Earpiece positioning and retaining

An earphone comprising:

• an acoustic driver;
• a housing containing the acoustic driver, the housing including a front chamber acoustically coupled to the acoustic driver and a nozzle acoustically coupled to the front chamber;
• and
• an ear interface comprising:
• a body portion that fits beneath the tragus and anti-tragus and has a surface that rests against the concha of a user's ear when worn by the user,
• an outlet arranged to fit inside the user's ear canal entrance so as to seal it with minimal pressure when worn by the user so that the outlet is not relied upon to provide retention of the earphone in the ear, the outlet providing a passageway for conducting acoustic energy from the acoustic driver to the user's ear canal, and
• a positioning and retaining structure terminating at an extremity, wherein the positioning and retaining structure is arranged for contacting the antihelix of the user's ear along a length of the positioning and retaining structure when the ear interface is fit into the user's ear, and the extremity of the positioning and retaining structure contacts the base of the helix of the user's ear,
• wherein the nozzle fits inside the outlet and has a rigidity such that the passageway substantially retains a specified shape or volume so that the earphone has an acoustic performance that is not appreciably affected by changes in a user's ear size or geometry.

The earphone of claim 1, wherein:

• the acoustic driver is arranged to move along a first axis;
• the nozzle extending the front chamber towards the user's ear canal along a second axis that is not parallel to the first axis;
• and
• the nozzle of the housing is arranged to fit inside the outlet.