[uncopy87]

Not sure where to post this, but has anyone build their own headphones before?
If so how did it go? Just curious?

My good engineering friend keeps saying stop buying headphones and he will build me a headphone. But he doesn't know what good headphones sound like...

 

[ProtegeManiac]

The most basic and popular ways people have done this is by:
 

1. Rebuilding a Grado. The headband frame and gimbals remain the same along with the drivers, but they replace everything else, starting with wood and metal earcups, softer and exotic leather headbands (maybe with a dye matched to the wood stain used on the earcups). Here's a website of a guy who does all these to Grados, and also Beyers, including adapters to use Beyer earpads on Grados as well as mounting Grado drivers into a Beyer chassis: www.headphile.com

 

2. Mounting drivers into industrial ear muffs.

 

 

I'd say start with a good headphone that can serve as reference, and preferably one that you can easily get drivers for. Grados are popular for this because the drivers for the SR225 and lower are relatively cheap, and actually it's just fun messing with the overall response by modding everything that goes with an SR60 driver. If I had the tools and skills (like CAD, CNC machine, and 3D printer) I'd make an HD800-like chassis with angled driver mounts for the drivers in my HD600.

 

If you want to do this because you think it's going to be cheap, good luck with that. The wood and aluminum cups will cost you a bit of money unless you can access a 3D printer and use plastic. At minimum you're going to have to order Grado drivers (or buy a PX100 or Porta Pro - people have been swapping out SR60 drivers for these), but then the prototyping will take some trial and error even if you can take precise measurements because who knows what the changes will be (or at minimum, if you're actually like them). 

 

[FullCircle]

 

The most basic and popular ways people have done this is by:
 

1. Rebuilding a Grado. The headband frame and gimbals remain the same along with the drivers, but they replace everything else, starting with wood and metal earcups, softer and exotic leather headbands (maybe with a dye matched to the wood stain used on the earcups). Here's a website of a guy who does all these to Grados, and also Beyers, including adapters to use Beyer earpads on Grados as well as mounting Grado drivers into a Beyer chassis: www.headphile.com

 

2. Mounting drivers into industrial ear muffs.

 

 

I'd say start with a good headphone that can serve as reference, and preferably one that you can easily get drivers for. Grados are popular for this because the drivers for the SR225 and lower are relatively cheap, and actually it's just fun messing with the overall response by modding everything that goes with an SR60 driver. If I had the tools and skills (like CAD, CNC machine, and 3D printer) I'd make an HD800-like chassis with angled driver mounts for the drivers in my HD600.

 

If you want to do this because you think it's going to be cheap, good luck with that. The wood and aluminum cups will cost you a bit of money unless you can access a 3D printer and use plastic. At minimum you're going to have to order Grado drivers (or buy a PX100 or Porta Pro - people have been swapping out SR60 drivers for these), but then the prototyping will take some trial and error even if you can take precise measurements because who knows what the changes will be (or at minimum, if you're actually like them). 

 
 
Yes, my thoughts were similar to yours....

 

[jcx]

given materials, tolerances, required manufacturing expertise, voice coil motor cone/ring and suspension surround dynamic drivers diy seems beyond most hobbyists - so repackaging a driver from somewhere else would be the likely course - but with the question of exactly what do you expect to accomplish that the people at the big manufacturer with the expertise couldn't/didn't
 
ElectroStats are an interesting quality/difficulty proposition - some hobbyist built ES may be quite listenable
 
Planar/Orthodynamics may also be more within serious hobbyist ability

 

[Audioholic123]

You should really have started a thread like this in the DIY forum.
 
Here is my DIY build:
http://www.head-fi.org/t/786524/my-converted-takstar-headphones
 
 
Open backed AH-D7000..lol

 
 
 
It's great what you can do if you have the time and knowledge required...