ClieOS's Random DIY Build Thread - [Updated: Oct.1st, 23] - Sony E282 Reproduction Shell Kit Build
Feb 3, 2019 at 3:27 PM Thread Starter Post #1 of 168

ClieOS

IEM Reviewer Extraordinaire
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May 11, 2004
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Location
Mid Johor, Malaysia
From time to time I make / mod cable and build different small audio stuffs for fun. Figure this will be the place where I post the related pictures and project updates.

NOTICE: I take no responsibility for any action and result you take or suffer by following any guide I posted in this thread. Do it at your own risk!


Content
  1. 2.5mm Balanced Cable: Post 1 (below)
  2. OTG cable for iFi's xDSD: Post 3
  3. Etymotic clone build: Post 4
  4. Final clone build: Post 5
  5. Sony MH1C MMCX mod: Post 9
  6. 2.5mm balanced female to 3.5mm single-ended adapter: Post 18
  7. 2.5mm balanced female to 3.5mm balanced adapter: Post 22
  8. AKG prototype earbud DIY: Post 28
  9. Planar magnetic earbud: Post 30
  10. 1MORE H1707 MMCX adapter: Post 45
  11. Koss KSC75 Pro TWS: Post 47
  12. TWS Earbud Mod: Post 70
  13. Planar magnetic earbud DIY V2: Post 74
  14. Mono Aiwa Mod: Post 74
  15. OTG cable for smartphone: Post 81
  16. Stardust Memory Post 83
  17. iFi Go Blu Antenna Swap Post 98
  18. Planar Magnetic Earbud DIY V3 Post 106
  19. Alessandro MS-1 Transducer Magnet Dislodgement Fix Post 144
  20. Sony WF-1000XM4 Battery Replacement Post 144
  21. AIWA HP-V55 reproduction shell Kit Build Post 146
  22. Sony MDR-E282 reproduction shell Kit Build Post 168

Upcoming Project
n/a


-----

ES-KZ.JPG

KZ recently start making some silver plated copper balanced 2.5mm cable for their own IEM that seems to be of fairly good quality, so I decided to use them to make my own short cable with Etymotic mmcx connectors. It is indeed a very good quality cable - seems like every strands of the conductor cores are individually sealed and have to burn them off with high heat in order to get proper connection.

silver.JPG

Always want to make my own pure silver cable - got some 5N silver 4 cores cable recently so I gave it a go - with Connoisseur 2.5mm plug on one end and transparent mmcx connectors on the other. Quite happy with how it cames out.
 
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Feb 3, 2019 at 3:30 PM Post #2 of 168
I guess I'll post my creations once I make some mmcx cables for mmcx buds I'm making.

Nice cables btw, look premium and well built.
 
Feb 3, 2019 at 9:56 PM Post #3 of 168
A recently completed project - building a super small OTG connecting cable for FiiO M6 and iFi xDSD.

I started by using an actual right angled OTG cable, cut off half of it and rewired it with an USB-A female socket. Then the next idea was to find an suitable Type-C DIY connector that supports OTG (*which needs to have certain resistors on certain pins) while switched to a 4 cores ribbon wire in order to further decrease the overall size. The result is well but the plastic housing remains fairly intrusive - so the natural last step is to build another one, but with most of the plastic housing removed / shorten and re-glued back together. This is probably the smallest it will ever get. I can remove the housing all together and instead use soft-rubber mold (i.e. Sugru) to further decrease the size, but I reckon it won't look nearly as neat nor significantly small than it is now.

After-thought: very much want to invest in a small 3D printer in the future. Will definitely make the whore process easier.

10234439.jpg


10234440.jpg


10234443.jpg
 
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Feb 5, 2019 at 11:13 PM Post #4 of 168
My First CNY project: recreating the Etymotic ER4 with a DIY kit I found on Taobao.

