Intro to steths

Diff · 2017-05-06 12:20:27

Alright so for basically ever I've been pretty hard set against steths. Except now I think it was mostly just dumb stubbornness. I had a few bad experiences with steths and mostly people with steths which is why I've disliked them so much in the past, but yesterday I woke up and I just didn't have any fire left against them anymore. That's actually happening with a lot of different things from a long time ago, but eh.

So with that honestly unnecessary backstory over,

Could I possibly get a sort of beginner's guide to steths in here? What's up with all the different brands? What do you personally think of all of them? Which ones are good? Which aren't? What makes a good one good, anyway? And how bit of a difference is there from a big expensive one and a $0.50 one? How do I use a steth to record?

Last edited by Diff (2017-05-11 15:01:49)

T145 · 2017-05-06 16:01:42

Diff wrote:

Alright so for basically ever I've been pretty hard set against steths. Except now I think it was mostly just dumb stubbornness. I had a few bad experiences with steths and mostly people with steths which is why I've disliked them so much in the past, but yesterday I woke up and I just didn't have any fire left against them anymore. That's actually happening with a lot of different things from a long time ago, but eh.
So with that honestly unnecessary backstory over,
Could I possibly get a sort of beginner's guide to steths in here? What's up with all the different brands? What do you personally think of all of them? Which ones are good? Which aren't? What makes a good one good, anyway? And how bit of a difference is there from a big expensive one and a $0.50 one? How do I use a steth to record?

Why are there different brands of cars/phones etc
As for good, there are reputable brands and non-reputable brands, though it can be assumed that the one you get in a child's play kit isn't going to be as good as the $50 name brand one.
Sound quality, as well as what it can pick up
If you look around YouTube, you can see a bit, though some of the differences are just mic quality
Stick a mic in it.

Disclaimer: Don't personally own one, just have seen a few

There are a few YT channels that show off different types, which you may find of interest. WIll link to the ones I know of if asked.

Last edited by T145 (2017-05-06 16:09:45)

orang_utan_dean · 2017-05-06 18:32:17

I've got a couple of Littmann Classic II SEs (one converted into a steth mic...reminds me, I need to replace the microphone!!) and a Sprague Rappaport. The Sprague doesn't work too well on me, but I put that down to my build rather than the quality of the steth as other people have posted good things about them.

Littmanns are good but expensive...there is a cheaper alternative though, can't remember the name though.

Allheart.com seems to be a good site for US residents to have a look at. Spragues start from around $10-15, the cheaper Littmann style ones around $25-30 & actual Littmanns from around $75 up.

Don't go for the Littmann nurses stethoscopes though...they are disappointing

T145 · 2017-05-06 18:33:55

As another option, if you want to go fancy, there are some interesting wireless ones floating around, too. I believe I saw one that lit up in time to a detected heartbeat. lol

Also one or two with an ECG built in, if you want that. lol

Last edited by T145 (2017-05-06 18:34:31)

RodrigoMDZ · 2017-05-06 19:04:42

I had a few bad experiences with steths and mostly people with steths which is why I've disliked them so much in the past, but yesterday I woke up and I just didn't have any fire left against them anymore.

Now I do have the need to ask, thou you might not be interested in speking about t, wich is fine, but well... if we don't ask we may never know. Wht's up with that?

And for the specific topic, there's lots of YT videos showing how to make a stethmic, there's one made by a sound technician, thou it's a lot more complicated.

Diff · 2017-05-07 02:30:54

T145 wrote:

As another option, if you want to go fancy, there are some interesting wireless ones floating around, too. I believe I saw one that lit up in time to a detected heartbeat. lol

My dude, you're giving me ideas. I used to have free time to just relax and do nothing, you know. Now I've got all these hobbies and projects.

T145 wrote:

Also one or two with an ECG built in, if you want that. lol

Now that sounds cool. And expensive.

orang_utan_dean wrote:

Allheart.com seems to be a good site for US residents to have a look at. Spragues start from around $10-15

Perfect, that sounds right around my price range. Thanks!

T145 wrote:

There are a few YT channels that show off different types, which you may find of interest. WIll link to the ones I know of if asked.

Sure, can't hurt, right?

RodrigoMDZ wrote:

Now I do have the need to ask, thou you might not be interested in speking about t, wich is fine, but well... if we don't ask we may never know. Wht's up with that?

Nah it's fine. It's not like it's traumatic or anything lol.

Long story short (or as short as I can), I was born premature with a cleft lip and palate. Had a bunch of reconstructive and corrective surgeries every few years. Little 0-12 year old me didn't like those very much. Didn't like being forcefully separated from my parents, and often various furniture, or being knocked unconscious by anesthesia in a cold room surrounded by strangers.

