Cheapest ADC ADSCOPE 657 Electronic Stethoscope, Black

I appreciate the feel of the ADC Electronic Adscope. It was so attractive when I took it out of the case. I found it worked really well in the beginning. Sound seemed adequate and murmurs heard fairly easily. Found a few in patients in whom I had not detected them before. Seemed relatively well balanced except for the battery which, although placed about in the middle of the scope, many times caused the scoped to slip off my neck.

Having lived with it over a year (and no longer using it) I wanted to provide feedback for others looking to buy one.

1. It is not durable. I sent it back for repairs the diaphragm cracked and they fixed it free of charge. Took about 3 weeks.
2. Within 6 months the diaphram was broken again (cracked at the sensor.
3. The sound is not stable. As the batteries wear down, even before it warns you that batteries need to be replaced, it starts to crank the volume so that it is uncomfortable to use. When you replace batteries, fixes the problem.
4. Showed wear fairly quickly - the buttons wore off their arrows indicating volume level within a few months.

This is my second electronic stethoscope. When it broke the second time, I said "That's it" (or some unprintable words to that effect.) My first scope was a Philips and it also did not survive, requiring 2 visits to the shop (and then the graveyard) . I read a review on a Littman that fell apart after 3 years. I honestly feel that none of these scopes are durable enough to take the pounding of a good non-electronic Littman or Sprague-Rappaport (which I am now using again after 4 years with electronic). Much like cell phones, they seem to have a fairly limited lifespan.

I use an Apple Iphone and love it, especially its durability. We need to get Steve Jobs involved in this project and some real world testers, probably medical students that will beat the heck out of these scopes while they are in the testing phase, so they can survive the real world (the scopes not the medical students LOL).Get more detail about ADC ADSCOPE 657 Electronic Stethoscope, Black.