Stereo Earbud for SSD (Single Sided Deafness)

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Level 1

8 points

Stereo Earbud for SSD (Single Sided Deafness)

If any of you have hearing loss in one ear (partial or total) and want to enjoy both sides of a stereo recording in one ear, I found this one company that makes an earbud that claims to deliver it.

http://www.scansound.com/1-Bud.htm#1BUDPRO

I have recently ordered several different models of them... the Classic, Pro and the Left Bud. It took only a few days for them to arrive...and I am happy to say...they work great! I had the chance to talk with Barry, the inventor of these devices. He said that he was urged by a friend to come up with a headphone/earbud with both left and right channels so that his son (deaf in one ear) could hear them while listening to his iPod.

I hope this is helpful!
_______________

PC, Windows XP, VAIO

Posted on Nov 28, 2008 7:09 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

johnny__wildman

Level 1

0 points

Jan 10, 2009 5:40 PM in response to wutsenuf

Hey there,

Thank you for posting this. I lost the hearing in my left ear due to a cholesteatoma and this single sided deafness has meant that I have found it difficult listening to music through headphones for a long time!

I have been searching for a single headphone for a long time but I could not find one. If I use a standard set of headphones, then I find that I only get half of the song (because it is in stereo). I had settled on using an adaptor that plugged into the jack on the ipod and then the headphones plugged into the adaptor but this was far from perfect. I contacted Apple a couple of years ago before I purchased my ipod, explained the situation and in reference to the left ear bud, I was asked "Can't you just cut the other one off?"

A couple of questions:

Do you know whether the company that you provided the link to ship to the UK?
Do you get all of the song through the single ear bud?
Do you find that the ear bud stays in or falls out a lot?

My 30GB ipod has recently died on me and I have started using my mobile phone as a music player and had the problem of not getting all of the sounds from the music because I was just using the right earphone. I started messing around with the settings and happily, under the player settings, I can adjust it so that the balance is 100% to the right. This means that all of the music and sound comes out of the right earphone.

I am thinking of purchasing a Nano. Do the latest generation of ipods have this feature? If not, can it be added?

I am sure that there is a way of saving the music onto your computer a certain way so that the playback is not in stereo, but I like listening to the music in stereo whilst in the car or through external speakers etc. so I am reticent to change this.

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Answer 2

Apr 8, 2009 12:06 AM in response to johnny__wildman

I also have single sided deafness, and tried these earbuds. They work very well, and I see that they've also just introduced a newer version with a bit more bass response. i hope I can provide some information to your questions:

1. The company does indeed ship internationally; I had a couple of sets set out to Saudi Arabia.
2. Indeed it does appear to be a true downmix of both channels into one. Try an early stereo recording (such as The Beatles' Sun King on Abbey Road, which had very widely separated channels, and it plays perfectly).
3. I've found the earbud to be very comfortable and it stays in perfectly.

The only slight negative that I have is that the wire itself is a little thin, so that seems to encourage "knock" noises if you bang the wire...not entirely sure why, but they are transmitted more readily along the cable than with my other earbuds. Only a very minor inconvenience. The price is amazingly cheap, and these really are great earbuds for the price.

If I need higher quality audio, I'll use other earbuds (such as Apple's original in-ear, or Etymotic's buds) and just sacrifice one of the channels...most music seems to be mixed a little more towards the centre without such wide stereo separation anyway.

Hope this helps.

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