ER4C-1.JPG

The DIY kit comes with the main metal housing (silver), the dock (gold) and the mmcx socket (which can be screwed off for easier access). The other required parts that are not part of the kit are the BA drivers themselves (Knowles ED29689 x 2), a couple of Knowless green filter (equal to Eymotic ER4 filter) and some wire (Estron wire in this case).

ER4C-2.JPG

First step is to take the mmcx socket out and soldering in the wire, then put the sockets back into the dock ad soldering the BA driver up. To make sure mmcx socket will not unscrew itself in the future, it might be a good idea to put some sealant / glue to suecure it in place at this stage.

ER4C-3.JPG

Put the BA driver into the right position - making sure the BA is pointing dead center to the main housing's nozzle. Compact the wire so them will not obstruct the housing. Once you are happy with the positioning, it is a good idea to put some glue around the BA driver as well as around the wire to permanently affixed the whole assembly.

ER4C-4.JPG

Put some reusable putty glue (in this case, UHU tac ProPower) around the BA nozzle in order to create an air tight seal between the BA nozzle and the main housing nozzle. Don't do this and you will lose some SPL and a slight change in sound signature. I reckon dense foam can be used as well, though I don't have any at hand at the moment. Attention: make sure the BA nozzle is well clear of putty glue!

ER4C-5.JPG

Seal the dock assembly into the the main housing with some glue. Put in the green filter - it might be a bit loose and want to fell out off the nozzle. My solution is to use a tiny bit low strength glue (*designed to increase join's stiffness on plastic models / action figures) to hold them in place, but the glue is not strong enough that stop me from removing the filter if it needs to be exchanged in the future. This particular cable above is configured for ER4S sound with built-in 100 ohm resistors, plus a balanced 2.5mm plug.

Afterthought: Overall the build is a success - it has the classic ER4S sound signature. Later measurement reveals it has some very minor and totally ignorable frequency mismatch from 20Hz~12kHz, but significant mismatch above 12kHz. After a few more tests, I concluded that the problem is probably due to the BA driver themselves (which is not that uncommon). So the correct thing to so will be to buy more BA driver at the first place and match them up before building - then again, that will turn out to be quite wasteful. I guess this is part of the risk of building your own IEM from a DIY kit. However, I do not actually able to hear any noticeable channel mismatch myself, which kinda in a way fix the problem for me - I guess my hearing isn't as good as it used to be so most of my upper hearing isn't sensitive enough to tell the mismatch apart.


-----


ES100-S.JPG

Built another cable for ES100's balanced output with the leftover parts from previous KZ cable build. This time with a common mmcx connector so I can use this cable with other IEM.
 
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Feb 8, 2019 at 8:25 AM Post #5 of 168
My second and last CNY IEM build with another Taobao build kit, this time is (somewhat) a Final clone. The kit itself comes with 2 pairs of eartips, the main Final look-alike housing, screwed-on mmcx socket, 2 metal filter, 2 BA adapter 'rings' and a couple of thin wires. This particular kit will fit smaller, newer generation BA driver. The BA driver I choose are the Knowles RAB-32063 (RBA-32257 was recommended on Taobao as well). The reason to use this particular BA is because it was suggested in the forum that it could very well be the driver used on the newer Etymotic ER4SR (where 32257 for ER4XR). Early Knowles promotional material said "Knowles series RAB produces a rich, full-range sound in a small physical size. Three sound profiles fulfill a wide range of earphone designs, including hybrids : 32063 with balanced sound, 32257 with warm, precise bass, and 32033 with open vent for custom response tuning."

Fi-01.JPG

One of the first thing to notice is that the kit doesn't have any way to use standard small IEM filter, and the 2 metal disk filter might not have the right impedance I want - but it just so happened that I have quite a few leftover filter from previous project so I will have to experiment to find the right filter for the best possible sound.

Fi-02.JPG

The adapter rings are actually just a little smaller than the housing, so it fits very loosely inside. I have the adapter rings glued to the BA first, then soldered the BA with the adapter to the mmcx socket. The soldered BA with adapter ring can still slide in and out the main body easily. Note that the mmcx socket doesn't take high heat very well. You might destroy the socket if you stick your soldering iron there for too long.

