Earphone having an acoustic tuning mechanism

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9510086-B2
Application number	US-201514868965-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 29, 2015
Priority date	Jun 20, 2012
Publication date	Nov 29, 2016
Grant date	Nov 29, 2016

Abstract

An earphone comprising an earphone housing having a body portion, the body portion having an acoustic output opening to output sound from a driver positioned therein into an ear of a user. An acoustic tuning member is positioned within the body portion. The acoustic tuning member defines a back volume chamber of the driver and includes an acoustic output port for outputting sound from the back volume chamber of the driver to improve an acoustic performance of the earphone.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An earphone comprising:
an earphone housing having a body portion, the body portion having an acoustic output opening to output sound from a driver positioned therein into an ear of a user; and
an acoustic tuning member positioned within the body portion, the acoustic tuning member having (a) an open front portion that opens toward the driver and a back portion that defines a back volume chamber for the driver and (b) an acoustic pathway acoustically coupled to an acoustic output slot formed in the acoustic tuning member.

2. The earphone of claim 1 wherein the acoustic pathway is an acoustic groove formed within a rear surface of the acoustic tuning member, the acoustic groove mates with a housing groove formed along an inner surface of the earphone housing to form an acoustic channel, and the acoustic groove is dimensioned to alter an acoustic inductance or an acoustic resistance of the acoustic channel.

3. The earphone of claim 1 wherein the acoustic tuning member is a cone shaped structure.

4. The earphone of claim 1 wherein the acoustic tuning member has a different shape than the body portion.

5. The earphone of claim 1 wherein the acoustic tuning member further comprises a volume modifying portion formed within a portion of the acoustic tuning member facing the driver, wherein the volume modifying portion occupies a portion of the back volume chamber to change a volume of the back volume chamber without changing a form factor of the acoustic tuning member.

6. The earphone of claim 1 further comprising:
a vent port formed in the acoustic tuning member for outputting sound from the back volume chamber to a surrounding environment outside of the body portion, the vent port dimensioned to modify an acoustic response of the earphone.

7. The earphone of claim 1 further comprising:
a cable connected to the acoustic tuning member and having a plurality of wires for delivering a signal to the driver.

8. The earphone of claim 1 further comprising:
a tube portion extending from the body portion, wherein the tube portion comprises an acoustic duct that terminates at a bass port through a wall of the tube portion and the bass port outputs air to a surrounding environment outside of the tube portion.

9. An earphone comprising:
an earphone housing having a body portion, the body portion forming a first chamber and a second chamber around opposing faces of a driver positioned within the body portion, and wherein the earphone housing further comprises an acoustic output opening to output sound from the first chamber into an ear of a user; and
an acoustic tuning member positioned within the second chamber, the acoustic tuning member having a casing that defines a back volume chamber of the driver and an acoustic output slot formed inwardly from an edge of the casing.

10. The earphone of claim 9 wherein the casing is cone shaped and comprises an open face that faces a back face of the driver to form the back volume chamber.

11. The earphone of claim 9 wherein the back volume chamber has different dimensions than the second chamber formed by the earphone housing.

12. The earphone of claim 9 further comprising:
a vent port formed in the acoustic tuning member for outputting sound from the back volume chamber to a surrounding environment outside of the body portion, the vent port dimensioned to modify an acoustic response of the earphone.

13. The earphone of claim 12 further comprising:
an acoustic mesh covering the vent port.

14. The earphone of claim 9 wherein the slot is coupled to a groove formed by an outer surface of the acoustic tuning member and an inner surface of the earphone housing.

15. The earphone of claim 9 further comprising:
an acoustic tube portion coupled to the body portion, wherein the acoustic tuning member acoustically couples the driver to the tube portion.

16. An acoustic tuning member dimensioned for insertion within an earphone housing, the acoustic tuning member comprising:
an acoustic tuning member housing having an open front portion, a closed back portion operable to define a back volume chamber of a driver and an acoustic output slot coupled to an acoustic pathway formed between the acoustic tuning member housing and an earphone housing within which the acoustic tuning member housing is positioned.

17. The acoustic tuning member of claim 16 wherein the acoustic tuning member housing comprises a substantially cone shape.

18. The acoustic tuning member of claim 16 further comprising:
a vent port for outputting sound from the back volume chamber to a surrounding environment outside of the acoustic tuning member housing when the acoustic tuning member is positioned within the earphone housing.

19. The acoustic tuning member of claim 16 wherein the acoustic tuning member housing is overmolded to a cable to provide strain relief to the cable, the cable capable of attaching to a driver and supplying power to the driver.

20. The acoustic tuning member of claim 16 wherein the acoustic pathway is dimensioned to form a closed channel with an inner surface of the earphone housing when the acoustic tuning member housing is positioned within the earphone housing.

Assignees

• Apple Inc

Inventors

• Howes Michael B
• Azmi Yacine
• Porter Scott P
• Aase Jonathan S

Classifications

• H04R1/023

  Screens for loudspeakers · CPC title

• H04R1/2807

  Enclosures comprising vibrating or resonating arrangements (for the reduction of undesired resonances or vibrations H04R1/2869) · CPC title

• H04R1/2811

  for loudspeaker transducers · CPC title

• H04R1/2823 Primary

  Vents, i.e. ports, e.g. shape thereof or tuning thereof with damping material · CPC title

• H04R1/20

  Arrangements for obtaining desired frequency or directional characteristics (for stereophonic purpose H04R5/00) · CPC title