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What changes would you make/suggest for headphone design?

post #1 of 18
8/1/01 at 1:52pm
Thread Starter 
Wood, plastic, metal, carbon fibre etc., many different designs out there. What suggestions would you make for headphone design? Either a totally unique design or suggested improvements to current design?

For example, I would re-design the RS-1. The driver cap and the driver housing would be made of carbon fibre, the outer air chamber would be made of a rubber/balsa material and the headband would either be made of leather covered titanium or birch wood. The inside of the air chamber would be lined with a soft felt material to absorb any resonant or residue sound vibrations. The pads would be flat, made with a less dense material but also have a soft felt cover over them which could be cleaned or replaced.

This would be excellent for vocals.

How would you people improve your fave phones?
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post #2 of 18
8/1/01 at 4:05pm
if the drivers in the RS-1 are anything like the drivers in the SR80 (personally I think Grado uses basically identical drivers in every one of their headphones), then the felt pad would make the sound very warm in the low midrange/upper bass.
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post #3 of 18
8/1/01 at 5:03pm
Thread Starter 
The drivers in models SR125 and up have ultra-pure copper in the voice coils. The SR225 and up have a de-stressing formula put on the diaphragm and the drivers are matched to closer tolerances. Under light, if you look at the drivers (through the perforated driver cap), you will see the copper is a different colour ( ex. between the SR80 and the SR225), one is more "reddish".
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post #4 of 18
8/1/01 at 5:56pm
I would personally have the 888s redesigned - so that they could have easily replaceable transducers, and were semi sealed, like that pair of Aiwa earbuds....adding bass, reducing noise so you can hear the highs, and giving the midrange just a little less room to dominate in...

on second thought - i like em just they way the are...
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post #5 of 18
8/1/01 at 6:13pm
Personally, and I'm sure Neruda will agree with me....

I think all headphones should have a little gnome sitting inside it armed with a small, but powerful laser gun. It will shoot your hand if it ever sees you equipped with a butter knife setting it on the headphone.

This way, everyone will have working pairs of headphones at all times!
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post #6 of 18
8/1/01 at 6:14pm
You'd need a pretty darn big gnome for the K1000s, lol....and forget about Stax - and you'd have a troll, not a gnome, for the Orpheus...
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post #7 of 18
8/1/01 at 8:49pm
actually, you'd need a psychologist if you would even consider taking a butterknife to an orpheus!
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post #8 of 18
8/1/01 at 11:13pm
I wouldn't take a butterknife to an Orpheus anyway. High Voltage Anti-Butterknife Transducer inside.
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post #9 of 18
8/2/01 at 12:37am
Here's a new Avatar for you Neruda.

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post #10 of 18
8/2/01 at 12:48am
Thanks for the excellent idea mbriant
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post #11 of 18
8/2/01 at 1:19am
LOL, Funny Stuff!

Back on topic,

I am planning on making my own dynamic headphones within 1 year. The hardest part is finding wire thin enough to wind voice coils (I'm starting to get good at unwinding other voice coils), and after that, I need to make the diaphragm, which shouldn't be too hard, I have a friend with a vaccuum molding machine. Anyway, after I learn/figure out how do make the driver I have no idea what I should be doing with the housing. Basicly I only have wood and metal, maybe some plastic or carbon, available to make the housing. I want to know what I should be aiming for in terms of sound, Grado-like, Senn-like, etc. I think that after I make a few drivers, I should be able to make drivers that can compete with those in other high end phones. I want to know what all of you think about this, and I want everyone to give me ideas that you think would be good, or even if they're not good.

This probably sounds really crazy, dumb, or both, but I really hope that this time next year I will be listening to my home made phones.
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post #12 of 18
8/2/01 at 1:41am
make... your... own .... drivers....

ehm... well, yes why not?!


As I'm writing this I'm holding a headphone driver in my hands which I ripped out of a cheap headset.
It sounds (or better: sounded) terrible, but I certainly have no clue how to build anything like that, even considering the cheap quality.
Of course, I'm no die-hard DIYer...

Good luck, keep us informed about your progress


Bye

Redwoood
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post #13 of 18
8/2/01 at 1:52am
I'm not really a die-hard DIYer, I can hardly build a crystal AM radio on breadboard, but I have an aptitude for things mechanical and I thought that it would be fun, even if I never produce anything that sounds good. But I do know I can make a driver good enough to make sound with ease because I've done it before.
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post #14 of 18
8/2/01 at 1:59am
Also, has anyone ever really looked at a driver from good headphones? If someone looks at the drivers from a pair of Senn HD580s you will realize how simple it really is. A coil, magnet and plastic film. That's it. The difference in sound comes from different materials, the stregnth of the manetic field, weight and shape of the driver, the resonances of the housing, acoustic reflections in the housing, distance of the driver from the wearers ears, and orientation of the driver relative to the ears.

Once I had my sportapro drivers positioned around my head so well, they sounded better than my Grado SR-80s. It is possibe, even if I use others drivers at first, to make a really awesome pair of phones.
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post #15 of 18
8/2/01 at 7:06pm
I think it'd be cool if we saw more bandless designs.

I had an idea for a grado with no headband awhile ago. My idea was to take the clips off the Ksc-35 (never owned a pair, don't know how it would be possible), sand the "blob" down so its flat (the part where "KOSS" is written), glue the clips to the grill underneath the grado pads, slice a hole through a pair of comfys, stick the clip through, and just wear it like you would the Ksc-35s.

If I already had the kosses I'd try it, but I'm not willing to buy a pair on my horribly limited funds just to butcher it. I also don't know how the weight of the grados would go with the ksc clips, since the kosses look damn light.

Anybody wanna try?
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