One of the biggest problem facing my previous two planar magnetic driver earbuds build is the selection of suitable housing. The fact the planar speaker is much thicker means regular housing either doesn't fit or sounds less-than-optimum if it fits. This time around however, I think finally find a winning combination with the new generation of 14.2mm planar magnetic speaker and an old school reversed mounted earbud made by Cresyn a long time ago.
Tools and parts needed:
1) 14.2mm 2nd gen planar magnetic transducer x 2
2) Cresyn reversed mounted earbud x 1
3) IEM internal wires / Linum IEM wires x 2
4) 3.3mm MMCX socket x 2
5) Acoustic dampening papers
6) Some good quality earbud foam pad
6) Rotary tool with sanding bit
7) Soldering iron and supply
8) UV glue and superglue
The planar driver is the newer generation of 14.2mm transducer that has a better build quality than the first gen I have used in the past two build. It comes in two version: black and transparent body. As far as I can tell, black version comes out first and it was used on several Chinese IEM. The transparent one comes later and believed to be used on Campfire Supermoon. As far as I can tell, both version should be fairly equal in SQ if not near identical (* will need to measured to confirm). The major difference is the black version will have a white dot marking on the flex PCB to indicates positive terminal but the transparent will not have any marking at all. Just for your reference, I marked out the positive terminal on the transparent version in the picture below - it is the side of the larger contact pad under the housing. Note that it can be on different side on the two speaker or it can be on the same side. You must check to be sure. They can be found on Aliexpress and Taobao. I got mine from Taobao for about US$60 minus shipping.
The old school earbuds with the reversed mounted driver is OEMed by Cresyn of S.Korea. There are several versions over time, but this one I used is the most common one to be found. You can find it on Aliexpress and Taobao as well. I got mine for US$6 a pair. I'll suggest you get at least two pairs as they are a bit fragile.
Two items that are specific to the build are the 3.3mm MMCX socket and dampening papers. The MMCX socket can be found on this Taobao store, while dampening paper is from this Taobao store. The 'stem' on the housing is not particularly big and thus most MMCX will be either twoo big or too small to fit securely. I found that the 3.3mm MMCX socket is by far the best choice. Same goes for the dampening papers - you can try other alternative, but I find the one I recommend works out really well.
The Cresyn earbuds' backplate can be easily pop out by prying with a shape tool (i.e. razor blade) carefully. It is press-fitted. The original transducer then can be removed, along with the wiring and strain relief. Next you will find there is thin sheet of foam on the inside that cover 4 vent holes on the housing. It will very likely fragile and going to crumble by any light touch so it should be removed as cleanly as possible. Underneath the thin foam sheet there should be a rounded foam pad near the faceplate - we will need to use it again so just take it out for now and keep it safe. The 4 large vent holes (*red arrow in picture) that were originally covered by the foam sheet will need to be completely sealed off - I used UV glue for this There is another hole left ashen the strain relief was removed - it should be sealed off as well, but only after the MMCX socket was installed.
The planar magnetic transducer is actually slightly largest than the cavity in the housing, plus there are a few plastic pieces that stop the transducer from going in. You will need to grind them off and enlarge the cavity, but be careful not to over grind it. If you do it correctly, the planar transducer will fit into the space tightly and won't required any glue to hold it. Once the grinding has finished, solder the wires to the MMCX socket and install them onto the housing with maybe a bit of superglue. Because the fitting between the transducer and the housing will be very tight, you will need to use very thin but strong wire between the transducer and MMCX socket. Linum wires that is meant for IEM internal wiring will be perfect for this job. Once the MMCX is installed, be sure to seal off the last hole near the MMCX socket. I used UV glue for this.
If you get the same dampening papers set from the Taobao store I linked above, you will get 5 different sheets. What we are interested are however just the light dampening paper (*white in the picture below) and the mid dampening paper (*dotted in the picture below). You will also need to have some extra earbud foam pad as well. Any regular foam pad will do - but given foam pad will degrade with time, it is better to start with high quality one. I used foam pad from VE, but I reckon Hiegi might work just as well.
