorded electrical signals down to the speaker drivers which convert that signal into changes in acoustical air pressure.

2. How does the plug work?

It has a ground, left, and right. it just allows the source to give the signal to the headphones.

3. How is bass controlled?

by the source, or the way they are built, size of driver, etc.

4. What determines the sound quality?

same answer as #3

5. How is volume determined?

by the source

6. How is the sound then put out by the speakers?

see #1

7. What is the difference in headphone jack sizes?

no difference, just preference

8. What materials are used to make a set of headphones?

whatever materials they want
 
i'll try my best here with the hard ones

1. How does the audio travel?

audio is a sinusoidal electric pulse that by varying the frequency changes the pitch and sound.

3. How is bass controlled?

Assuming the question refers to some kind of analog built in control (as opposed to controlling the digital signal on a computer or .mp3), then an easy way to do this is build a low pass filter. Bass is all the very low frequency signals, so a low pass filter will pass the low signals and filter out the high ones. This signal can then be amplified and added to the original signal for more bass. By using a variable resistor or capacitor in an RC circuit you can adjust the level of bass.

4. What determines the sound quality?

Sound quality is a result of the original signal quality and the digital to analog converter (a .mp3 stores a lot of points and you need to create an actual signal out of these. more points (larger file size/bit rate) = better signal). The quality of the wire and the magnets will also be a factor as well as any strong magnetic fields.

5. How is volume determined?

varying the amplitude results is a larger voltage and current passing through the headphones impedance (z). This results in more power and louder sound.

6. How is the sound then put out by the speakers?

A coil in the headphone (inductor) creates a magnetic field that oscillates a magnet attached to a thin piece of plastic. When the magnet moves back and forth as a result of the electric signal and the resulting magnetic field the air is moved in pulses to create sound. Look up some pictures for this if it doesn't make sense
 
it's all good i just got another 2 days to do it

and i made this thread because i started my search and got pages and pages of links to how to fix my headphones sites and a lot that had to do with selling them. nothing directly related to my questions so i thought i would make this to see if anyone knew about them specifically because i have found that there are a lot of educated people on this site who might know something.
 
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