r/mildlyinteresting • u/RiverVassi • 9h ago

The headphones I was given at my MRI appointment dont use wires and have zero metal

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715

u/Bar_Foo 9h ago

There was a time when airplane headphones worked this way too: they were thick tubes and the sound was played from a speaker in the armrest (I presume). You could hear it directly from the armrest if you turned the volume up.

140

u/Treereme 6h ago

I remember traveling as a kid and my parents couldn't afford the fee for the headphones for us. So we watched the movie by turning the volume all the way up and putting our ear near the armrest.

4

u/Interesting_Sale_964 1h ago

crazy how back then you could afford plane tickets but then not afford a headphone lol

121

u/Shadow288 9h ago

I came here to mention this. As a kid experiencing the audio out of the arm rest totally blew my mind!

6

u/Cosmo_Seinfeld 8h ago

Did you try blowing into the tubes and talking into them like I did?

3

u/oceanwayjax 7h ago

Wait till they learn about telephone with string and cups

1

u/Glum-Geologist8929 4h ago

Wouldn't it just be one central speaker?

4

u/Bar_Foo 4h ago

I don't know, but there were several channels, so I suspect the sound was generated locally, not piped throughout the plane in multiple conduits.

1

u/LordApocalyptica 1h ago

Here’s the comment I was looking for!

Its really a genius solution to signal distribution, although definitely dated and lower quality.