Topic: Ear adapters for DPA 4060 Binaural

[beenjammin]

I'm having trouble locating something that will allow me to run my 4060s binaurally. Apart from taping them to my ears, what are folks using?

[Gutbucket]

Most here run them attached to glasses, in front of the ears around temples.  Not truly binarual as there is no outer ear pina effect, but still head-baffled and often better for direct speaker playback of music than true binaural recordings which work best over headphones.

For true in-ear binarual, one option is using foam ear plugs to hold the mic cables (and thus the mics) in place.  Basically the mic cable goes into the ear canal along one side of the ear plug, turns 180 degrees around the back end of the plug and comes back out on the opposite side of the plug, with the mic extending a half-inch or so beyond the plug, more or less right at the opening of the plugged ear canal. 

Benefit is good mic positioning, damping of cable microphonics, and low cost.  Drawbacks are ear-plugged listening while recording, and needing to make a relatively tight bend in the cable near the mic.

[Jamos]

If you wanted to try true binaural, you could rig up your mics to one of these earloops:
http://www.fullcompass.com/prod/009624-Telex-AEF3
http://www.fullcompass.com/prod/009623-Telex-AEF2-09252-000

Either with heatshrink, surgical sleeves, or even tape.

You can then position the mics just above the ears on either side of the head.

[Gutbucket]

Just keep in mind that for binaural you want the mics positioned as closely as possible to the opening of the ear canal, and you don't want to change the shape of the surrounding ear (pina) which reflects sound into the ear in various ways depending on the direction of arrival.

Actually for really true binaural, you'll need to use probes which sample at the ear-drum instead of at the opening of the ear canal-



Usually done by placing the microphone outside the ear, ported through a very small flexible tube which is inserted into the ear canal with it's opening right at the eardrum.  The tube resonance is then removed after the recording is made with an inverse EQ curve.  This method includes the ear canal transfer function as well as the pina effects in the total HRTF.

[beenjammin]

Thanks so much for the helpful responses.

I tried the foam earplug method. It took a bit of effort to get the angle just right so that everything would fit into my canal, but the effort seems to have paid off. This seems like the easiest solution with the fewest sonic compromises.

Is there anything "wrong" with just sticking the DPAs straight into my ears and taping the cables, so that they stay in place, that is, aside from ear wax issues?

I wonder how durable the 4060 cable is. I assume I can re-cable them, should I ever end up damaging them. If not, then I'll probably try another approach to pull off binaural.

[Gutbucket]

Strain on the cable from the sharp bend is the main concern.  The cables are pretty tough, but the mics are difficult to recable since you can't open the mic body. If the retermination needed to be done very close to the capsule end I'd probalby not try to splice it, but instead put the mic into the cable exit end of a minijack plug, mini-XLR, RCA or some other connector and make it removable from the cable.  I sort of wish the microdot was right at the mic instead of the other end of the cable.