How are Acoustic Stethoscopes different from the Philips Electronic Stethoscope?
With an acoustic stethoscope, sounds are picked up by a diaphragm and transmitted through rubber tubing to the ears. The length of the tubing and bends in the tubing can cause distortion. The sound cannot be amplified, and extraneous sounds cannot be filtered. With an electronic stethoscope, however, sounds are transferred to a microphone behind the diaphragm in the chest piece. The sounds are then amplified and sent through wires to speakers in the eartips. There is no distortion, and the user controls the degree of amplification. Philips Electronic filtering eliminates many of the extraneous sounds created by hand motion and ambient noise.
