The History of Headphones

Surprisingly, not everyone wants to hear our music. When we were pumping our
LCD Soundsystem mixtape, others in the office said they couldnt concentrate
and they wished we were fired. For this, and for many other reasons,
headphones are an absolute necessity in our daily lives. It was long before Steve
Jobs produced white earbuds and Dr. Dre jumped in the game, however, that
people began getting tunes pumped into their ear canal. Heres basically how it all
went down.

1881 Way before MP3s, dubstep and premium Spotify accounts,

headphones had little to do with music at all. Back in the 1880s, the first
headphones (or at least their early ancestors) were used by telephone
operators. It was a single earpiece that rested on the users shoulder and
weighed over 10 pounds (kinda like placing a boombox on your shoulder).

1895 Thanks to the Electrophone system, in 1895 folks could start rocking
out to the sick beats of the local opera house from the comfort of their own
home. Subscribers to the pricey service would listen through headphones
that looked more like stethoscopes than a modern offering as very large
people produced very big sound on a stage miles away.

1910 Nathaniel Baldwin began manufacturing the first modern

headphones. He crafted them in his kitchen and sold them all to the U.S.
Navy. This was the first time a pair of cans resembled something youd see
today. Baldwin never patented them, however, because he was an idiot.

1937 The DT-48s from Beyerdynamic became the first dynamic

headphones to hit the market. Though it would be a few decades before
electrostatic headphones came into play, this was obviously a huge leap
forward in the can story. Dynamic headphones are, to this day, the most
popular type on the market.

1949 With design in mind, AKG produced their first pair of headphones,
the K120s. If they were reproduced today, they would sell like hotcakes at
Urban Outfitters. This model, and other more popular ones that followed,
were enough to make AKG quit the film equipment business and focus just
on audio.

1958 John C. Koss changed the headphone game in a way that would
make Dr. Dre jealous. In 1958, Koss created the first stereo headphones
(Koss SP-3) and launched an all out assault on awaiting ear canals. Over
 the next few decades, Koss would come to dominate the headphone
industry, and he would do it all without the need for a pesky college
education.

1959 At a show in Tokyo, Stax debuted the worlds first ever electrostatic
pair of headphones. The SR-1s would go into production a year later. They
are now extremely rare like an original pair of Nike Air Mags or a
headphone user without hearing loss.

1968 A decade after introducing the first stereo headphones, Koss

unleashed the first US made electrostatic model. The ESP-6s clocked in at
around two pounds, meaning they werent exactly like putting in a pair of
earbuds, but were still a long ways from the massive pieces created less
than a century before.

1979 If you had to pick the most important event in headphone history,
youd be hard-pressed not to choose Sony dropping the Walkman. All of a
sudden, headphones had to be portable. Included with the purchase of the
first Walkman were Sonys MDL-3L2 headphones and everything you
needed to rock out to London Calling while roller skating in your driveway.

1980s For the man who was prone to headphone hair, the 80s offered
the first solutions. Both the earbud and the in-ear headphone made their
way onto the scene in the 80s even though they wouldnt reach their peak
in popularity until one Steven Paul Jobs changed the music game years
later.

1997 If you wanted to keep your hair in check but also hated the fact that
earbuds couldnt isolate sound well, Sony thought you might like a pair of
neckband headphones. You didnt.

2000 Screaming babies and loud snorers met their match when Bose
unveiled their QuietComfort line. Though pilots had been using noise-
cancelling technology for decades, now passengers could also get some
relief on loud flights (or in front of the TV with a nagging spouse).

2001 The iPod changed up the whole music universe. It became common
to see people with a white cord running from their pocket to their ears
multiple times a day. From their inception in 2001 to today, over 300 million
iPods have been sold all with the accompanying pair of earbuds.

2008 Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine joined forces and, along with Monster,
created Beats by Dre headphones. Designed with deep bass and great
sound quality in mind (this is debatable), the Beats line quickly grabbed a
large market share and could be seen on just about every NBA player as
they walked from the bus to the locker room.
 2012 Headphones have become as much about style as they are sound
quality. This may never have been more relevant than when Lil Wayne wore
these $1 million dollar pair of Beats.

December 1, 1878 January 19, 1961

Nathaniel Baldwin

From: http://coolmaterial.com/roundup/history-of-headphones/