Patent ID: 8737669

Claim:
An in-ear earpiece comprising: an acoustic driver; and an eartip comprising, in a unitary structure: a cushion body shaped to rest in the concha of a user's ear to support the acoustic driver when the earpiece is positioned in the user's ear; an acoustic passage through the cushion body to conduct sound waves radiated by the acoustic driver to an ear canal of the user; a nozzle extending the acoustic passage from the cushion body and having an end near the entrance of the ear canal; a positioning and retaining structure to engage features of the lateral surface of the ear of the user to position the earpiece and to hold the earpiece in place without any structure external to the earpiece; and a substantially conical structure surrounding the nozzle and configured so that the smaller end of the conical structure is smaller than the entrance to the ear canal of the user and so that the larger end of the conical structure is larger than the entrance to the ear canal of the user, the conical structure comprising a thin, cone-shaped wall extending from the smaller end at the end of the nozzle to the larger end and open inside, separated from the nozzle, and formed of material that conforms to the entrance to the ear canal to seal the ear canal at an area of transition between the concha and ear canal, without contacting the inside of the ear canal beyond the area of transition; wherein the acoustic passage comprises a straight-line passage from the acoustic driver, through the cushion body and the nozzle, and aligned with the entrance of the ear canal, and the cushion body rests against the concha and prevents the nozzle and conical structure from being pressed into the ear canal beyond the entrance.