Fi-03.JPG

There are two ways to go about this: you can either affix the adapter ring with the BA in place first, then screw the mmcx socket on, or you can screw the mmcx socket in first, then glue the adapter ring with BA in the housing. I pick the first way because it is easier to adjust the adapter position that way while I was waiting for the super glue to dry out. The second way will have much less margin for error.

Fi-04.JPG

If you decided to pick the same way I did, take note that it will be a good idea to twist the socket counterclockwise (4~5 times) before screwing it in, that way when the socket is screwed in (which is clockwise), the cable will unwind itself. internally. You can see on the above picture that the adapter ring on the main body as well as the BA nozzle on the center - note that when you position the ring, it should sit just a tiny bit below the opening so you have the right spacing left for the filter.

Fi-05.JPG

The finished product. This particular cable is the first balanced cable I made for my ER4SR a long time ago, but it kind of gives the right look with the Final clone housing.

Afterthought: Another good build as the kit is simple on its design and the BA I got have no mismatch this time. However, the first thing I notice is that this particular BA (RAB-32063) is most likely not the same BA used on ER4SR. The telltale sign is that the spec on the datasheet doesn't quite match up with ER4SR. The actual listening when the IEM is finished reaffirmed my suspicion - this particular IEM is a bit on the warm and smooth side, and adding more acoustic impedance (thicker filter) only makes it warmer sounding. The only way to make the IEM more neutral is to increase the (electrical) impedance by using resistor adapter. However, the increase of treble comes at a cost of bass roll off, which the IEM does not have a lot to begin with. Even after all the adjustment, the measured FR curve still look nothing like the ER4SR - so my conclusion is that the ER4SR uses a different driver, and quite possibly a custom tuned one. However, don't get me wrong about this particular BA not sounding like classic Ety as a completely bad thing - it isn't. In fact, the finished IEM actually is quite good sounding. I would think most people, except for basshead, will probably enjoy this IEM as it is. The BA driver itself actually sounds quite good even without any filter, but I ended up using a metal mesh (which is the 2nd least dense / lowest acoustic impedance of all the filter I have) to give it a slightly better lower end, then switch to a large tri-flange .to decrease the warmness / thickness of the overall presentation. On hindsight, I can see why RBA-32257 is recommended to be used with this particular kit as it will give it a more satisfying bass response. But for a Ety-head like myself, I don't mind the leaner bass at all.
 
Feb 23, 2019 at 1:23 AM Post #6 of 168
My First CNY project: recreating the Etymotic ER4 with a DIY kit I found on Taobao.


The DIY kit comes with the main metal housing (silver), the dock (gold) and the mmcx socket (which can be screwed off for easier access). The other required parts that are not part of the kit are the BA drivers themselves (Knowles ED29689 x 2), a couple of Knowless green filter (equal to Eymotic ER4 filter) and some wire (Estron wire in this case).


First step is to take the mmcx socket out and soldering in the wire, then put the sockets back into the dock ad soldering the BA driver up. To make sure mmcx socket will not unscrew itself in the future, it might be a good idea to put some sealant / glue to suecure it in place at this stage.


Put the BA driver into the right position - making sure the BA is pointing dead center to the main housing's nozzle. Compact the wire so them will not obstruct the housing. Once you are happy with the positioning, it is a good idea to put some glue around the BA driver as well as around the wire to permanently affixed the whole assembly.


Put some reusable putty glue (in this case, UHU tac ProPower) around the BA nozzle in order to create an air tight seal between the BA nozzle and the main housing nozzle. Don't do this and you will lose some SPL and a slight change in sound signature. I reckon dense foam can be used as well, though I don't have any at hand at the moment. Attention: make sure the BA nozzle is well clear of putty glue!


