Kugellager
New Head-Fier
So here is my first attempt at a DIY over-ear and open back headphone. I started with this empty ice cream container to make the cups. The headband and the 3 drivers per side were scavenged from other headphones/earbuds. The covering on the headband is faux suede from a pair of old boots of my daughters. The screening is cut from a small trash can. The earpads are memory-foam pads I found on AliExpress. I am using 40 mm, 30 mm and scavenged earbud for the drivers. I am in the process of making a DIY cable but am currently using a braided TRRS New Fantasia cable I bought for my Sennheiser HD 598 cs cans.
I am powering this setup using the balanced output from my FiiO Q1 Mark II. The jack on the left ear cup is a 2.5 mm TRRS jack from Markertek. I have it wired the same as the Senn 598 jack so my cable is interchangeable.
My reasoning for doing a multi-driver headphone was because I like the bass and mids of the Senn's but the treble (cymbals/acoustic guitar/heavy metal music etc) lacked the detail/sparkle that it had in my crappy RP-HTX7 cans. I also had all these components just sitting around and wanted to see what I could do.
The 40 mm driver delivered good bass in their original headphones so I utilized them as the bass driver. I opened three holes in the felt on the back of the drivers as other driver modders have done to improve bass. I then placed it near the rear of the ear cup with the idea that it would sit closest to the cartilage near the rear of the ear and conduct the bass tones into to skull to better "feel" it. The 30 mm driver is toward the front of the cups with the idea that the ear would guide the mids as they normally would. Lastly, I positioned the earbud driver, as best as I could, in line with my ear canal to provide the treble and hopefully more detail I was searching for. Lastly, I played around with the opening size on the outer cover, testing them out as closed, partially open and wide open as in my final configuration. The bass and soundstage were significantly better with the widest opening.
To my surprise, it has worked reasonably well. These DIY cans have a little less bass than the Senn's but the treble detail I was looking for. The drivers are cheap cast-offs, so I'm not sure of the distortion levels, but to my inexperienced ears, they don't sound half bad.
More later...
DIY Headphone Gallery
John
];')
I am powering this setup using the balanced output from my FiiO Q1 Mark II. The jack on the left ear cup is a 2.5 mm TRRS jack from Markertek. I have it wired the same as the Senn 598 jack so my cable is interchangeable.
My reasoning for doing a multi-driver headphone was because I like the bass and mids of the Senn's but the treble (cymbals/acoustic guitar/heavy metal music etc) lacked the detail/sparkle that it had in my crappy RP-HTX7 cans. I also had all these components just sitting around and wanted to see what I could do.
The 40 mm driver delivered good bass in their original headphones so I utilized them as the bass driver. I opened three holes in the felt on the back of the drivers as other driver modders have done to improve bass. I then placed it near the rear of the ear cup with the idea that it would sit closest to the cartilage near the rear of the ear and conduct the bass tones into to skull to better "feel" it. The 30 mm driver is toward the front of the cups with the idea that the ear would guide the mids as they normally would. Lastly, I positioned the earbud driver, as best as I could, in line with my ear canal to provide the treble and hopefully more detail I was searching for. Lastly, I played around with the opening size on the outer cover, testing them out as closed, partially open and wide open as in my final configuration. The bass and soundstage were significantly better with the widest opening.
To my surprise, it has worked reasonably well. These DIY cans have a little less bass than the Senn's but the treble detail I was looking for. The drivers are cheap cast-offs, so I'm not sure of the distortion levels, but to my inexperienced ears, they don't sound half bad.
More later...
DIY Headphone Gallery
John
];')
Last edited: