[barbadread]

How did your project turn out? Did you find what you needed? I'm trying to source some capsules too, for similar reasons.
 
Tried looking up the Jameco capsule that you thought looked good but it's no longer available.
 
Did you try listening to the one from lunashops? The one with some sort of fiber cover on the diaphragm?
 
ilikepie116, are those perchance the 15 dollar ones from lunashops?

 

[paranormative]

Hey,
 
I ended up cannibalizing an existing pair of Grado SR-60s for their drivers. If I could do it all over again I think I would have gone for the drivers from a pair of Fostex T50RP instead. They have a reputation for being good for mod projects.
 
It was nice to get a proof of concept built, but I still wish I could have found a decent supplier for bulk ordering drivers.
 
I had aspired to kickstart my headphone idea, but without consistent access to bulk components this remains a fantasy.
 
It's been suggested to me if I was prepared to purchase in bulk, sometimes large batches of various electronic components are sold on http://www.alibaba.com/. Trouble with this approach is I cannot order a sample, I have to buy a large quantity site unseen.
 
Lemme know if you discover a better solution.

 

[barbadread]

Will do!
 
Kickstarting wouldn't be an option for me but it would be nice to be sure that I'm on the right side of the law... Would you mind sharing a little bit more on what you had in mind doing with yours?
 
I'm looking into making my own capsules now actually. More of a long term project I think, and not reproducible on large scale. Trying to work out how to best make a small orthodynamic speaker capsule.
 
Best

 

[HawaiiR]

Hey so did you ever get around to trying the drivers from the fostex headphones?
I'm trying to repair a set of Meze 88 headphones, which were crap to begin with, but have had both drivers fail on me. Trying to find a way to do the same thing you are and with a decent set of speakers. Curious to try lunashops, but they don't have 50mm drivers at 32 Ohms.
 
Also considering buying a pair of Samson SR850's and stripping those to use the drivers on the Meze.
 
Curious how your project turned out as well, @barbadread

 

[HawaiiR]

Just in case anyone is interested, I ended up going with these 50mm drivers from Lunashops for my project with the Meze 88 headphones that I had. I'll post up a few pics in a bit.
 

Here's a link to the driver I bought. 
http://www.lunashops.com/goods.php?id=4868
 
Not, bad - a little on the bright side and bass is a tad thin, but that might have something to do with the enclosure (Meze 88 headphones). 
WAY better than what came with the Meze 88's.
 
A few thoughts on doing business with the Lunashops people. They're extremely rude when trying to figure out a problem with your shipping. In my case, they didn't write my address down correctly so it made it out to Honolulu, then got shipped back to LA and then somehow made it back to Honolulu (thankfully) where I was able to located it with the help of the post office. Lunashops was of zero help through this process, insisting that I gave them the wrong address (my verified paypal address), and basically insinuating that they weren't going to mail the drivers back to me if it had gone back to Hong Kong (which is what I was worried about once it went back to LA). Just be wary of what you could potentially get yourself into with them if you order through them and things go awry. Lunashops is definitely not on your side.

In any case, the drivers work ok. Not thrilled at the sound signature though. Anyone know of ways to temper down the highs or thicken the bass just a bit, so the sound is more balanced?

 

[Punnisher]

You can adjust the sound with a few different tweaks. To reduce treble, use a thin foam layer between the headphone and your ear. Many manufacturers do this as a way to tune the sound of the driver. AKG, Beyerdynamic, Shure, etc. all do this.
 
Varying the thickness and type of foam will yield different results. The foam disk that comes with the current AKG K240 works really well at taming the treble but not making things muddy or affecting the midrange too much.

 

[HawaiiR]

Thanks!
Any suggestions on where to purchase and the thickness and type of foam? Come to think of it, I need to replace the foam on my Sennheiser's, too, so if anyone has any idea of where to purchase this in the US, that would be great. I supposed I could try lunashops again, but the 1 month shipping time isn't ideal.

Any suggestions on how to beef up the bass a bit? I'm not looking for anything boomy, just that the bass is really thin placed in these particular enclosures.

