The present invention relates to a headphone set, and, especially, an inner-ear type headphone set fit in the antihelixes of user's ears comfortably and stably, and a method of producing such a headphone set.
The widespread of portable music players has brought rapid expansion of the market of headphones to be connected to the players. One popular type of headphones is a so-called inner-ear type fit in the antihelixes of user's ears.
Canal-type headphones belonging to the inner-ear type are equipped with: housings enclosing speaker units for converting electrical signals to audio signals; sound emitters protruding from the housings for sound emission; ear pieces coupled to the sound emitters; and cords extending from the housings to transmit audio signals from an external device to the speaker units.
In use of the canal-type headphones, the housings are fit in the antihelixes of user's ears while the sound emitters having the ear pieces are inserted into the ear channels of the ears. The housings are retained inside the antihelixes due to the elasticity of the ear pieces inserted into the ear channels and the friction between the ear pieces and the ear channels. The housings are, however, easily detached from the ears when the cords are pulled.
There are several types of headphones with unique shapes of housings so that the housings are secured inside the antihelixes.
One type of such a headphone structure is disclosed in Japanese Un-examined Patent Publication No. 2006-203420. Earphones disclosed in this document are equipped with elastic loop pinna-support members elastically retained in the antihelixes at a side wall that partitions the concha auriculae and the antitragus.
The loop pinna-support members exhibit high elasticity, or are well deformed, towards the plane created by the loop but low elasticity, or are not deformed well, in directions not parallel to the plane, for example, in the orthogonal direction to the plane.
The elasticity or deformation of the support members depends on the shape and size of users' antihelixes, which causes uncomfortable feelings to some users.
Concerning the deformation discussed above, the earphones disclosed in the document above are well deformed in the two-dimension but not enough in the three-dimension.
In addition, the smaller the pinnas of users, the more the loop pinna-support members have to be deformed. Thus, the more the members are deformed, the more the members exhibit elasticity because they are deformed in the plane discussed above.
Accordingly, a user with small pinnas may have uncomfortable feeling when he or she uses the earphones or suffers a difficulty in using the earphones.
Thus, the earphones disclosed in the document above require improvements in adaptability to users' antihelixes of different shapes and sizes.