There were also a few times when I felt like I got straight up stabbed in the back by doctors. Or, just stabbed, anyway. One time I was getting a failed tooth made of hip bone removed, and they didn't wait for it to numb up before they decided to start, and didn't believe me when I said I wasn't numb.

Take 2 on getting that tooth out went much better, relatively speaking. Different set of people doing it. They decided to knock me unconscious that time. Doc said the needle full of anesthetic of some kind in his pocket wasn't for me. Dumb, trusting, 10 year old me believed him. That was more of a metaphorical stab in the back than a literal one, though.

Anyway, after all of everything I hated needles and I hated being forcefully knocked unconscious and I hated doctors and I hated everything that went with them. Up until the past few years where all my old fears and hates have been boiling off one by one.

T145 · 2017-05-07 13:37:58

Diff wrote:

My dude, you're giving me ideas. I used to have free time to just relax and do nothing, you know. Now I've got all these hobbies and projects.

From what I remember of Sherlock Holmes, he was a most dangerous person when bored.
Though the easiest way would be to synchronise your LED strip with something like sound above a certain decibel. lol

Diff wrote:

Now that sounds cool. And expensive.

Probably. Never owned one, but I have seen one or two floating around.

Diff wrote:

Sure, can't hurt, right?

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiiSlF … MYqmTJx0dg
That seems to be about all the ones I know of that are still functional. HBP may have others, but my memory is bad, and I can't link them anyway. lol

Diff wrote:

My dude, you're giving me ideas. I used to have free time to just relax and do nothing, you know. Now I've got all these hobbies and projects.

Found it, though the project seems to have died two years ago, unfortunately.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCD6pcu … rl_HMJVcEg (Defunct)
https://www.postscapes.com/bluetooth-st … e-stethee/ article
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/83 … in-your-ha kickstarter. lol
Manufacturer site is also gone, and their twitter last had activity in early 2015
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjHlQIyBYcc is a different wireless one by a much bigger company. No LEDs though.

T145 · 2017-05-07 13:39:45

Diff wrote:

My dude, you're giving me ideas. I used to have free time to just relax and do nothing, you know. Now I've got all these hobbies and projects.

From what I remember of Sherlock Holmes, he was a most dangerous person when bored.
Though the easiest way would be to synchronise your LED strip with something like sound above a certain decibel. lol

Diff wrote:

Now that sounds cool. And expensive.

Probably. Never owned one, but I have seen one or two floating around.

Diff wrote:

Sure, can't hurt, right?

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiiSlF … MYqmTJx0dg
That seems to be about all the ones I know of that are still functional. HBP may have others, but my memory is bad, and I can't link them anyway. lol

Diff wrote:

My dude, you're giving me ideas. I used to have free time to just relax and do nothing, you know. Now I've got all these hobbies and projects.

Found it, though the project seems to have died two years ago, unfortunately.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCD6pcu … rl_HMJVcEg (Defunct)
https://www.postscapes.com/bluetooth-st … e-stethee/ article
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/83 … in-your-ha kickstarter
Manufacturer site is also gone, and their twitter last had activity in early 2015

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjHlQIyBYcc is a different wireless one by a much bigger (and reputable) company. No LEDs though. Also expensive, but it also doesn't have tubes, so that's a trade-off.

Failing that, you could always see what you could pick up with a parabolic mic

RodrigoMDZ · 2017-05-08 13:49:01

Diff wrote:

Nah it's fine. It's not like it's traumatic or anything lol.
Long story short (or as short as I can), I was born premature with a cleft lip and palate. Had a bunch of reconstructive and corrective surgeries every few years. Little 0-12 year old me didn't like those very much. Didn't like being forcefully separated from my parents, and often various furniture, or being knocked unconscious by anesthesia in a cold room surrounded by strangers.
There were also a few times when I felt like I got straight up stabbed in the back by doctors. Or, just stabbed, anyway. One time I was getting a failed tooth made of hip bone removed, and they didn't wait for it to numb up before they decided to start, and didn't believe me when I said I wasn't numb.
Take 2 on getting that tooth out went much better, relatively speaking. Different set of people doing it. They decided to knock me unconscious that time. Doc said the needle full of anesthetic of some kind in his pocket wasn't for me. Dumb, trusting, 10 year old me believed him. That was more of a metaphorical stab in the back than a literal one, though.
Anyway, after all of everything I hated needles and I hated being forcefully knocked unconscious and I hated doctors and I hated everything that went with them. Up until the past few years where all my old fears and hates have been boiling off one by one.

Well, i'm glad you don't find it traumatic, thou it does sound a little traumatic put it that way. But it's a matter of not getting hung up on the past and move on, so it's a great attitude.

