Good point Pete. The TDE headphones in our CVS were not on display with the
other headphones/players. They were on a corner display elsewhere in the
store. Go figure.
There were quite a few of the TDEs on the shelves.
73
Tony, W4FOA
----- Original Message -----
From: "Pete Ferrand" <petef@sprynet.com>
To: <tentec@contesting.com>
Sent: Thursday, December 29, 2005 12:41 PM
Subject: Re: [TenTec] TDE Headphones...
There aren't any CVS stores in Wisconsin I could find, so feeling a bit
silly about spending that much time going to the drugstore last night I
drove to the Waukegan IL CVS store - 20 miles from here. Was very
disappointed that there were none of the TDE 'phones at the headphone
rack. But since someone mentioned they were found elsewhere, I looked
around the store...and there they were right on the front counter by
checkout!
As others noted, they were labelled $14.99 and rang up at $9.99. Strangely
I didn't have to sign my name for the credit card purchase, which I was
told was a new policy stores were adopting for purchases below a certain
amount. New to me.
Gas in Illinois is ten cents/gallon cheaper than here which made up for
part of the trip I guess.
Headphones work great so far, I'm very pleased. Now I spent about $150 at
Sharper Image 10 years ago to buy the NCT Noisebuster phones, same general
idea. Except the NCT phones, which still work but are really beat up, will
lock up into antiphase a fraction of a second quicker, something of
absolutely no importance. Also the NCT phones are of the on-ear open
style, whereas the TDE are closed, and that's strictly a matter of
preference. The closed cups do little to restrict sound transfer from
without but do affect fidelity in a way that will depend on the shape and
density of your outer ear.
These phones primarily attenuate low frequency continuous noise, and I
haven't found them particularly useful for ham radio. There are on
occasion some types of band noise that they will attenuate to some degree,
but DSP and antenna phasing units are far better. An enterprising
individual may figure out how to electrically reverse them and make noise
cancelling microphones, which certainly would be useful.
Now they are useful for ham and other applications if you're in a noisy
environment, while in a train or plane, mowing the lawn, vacuuming the
floor and that sort of thing. They will also attenuate the motor noises
coming out the typical computer, and that noise has been shown to produce
fatigue all by itself, so that can justify the $10 for you. I've used the
NCT's many times on flights and in the shop without listening to any
audio, just to attenuate as they're lighter and less sweaty than ear
protectors.
The TDE packaging indicates questions should be referred to a cvs email
address or a phone number, so that tells me they are sold under some sort
of CVS affiliated company and that makes it unlikely you'll find them
under the same name elsewhere. I couldn't find anything comparable at
Walgreen's or Osco/Sav-on. They do have the Maxell's for about $35 which I
believe are similar.
If you've bought any Chinese electronics lately, just about all of it has
the silly lead warning. Don't nibble on the cords - who knows what else
they might have in it that dissolves. They do not have enough lead to make
spare weights for the bug, unfortunately.
Headphones do not cause hearing loss, loud volume causes hearing loss and
unfortunately people tend to turn up the volume higher when they are
wearing 'phones. Perhaps it feels good, perhaps they do it because no one
else gets annoyed. I am also thinking that hams have hearing loss not
because they do that, but they listen to normal levels of signals, with
static crashes and other pulse noise much much higher and we aren't
listening for them and thus don't take notice of them. This hasn't been
studied at all as far as I know but could be important. Can also be easily
fixed with an audio limiter but hasn't been done.
Speaking of vacuuming....gotta get to it :)
-Pete
WB2QLL/9
Somers, WI
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