Limited movement ear piece for stethoscopes and other headpieces

A head piece including at least one ear piece assembly, each said ear piece

• assembly including:
• an ear tip;
• a bearing mounted to the ear tip;
• a housing body having a longitudinal axis and a proximal end portion, wherein the proximal end portion defines a tubular cavity, a distal portion of the ear tip and at least a portion of the bearing are positioned within the tubular cavity such that the ear tip has freedom to rotate about the longitudinal axis relative to the housing body and to undergo limited off axis angular movement relative to said housing body, and the proximal end portion of the housing body is configured to limit off axis angular movement of the ear tip relative to said housing body but to allow the limited off axis angular movement of the ear tip relative to said housing body.

An ear tip, including:

• a body made of soft, deformable material, and having a distal opening configured to receive a ball joint, said ball joint having a hole for sound propagation, wherein the body also has:
• a thin walled, generally partially egg shaped ear tip proximal end configured to deform into sealing engagement with a user's ear canal, said proximal end defining a proximal outer opening;
• a partial spherical inner surface configured to grip the ball joint after said ball joint has been inserted through the distal opening into engagement with said partial spherical inner surface;
• and
• an inner proximal opening, between the partial spherical inner surface and the proximal end, whose function is sound propagation.

An ear tip, including:

• a body made of soft, deformable material, and having a distal opening configured to receive a ball joint, said ball joint having a hole for sound propagation, wherein the body also has:
• a generally cylindrical opening of such dimension so as to leave a relatively thin wall on a distal approximate half of the body, wherein the distal opening is of substantially lesser diameter than is said cylindrical opening;
• an inner proximal opening whose function is sound propagation;
• and
• a thin walled, generally partially egg shaped proximal end configured to deform into sealing engagement with a user's ear canal, and defining an outer proximal opening.