 

[Punnisher]

What kind of pads are you using? In general, pleather or leather pads will increase bass while velour or cloth pads will reduce it. This isn't universal, but it's true for most headphones. Once you tame the highs by using a foam pad, the bass notes will stand out more as well. You're basically making a low-pass acoustical filter.
 
See if you can find the foam disc for the AKG K240 Studio (current version). It's just a disc that gets placed underneath the pads. It's the best one I've found so far.

 

[HawaiiR]

  What kind of pads are you using? In general, pleather or leather pads will increase bass while velour or cloth pads will reduce it. This isn't universal, but it's true for most headphones. Once you tame the highs by using a foam pad, the bass notes will stand out more as well. You're basically making a low-pass acoustical filter.
 
See if you can find the foam disc for the AKG K240 Studio (current version). It's just a disc that gets placed underneath the pads. It's the best one I've found so far.

 
This is very helpful. The original pads are actually falling apart, so I was thinking to replace them with velour ones, but after reading this, I'll probably stick to pleather/leather. Hoping Meze responds to me sooner than later. 
 
Found a few places to get the foam discs from as well. Who would have thought that changing my search from foam "pad" to "disc" would get me exactly what I was looking for? Double thanks for that!
 
Oh, and I found a spot for really cheap ear cushions, in case anyone was looking:
http://www.headsetpartsunlimited.com/index.php

 

[HawaiiR]

@Punnisher   - Bringing this convo back out of PM just in case we're able to provide some info to some others.

So I measured out the earpads that I currently have, and they're unfortunately not the same dimensions as your AKG's, but I did find some options online. However, the one thing I noticed in my search is that most of the pads I found have a much wider inner (the aperture) diameter. The dimensions for my current earpads are: 90mm outer front diameter, 35 mm inner front diameter, and 75mm inner back diameter (the part that wraps around headphone).
 
What I've found online, is something along the lines of this, which has a 60mm inner front diameter (the opening)
http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTAyNFgxMDI0/z/DkoAAOSwPhdVPvn4/$_57.JPG
 
Basically, what I'm worried about is that most of the earpads I'm finding online have a wider inner front diameter than the earpads I currently own. How will this wider aperture affect the sound? Also, how does a thicker/thinner pleather or leather cushion affect the sound?

 

 

[Punnisher]

@HawaiiR
 
I'll measure some brand new pads when I get home just to verify the dimensions, but I think you're right. Those headphones are slightly smaller than my AKGs. Check out the pads here.
 
Also check out this thread dedicated to pads.
 
I have sets of smaller pads for the Shure SRH550 and SRH750 that may work for you. I'll measure them when I get home. With these, you'll need the foam inserts as well since they have a very thin backing that won't tame the treble.
 
As for the openings, in my experience, the larger the better. If the opening is too small, you start to constrict the sound which changes frequency response and decreases soundstage. Too large, and the small headphone drivers have trouble filling the large space with enough volume.Though I don't have as much experience with on-the-ear headphones as I do with over-the-ear.

 

[HawaiiR]

@Punnisher
 
Thanks for the link. At a quick glance, the HPAEC550 pads look exactly like the ones on my Meze 88's. Would be great to get those dimensions from you if/when you get a chance. These might do the trick.
 
I'm ordering the disc pads separately as well. 

 

[parfaitelumiere]

Really interesting idea, I wanted to design a complete headphone in the past, one "high tech" materials, 100% matching my head, as light as possible, and one with "natural" materials, like coconut for the cans.
Of course, same supra aural closed headphones too.

 

[cdsa35000]

...
Any suggestions on how to beef up the bass a bit? I'm not looking for anything boomy, just that the bass is really thin placed in these particular enclosures.

You'll need puncture a bass-port hole in the felt ring, that way bass can be enhanced by using the bigger earcup chamber space through more bass "air" pressure.

Many hp's use this:
http://www.head-fi.org/t/202122/lightbox/position/327

 

[HawaiiR]

Nice. I read a bit about this somewhere. 
Think I'll want to chat with some head-fiers about how many holes I should put in. Or maybe this is a trial and error thing, with hopefully not too many errors on my end.