Listening to music can be extremely relaxing and fun. So headphones have a special place in every music lover’s life. But have you ever questioned yourself about how your generation end up having such an amazing device? How were headphones invented? How did they evolve with growth in technology?
The Complete History Of Headphone
Like any other invention, wireless headphones also have a long history. To know more about your favourite wireless headphones, read on to find the History of Headphones. Let’s find out.
- 1881: It was the first headphones were used by telephone operators. It was a kind of placing a boombox on your shoulder, where a single earpiece rested on the user’s shoulder and weighed over 10 pounds.
- 1895: In the year 1895, the ‘Electrophone’ subscription service allowed customers to dial into a switchboard. And this was a system consisting of a stethoscope-shaped headphone connected to a switchboard. It cost around 5 pounds a year back then.
- 1910: In 1910 the first modern headphones were invented by Engineer Nathaniel Baldwin. He crafted the first pair of audio in his kitchen and sold them all to the U.S. Navy. And they’ve ordered 100 pairs, not knowing that he was making them by hand.
- 1937: World’s first dynamic headphones for home listening were launched in 1937, which was named The DT-48’s invented by German hi-fi stalwarts Beyerdynamic. And the DT-48 remained in production until 2012.
- 1949: In 1949, across the border in Austria, AKG produced their first pair of headphones, the K120’s. It was one of the most popular headphones that sold excellently. Before these headphones were launched, most of the headphones were just purpose-oriented tools meant for a specific task. This K-120 was designed with an on-ear, high-quality driver and a thin chic-looking headband. But the production of these headphones was stalled during The Second World War due to an ongoing conflict in Europe.
- 1958: In 1958, John Koss created the first stereo headphones, the Koss SP-3. It was launched an all-out assault on awaiting ear canals and after few decades this comes to dominate the headphone industry with something purely for the music.
- 1959: In Tokyo, the world’s first-ever electrostatic pair of headphones called The SR-1’s in a show at Tokyo by Stax. Now, these headphones are extremely rare as an original pair of Nike Air Mags.
- 1968: After introducing the first stereo headphones, Koss released the first US-made electrostatic model in the year of 1968. It was not exactly like putting in a pair of earbuds but was still a long way from the massive pieces created less than a century before.
- 1979: In the year 1979 Sony which is still a well-known company today, made portable headphones for the first time with their cassette player, the Walkman. The purchase of the first Walkman was Sony’s MDL-3L2 headphones crossed over 400 million units.
- 1980: For those who are prone to headphone hair in the ‘80s, Steven Paul Jobs made a solution by giving both the earbud and the in-ear headphone made their way onto the scene.
- 1997: In 1997 Sony made a pair of neckband headphones for those who hated the fact that earbuds couldn’t isolate sound well.
- 2001: The development of the iPod changed up the whole music universe. At that time it became common to see many individuals with a white cord running from their pocket to their ears multiple times a day. From 2001 to today over 300 million iPods have been sold all with the accompanying pair of earbuds.
- 2008: Dr Dre and Jimmy Iovine created Beats, it was designed with deep bass and great sound quality in mind and grabbed a large market share.
- 2012: From 2012 the headphones have become as much about style as they are sound quality. And many other professional audio brands were developed new headphones that appealed to music lovers, including those that loved bass-heavy sounds.
Also, read Best Open Back Headphones Available Online
Technology has introduced many variants of the original idea, including wireless headphones which are becoming increasingly popular. The first headphones were started out as heavy and unsightly metal devices for military use, but today it is much a fashion statement device to enjoy our favourite music in private.