Seal the dock assembly into the the main housing with some glue. Put in the green filter - it might be a bit loose and want to fell out off the nozzle. My solution is to use a tiny bit low strength glue (*designed to increase join's stiffness on plastic models / action figures) to hold them in place, but the glue is not strong enough that stop me from removing the filter if it needs to be exchanged in the future. This particular cable above is configured for ER4S sound with built-in 100 ohm resistors, plus a balanced 2.5mm plug.

Afterthought: Overall the build is a success - it has the classic ER4S sound signature. Later measurement reveals it has some very minor and totally ignorable frequency mismatch from 20Hz~12kHz, but significant mismatch above 12kHz. After a few more tests, I concluded that the problem is probably due to the BA driver themselves (which is not that uncommon). So the correct thing to so will be to buy more BA driver at the first place and match them up before building - then again, that will turn out to be quite wasteful. I guess this is part of the risk of building your own IEM from a DIY kit. However, I do not actually able to hear any noticeable channel mismatch myself, which kinda in a way fix the problem for me - I guess my hearing isn't as good as it used to be so most of my upper hearing isn't sensitive enough to tell the mismatch apart.


-----



Built another cable for ES100's balanced output with the leftover parts from previous KZ cable build. This time with a common mmcx connector so I can use this cable with other IEM.
Well you missed a 20ohm resistor.

ED29689 is a low impedance driver on DCR(3.75ohms) and source voltage can effect high frequency imbalance.

Etymotic measures at 23.75ohm DCR
So you should have added a 20ohm resistor in series to fix treble imbalance

RAB driver is slightly normal impedance and doesn't have wild fluctuations like ED

Etymotic ER4SR uses proprietary Knowles ED32885 which is based on ED29689 but have linear impedance, higher resistance, great air loading and very low distortion compared to old ety er4s

But, if you are happy with your build, then there is no problem. Self creations sounds better because of hardworking and effort
 
Feb 23, 2019 at 2:40 AM Post #7 of 168
Well you missed a 20ohm resistor.

Well, you missed the part where I mentioned I am using a cable with built-in 100 ohm resistor to give it a 4S configuration. I don't like the 20 ohm 4P configuration nearly as much, and treble imbalance can't be fixed by inline resistors.
 
Feb 23, 2019 at 3:40 AM Post #8 of 168
Well, you missed the part where I mentioned I am using a cable with built-in 100 ohm resistor to give it a 4S configuration. I don't like the 20 ohm 4P configuration nearly as much, and treble imbalance can't be fixed by inline resistors.
Ohhh sorry my wrong, I didn't see that

Treble imbalance becomes less apparent to ears due to electrical damping
They remain there in measurements. Just less annoying due to low dB
I know ety took hand matched drivers

Still, a very good project
 
Feb 23, 2019 at 4:27 PM Post #9 of 168
Here is another quick project - reterminating the Sony MH1C with MMCX socket. This is of course nothing new as it has been somewhat done in the forum by other member before, but I thought I'll approach this with a different angle, by integrating the MMCX socket directly into the IEM strain relief instead of just another mod to the cable.

To get thing started, if you haven't read about @luisdent MH1C's recabling guide, you should, as most of what I've done here on the beginning is very similar to his: HERE.

What tools you need if you follow my method:
1) Small needle nose pier
2) small flat head wire cutter
3) Heat gun
4) Glue (more on that)
5) This wires (Estron IEM cable for me)
6) MMCX socket

MH1-01.jpg

Disassembling the MH1C follows the same basic procedure as described on Luis' guide with one one exception: I use my heat gun (the blue one in the picture) to heat only the metal housing while holding it on its strain relief (*try avoiding any direct heat to the strain relief as much as you can). Check periodically by using the needle nose pier - grab it on the IEM nozzle with the pier (*caution: the metal housing will be HOT) and hold on to the strain relief with you figures, twist the housing slightly until you feel you can move it around. That means the glue inside has been loosen by the heat. If you can't move it, then continue to heat up the metal housing by the heat gun till you can twist the housing. Once the glue is loosen, separating the metal housing from the strain relief is pretty much the same as Luis' guide, but using the flat head wire cutter to insert into the groove of the housing and hold it secure in place, then pull the metal housing out by the needle nose pier. Note that you want to do this quickly so the metal housing won't cool off too much, which will make the internal glue sticky again.

