Making new cans from T50rp a plausible first time project?

Today I stumbled upon the T50rp and a series of popular mods for them. I thought that would be a easy way to get into DIY audio because of the cheap parts cost, modification simplicity, and because it appears to be well documented. Most of the mods are pretty simple ones, but I thought I would take it a step further.

My high school offers a program which gives select students the opportunity to take on long term projects with a faculty adviser. The adviser either helps students learn the necessary skills to complete the project, or sets them up with a professional/teacher that can. The school also provides the necessary funding and resources for the project.

Anyway, my proposal is using the T50rp drivers to construct an entirely new pair of headphones similar to Smeggy's "Thunderpants" My question is; would this be plausible as a first time DIY project? This is a rough plan, but it would go something like this:

1. Toy with a pair of T50rp's and study the effects of adding/subtracting materials following guides that can be found on head-fi

2. Design a rigid structure for said headphones to house the T50rp drivers, this step would likely include both free hand sketches and drawings using Autodesk software such as Inventor and Autocad (which I already have the skills for).

3. Following the design, I would construct the cups from wood along with all other solid components. I have access to a complete wood shop, as well as a CNC machine for more precisely matched pieces. This I don't have much experience in, but I would propose this plan to a teacher who is knowledgeable.

4. Repeat step #1 with the newly constructed cups until I'm satisfied with the way they sound.

Again, would this be possible? My goal is not to make something identical to or as good as the Thunderpants, but simply to learn and to have a refined product of higher value than the sum of its parts. Thanks in advance.

Quote:

Originally Posted by splaz 

 

One thing that concerns me is the trial and error approach to an end result.

 

Seems like you may be better off trying to find a way to do some calculations first and then use trial and error when you're 90% there to see if any small changes make a conceivable difference.

 

Such a thing is way beyond my knowledge, but I guess an example would be that I could go out and build a speaker box, whack in some drivers and not done any calculations and it could probably sound half decent. I'd be far more likely to succeed though If i stuck to some general rules of thumb or closely followed a known design, even better to build on a well proven design or at least one that has been well thought out before even touching the wood working tools.

 

Hope that analogy makes some sense.

Thanks and yes this makes sense. I wasn't very clear but the idea would be to apply what I learn from the first step as a starting point for tuning the final product. 

However, some of the problems are 

A. How do you determine what will be a suitable enclosure before making one?

B. Obviously the new cups would differ acoustically from the plastic T50 enclosure, but how would I know that the same changes to the original would work in the new one? 

The answer to B I think is that although the cups are very different, using the same materials would produce similar effects. That would still require a little trial and error though.

I think your right about the calculations part, and the question is; Is it possible for me to determine prior to making the cups what would work and what wouldn't? I suppose I could make multiple models and test them all, but that would make each stage of the project much more difficult.

Maybe is was wrong to start a thread on this. It's probably best I send Smeggy a PM or email to see if he can provide some insight.

Quote:

Originally Posted by splaz 

That I'm not so sure... there is a wealth of knowledge in speakers... not so much DIY headphones.

 

I mean don't get me wrong, I think regardless trial and error will probably teach you a lot. I'd just be prepared for a lot of time spend for fairly average results and that finally nailing it might be something just out of reach.

 

I think it could be easier to base any new housing loosely on the original and go from there.

 

Any experimentation though would ideally be measured so there is actual results on what the changes are affecting.

This project would be 6+ months of planned work. In the case this project does get approved, I would also be granted class time in shop and/or advanced design. So time is not something I'm too worried about. Plus, the first portion of this project would include something I already spend much of my free time doing; lurking on head-fi!

I was thinking about basing the new cups on the original so that there might be a little less trial and error on the last step. Obviously headphones consist of more than drivers and housing, there must be solid interior parts to firmly grasp the driver and to regulate airflow somehow. I remember doing a simple tape mod on the ATH-M50s, underneath the cushion was a plastic piece with a series of holes. For whatever reason, covering a few of the outer holes reduced the bass quantity, and opened up the mids a tad. Designing this piece could prove to be difficult because ideally I would want it to be easy to mod.

Thanks for the replies.