Headphones are a pair of small loudspeakers which are designed to be held in place close to a user's ears. Headphones have wires which allow them to be connected to a signal source such as an audio amplifier, radio, CD player, or portable media player. They are also known as stereophones or, colloquially, cans. The in-ear versions are known as earphones or earbuds. In the context of telecommunication, the term headset is used to describe a combination of headphone and microphone.

Headphones originated from the earpiece, and were the only way to listen to electrical audio signals before amplifiers were developed. The first truly successful set was developed by Nathaniel Baldwin, who made them by hand in his kitchen and sold them to the United States Navy.

Very sensitive headphones such as those manufactured by Brandes around 1919 were commonly used for early radio work. These early headphones used moving iron drivers, either single ended or balanced armature. The requirement for high sensitivity meant no damping was used, thus the sound quality was crude. They also had very poor comfort compared to modern types, usually having no padding and too often having excessive clamping force to the head. Their impedance varied; headphones used in telegraph and telephone work had an impedance of 75 ohms. Those used with early wireless radio had to be more sensitive and were made with more turns of finer wire; impedance of 1,000 to 2,000 ohms was common, which suited both crystal sets and triode receivers.

Brittany Nicole Waddell (born August 2, 1985), better known by her stage name as Britt Nicole is a Christian pop artist. She is signed to EMI CMG/Sparrow.

Britt Nicole was born on August 2, 1985. Waddell began singing at the age of three in her home church, Truth Temple of (Kannapolis, North Carolina). She, along with her brother and cousin, eventually became involved with the church's daily program on Charlotte TV station WAXN. She was a very gifted dancer, taking ballet, jazz, hip hop, and lyrical. At South Rowan High School, she was a member of the school's advanced chorus group, and had the opportunity to perform with them at Carnegie Hall in New York. Waddell is also an alumna of Duke University's Brightleaf Music Workshop.

Waddell turned down a scholarship from Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee, to pursue a full-time music career. She felt that God was calling her to concentrate on music instead of going to college. In 2004, she signed a management deal with Vertical Entertainment, and then signed a development deal with Word Records. Sparrow Records signed her in 2006, and her first album Say It was released on May 22, 2007. Britt Nicole was the opening act on the Winter Jam Tour with Sanctus Real, Hawk Nelson, Jeremy Camp, Steven Curtis Chapman, and Newsong.

Steve Hiroyuki Aoki (born November 30, 1977) is an American electro house musician, record producer and the founder of Dim Mak Records.

Steve Hiroyuki Aoki was born in Miami and grew up in Newport Beach, California. He graduated from Newport Harbor High School in 1995; he was a star player on the varsity badminton team. He is the third child of Rocky Aoki and Chizuru Kobayashi. His father was a former Japanese Olympic wrestler who also founded the restaurant chain Benihana. He has two older siblings, sister Kana (who is sometimes called by her middle name "Grace"), and brother Kevin (owner of Doraku Sushi restaurant). He also has three half-siblings, all of whom are younger: half-brother Kyle and half-sisters Echo, and Devon, the supermodel and actress. As a child, Steve lived with his grandfather,^{[citation needed]} his mother, and his two older siblings.

Aoki attended the University of California, Santa Barbara and graduated with two B.A.s; one in Women's Studies and the other in Sociology. In college, he produced do-it-yourself records and ran underground concerts out of his Biko room in the Santa Barbara Student Housing Cooperative, which was located in Isla Vista, a section of residential land adjacent to UCSB. As a concert venue, the apartment became known as The Pickle Patch. By his early 20s, Aoki had built his own record label, which he named Dim Mak after his childhood hero, Bruce Lee. He has also been in numerous bands, including This Machine Kills, which released an album on Ebullition Records, Esperanza, and The Fire Next Time.