MH1-02.jpg

Here is how it looks where the IEM is taken apart. Note that there are mesh filter right on the driver itself (or on the inside of the metal housing if it didn't come out with the driver). The driver is actually glued to the front with the mesh filter. Inside the nozzle is the foam damper, which is a common practice for Sony's IEM instead of using paper / fabric filter. Depend on which version of MH1 you have, there might be white paper like fabric filter or mesh filter on the opening of the nozzle as well.

MH1-03.jpg

Here is what I am going to do that is kinda different from everyone else - by sticking the MMCX socket directly into the strain relief.

MH1-04.jpg

Before we actually put the MMCX socket inm we need to solder in some wires. I am using Estron wires here.

MH1-05.jpg

To make sure the MMCX socket won't come out easily, I put some glue on the inside of the strain relief. This particular glue is the Chinese made E8000 that is commonly used for gluing IEM and earbuds housing together. It has decent holding power but more importantly it remains flexible after cured. The downside is that it will take a few hours for the E8000 to cure. If you can't or don't want to use this glue, UHU might work as well. You don't want to using super glue here as it will get harden and brittle when it is cured.

MH1-06.jpg

Have the driver soldered in and tested for sound.

MH1-07.jpg

Glue the driver back to the metal housing first, then glue the strain relief back. Make sure you don't block the air vent on the strain relief. DONE.

Afterthought: This particular mod is aimed for maximum simplicity. Gluing the MMCX socket into the strain relief by logic is not nearly as durable and strong as putting the MMCX socket on the cable itself or completely replacing the cable all together. It is however visually more impressive. The downside of this mod is that you must use it with care, especially if you have tight fitting MMCX plug. If you are not careful enough, you might end up ripping the socket out of the strain relief when removing the plug. But if you are careful enough, it shouldn't be too much of an issue, especially if you don't change cable frequently.
 
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Feb 23, 2019 at 9:42 PM Post #10 of 168
Here is another quick project - reterminating the Sony MH1C with MMCX socket. This is of course nothing new as it has been somewhat done in the forum by other member before, but I thought I'll approach this with a different angle, by integrating the MMCX socket directly into the IEM strain relief instead of just another mod to the cable.

To get thing started, if you haven't read about @luisdent MH1C's recabling guide, you should, as most of what I've done here on the beginning is very similar to his: HERE.

What tools you need if you follow my method:
1) Small needle nose pier
2) small flat head wire cutter
3) Head gun
4) Glue (more on that)
5) This wires (Estron IEM cable for me)
6) MMCX socket

MH1-01.jpg

Disassembling the MH1C follows the same basic procedure as described on Luis' guide with one one exception: I use my heat gun (the blue one in the picture) to heat only the metal housing while holding it on its strain relief (*try avoiding any direct heat to the strain relief as much as you can). Check periodically by using the needle nose pier - grab it on the IEM nozzle with the pier (*caution: the metal housing will be HOT) and hold on to the strain relief with you figures, twist the housing slightly until you feel you can move it around. That means the glue inside has been loosen by the heat. If you can't move it, then continue to heat up the metal housing by the heat gun till you can twist the housing. Once the glue is loosen, separating the metal housing from the strain relief is pretty much the same as Luis' guide, but using the flat head wire cutter to insert into the groove of the housing and hold it secure in place, then pull the metal housing out by the needle nose pier. Note that you want to do this quickly so the metal housing won't cool off too much, which will make the internal glue sticky again.

