Anyone in the medical field.. fill me in on stethoscopes, please?

I understand that Littman is the most popular brand. But why? What makes a good stethoscope good? And what about those crystal stethoscopes? Those look nice.. but is it all cosmetic, or do thay have good quality? Okay, what I really want is a nice stethoscope that I can maybe personalize and that sounds good.. but is not ridiculously expensive.

Interestingly enough, all good stethoscopes conduct sound. Sometimes the cheaper ones conduct better than the more expensive stethoscopes. Stethoscopes made in Japan are durable, reliable, compact and lightweight.

Littman's are popular because of the huge choice of design and color, plus it has replacement parts easily available.

A good stethoscope should be durable, easy to clean and comfortable. Before you purchase a stethoscope, try it first on yourself. Get the one that you feel meets your needs the most.

There are variety of brands that kind of classify into three categories.

The cheap, The expensive, and the Specialty.

The cheap go for about 12-24 dollars and for basic things like blood pressures are adequate.

The expensive like Littiman Cardiology II are very nice, and are used by paramedics and doctors who need more specific lung sounds, or pediatric blood pressures, or whatever...even bowel sounds. Probably the most coomon serious purchace.

The specialty stethscopes like electronic one work well, but batteries are an issue...but can offer cool features like replayable recordings. Most wouldnt need this feature.