Diff · 2017-05-11 15:06:19

T145 wrote:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjHlQIyBYcc is a different wireless one by a much bigger company. No LEDs though.

The ThinkLabs ONE looks neat. Actually this little graph they put on their site is kind of interesting:

In all my recordings I usually start dropping off the audio above like 250Hz at least. Maybe I'm cutting out some important stuff there.

It's kind of weird that Stethee nuked their YouTube channel. Also would be kind of interested to know what and how they classified as healthy beats when they say "The lights are color-coded to indicate healthy beats or something out of the ordinary for the patient."

Diff · 2017-05-12 05:24:15

So there I was driving down the road to grab a burrito, right? And I drove by Walgreens. And I thought to myself, you know I've got some spare time before work today, I've never been inside a Walgreens, and they probably have a dirt cheap stethoscope. So I went in. And I bought a lightbulb and a discount power bank and a dirt cheap stethoscope. And half an hour later I get home and I try it out, and

is it supposed to be this quiet? Is that what makes fancy steths more expensive, is it their loudness along with the quality of the sound? Or are all steths just really quiet? Maybe I've just been around too many concerts.

Diff · 2017-05-12 06:02:56

Hold on I might just need a stething 101 guide. Am I supposed to cover this hole on the opposite side of the steth head? When I did it got like 10x louder. It went from "it's completely quiet and I can still barely hear it" to being able to hear it very clearly. Didn't see anything about that in the instruction manual but eh.

Diff · 2017-05-13 02:14:36

BeatsAreGifts wrote:

sadly my good steths are long gone, but a cheap single tube dept store one i have now with bell/diaphragm works surprisingly well! prly a 10-15 dollar one. had it for years now and really like it

Sounds pretty much like mine. Just a cheap little $11 thing. Now I need to figure out how to attach a mic to it, preferably nondestructively. I'll have to ask LadyKris about that, I remember her talking about figuring that out on her blog. Has anyone seen her around on here lately? First I'll probably need to get an actual microphone. Do any of you guys use steths+mics to record? Actually scratch that, do any of you record your own heartbeat ever? How do you do it? Up until now I've always just pressed my phone into my chest.

Ughlovehbs · 2017-05-17 04:19:09

Could anybody help inform me how I can share heartbeat onto phone using a steth?

Diff · 2017-05-17 04:23:45

Yeah, this is what I've been doing with no special hardware but it's kinda low quality and really hard to get it right and keep it right for more than 15 seconds. And it only works if your phone's microphone is on the face of the phone and if the part of the face surrounding the mic is totally seamless.

First what you gotta do is flip the head around so the bell is the listening side.
Press the diaphragm into your chest.
Carefully place the phone so that the face makes a nice seal on the bell side of the steth, make sure the mic is within the seal.

That's about it. Once your phone makes a seal with the bell side of things your mic should suddenly start picking up your heartbeat. My 2 most recent file uploads were made this way.

Last edited by Diff (2017-05-17 04:24:17)

Diff · 2017-05-17 04:29:55

Diff wrote:

Hold on I might just need a stething 101 guide. Am I supposed to cover this hole on the opposite side of the steth head? When I did it got like 10x louder. It went from "it's completely quiet and I can still barely hear it" to being able to hear it very clearly. Didn't see anything about that in the instruction manual but eh.

Also hey as a follow up to this, apparently the diaphragm side is not the only listening side. The bell is actually for listening, too, it's not just there for fun. And the entire steth head rotates so that either the bell or the diaphragm is "listening." Blew my mind when paperpenguin and BeatsAreGifts managed to squeeze that through my skull in chat the other day.

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#1 2017-05-06 12:20:27

Intro to steths

#2 2017-05-06 16:01:42

Re: Intro to steths

#3 2017-05-06 18:32:17

Re: Intro to steths

#4 2017-05-06 18:33:55

Re: Intro to steths

#5 2017-05-06 19:04:42

Re: Intro to steths

#6 2017-05-07 02:30:54

Re: Intro to steths

#7 2017-05-07 13:37:58

Re: Intro to steths

#8 2017-05-07 13:39:45

Re: Intro to steths

#9 2017-05-08 13:49:01

Re: Intro to steths

#10 2017-05-11 15:06:19

Re: Intro to steths

#11 2017-05-12 05:24:15

Re: Intro to steths

#12 2017-05-12 06:02:56

Re: Intro to steths

#14 2017-05-13 02:14:36

Re: Intro to steths

#16 2017-05-17 04:19:09

Re: Intro to steths

#17 2017-05-17 04:23:45

Re: Intro to steths

#18 2017-05-17 04:29:55

Re: Intro to steths

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