MH1-02.jpg

Here is how it looks where the IEM is taken apart. Note that there are mesh filter right on the driver itself (or on the inside of the metal housing if it didn't come out with the driver). The driver is actually glued to the front with the mesh filter. Inside the nozzle is the foam damper, which is a common practice for Sony's IEM instead of using paper / fabric filter. Depend on which version of MH1 you have, there might be white paper like fabric filter or mesh filter on the opening of the nozzle as well.

MH1-03.jpg

Here is what I am going to do that is kinda different from everyone else - by sticking the MMCX socket directly into the strain relief.

MH1-04.jpg

Before we actually put the MMCX socket inm we need to solder in some wires. I am using Estron wires here.

MH1-05.jpg

To make sure the MMCX socket won't come out easily, I put some glue on the inside of the strain relief. This particular glue is the Chinese made E8000 that is commonly used for gluing IEM and earbuds housing together. It has decent holding power but more importantly it remains flexible after cured. The downside is that it will take a few hours for the E8000 to cure. You don't want to using super glue here as it will get harden and brittle when it is cured.

MH1-06.jpg

Have the driver soldered in and tested for sound.

MH1-07.jpg

Glue the driver back to the metal housing first, then glue the strain relief back. Make sure you don't block the air vent on the strain relief. DONE.

Afterthought: This particular mod is aimed for maximum simplicity. Gluing the MMCX socket into the strain relief by logic is not nearly as durable and strong as putting the MMCX socket on the cable itself and completely replacing the cable all together. It is however visually more impressive. The downside of this mod is that you must use it with care, especially if you have tight fitting MMCX plug. If you are not careful enough, you might end up ripping the socket out of the strain relief when removing the plug. But if you are careful enough, it shouldn't be too much of an issue, especially if you don't change cable frequently.

Awesome.
 
Feb 26, 2019 at 4:54 PM Post #11 of 168
Put the BA driver into the right position - making sure the BA is pointing dead center to the main housing's nozzle. Compact the wire so them will not obstruct the housing. Once you are happy with the positioning, it is a good idea to put some glue around the BA driver as well as around the wire to permanently affixed the whole assembly.

Congrats, really nice job!

I just remembered I made a simpler version using RAB-32257 last year, using this project:
https://www.poyotex.com/post/146190057398
https://make.dmm.com/item/523966/ (really friendly design)

But kind of off-topic, how does the black 3-flange compares to the transparent ones from Ety? Is there a huge difference? I need to buy new sets and they're considerable cheaper considering the shipping from the USA compared to China.
 
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Feb 26, 2019 at 8:06 PM Post #12 of 168
But kind of off-topic, how does the black 3-flange compares to the transparent ones from Ety? Is there a huge difference? I need to buy new sets and they're considerable cheaper considering the shipping from the USA compared to China.

The particular pair of black tri-flange are coming from the Hifiman RE800's accessories kit, but it is the common type found on many places. The physical different is mainly on the internal opening, where these are larger than the actual Ety's (or Shure's) tri-flange. Typical Ety's tri-flange has a ~1.6mm bore diameter, while these have a ~3mm bore diameter. As a result, these black tri-flange tend to sound slightly less focus / more open than Ety's. However, the overall signature is still there. If you are not the kind that has to stick to the exact same sound, I'll say the black tri-flange is a decent alternative.
 
Mar 2, 2019 at 7:26 AM Post #14 of 168
@ClieOS can you tell the tube lenght from nozzle/spout of BA to the damper in ETY mod

That particular metal housing has the exact size as the actual ER4 series, so I'll say about 6mm, give or take 0.5mm.
 
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Mar 2, 2019 at 7:39 AM Post #15 of 168
That particular metal housing has the exact size as the actual ER4 series, so I'll say about 6mm, give or take 0.5mm.
i was going to make quad ED29689 iem
where the pair of ED are connected in series and then the "series'd" driver are parallel
and two driver will be sharing the same tubing(6mm).

and a 50ohms added resistance Vishay MELF
 

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