To put the earbud back together: first, put the original rounded foam taken from the inside back to its original position (near the faceplate). Second, cut the mid dampening paper to slightly larger than the round foam and insert it just after the rounded foam. Lastly, cut a foam pad to a little small than the rounded foam and insert it after the dampening foam. The three layers sandwich goes like: (front) - original rounded foam - mid dampening foam - foam pad - (back) planar transducer.
Unlike the original reversed mounted dynamic driver, The planar transducer will be mounted facing the front direction. As you can see in the picture below, the wiring will need to be squeezed between the housing and the transducer. You can grind just a tiny groove in the housing just so the wires won't get squeezed too much, but make sure you don't over grind it as we still want some tightness to make sure air won't vent out to the back chamber easily.
For the back chamber, we will cut the white dampening paper to fit on the whole backplate, then follows by a similar trimmed foam pad (*orange in picture below). Now you can press the backplate back to the housing and the build is completed.
Note. All the foam materials and dampening paper are to provide the right acoustic impedance on the front and back to achieve the desired sound / FR curve. While my preference is described in the build, you can certainly play with different materials and configuration to find the best combination to your taste. It is also important to note that the front chamber mush be fully sealed on all the vent in order for the planar transducer to sound right. If not, it will sound very bass lean and possibly overly bright.
Afterthought: The best part about this build is that I finally built an planar magnetic earbud that required almost no fitting compensation to sound 'right;. It means it fit as well as it sounds just like a normal earbud even if you have no idea what driver it is using. Given it is still a planar driver, the bass quantity is still not quite up to the same level of a dynamic driver, especially near the sub-bass region. For most part however, I am happy with it on the fact that I am not a bass head to begin with., On the major plus side - the planar driver has some of the best resolution and upper extension that you will ever find on any earbud. The earbud itself is not difficult to drive at all, but with the right source (or a bit of bass boost if you desire), it can approach (or at least pretty close to) the level of an ToTL earbud. All and all, this build is 100% successful.
Tools and parts needed:
1) 14.2mm 2nd gen planar magnetic transducer x 2
2) Cresyn reversed mounted earbud x 1
3) IEM internal wires / Linum IEM wires x 2
4) 3.3mm MMCX socket x 2
5) Acoustic dampening papers
6) Some good quality earbud foam pad
6) Rotary tool with sanding bit
7) Soldering iron and supply
8) UV glue and superglue
The planar driver is the newer generation of 14.2mm transducer that has a better build quality than the first gen I have used in the past two build. It comes in two version: black and transparent body. As far as I can tell, black version comes out first and it was used on several Chinese IEM. The transparent one comes later and believed to be used on Campfire Supermoon. As far as I can tell, both version should be fairly equal in SQ if not near identical (* will need to measured to confirm). The major difference is the black version will have a white dot marking on the flex PCB to indicates positive terminal but the transparent will not have any marking at all. Just for your reference, I marked out the positive terminal on the transparent version in the picture below - it is the side of the larger contact pad under the housing. Note that it can be on different side on the two speaker or it can be on the same side. You must check to be sure. They can be found on Aliexpress and Taobao. I got mine from Taobao for about US$60 minus shipping.
The old school earbuds with the reversed mounted driver is OEMed by Cresyn of S.Korea. There are several versions over time, but this one I used is the most common one to be found. You can find it on Aliexpress and Taobao as well. I got mine for US$6 a pair. I'll suggest you get at least two pairs as they are a bit fragile.
Two items that are specific to the build are the 3.3mm MMCX socket and dampening papers. The MMCX socket can be found on this Taobao store, while dampening paper is from this Taobao store. The 'stem' on the housing is not particularly big and thus most MMCX will be either twoo big or too small to fit securely. I found that the 3.3mm MMCX socket is by far the best choice. Same goes for the dampening papers - you can try other alternative, but I find the one I recommend works out really well.
The Cresyn earbuds' backplate can be easily pop out by prying with a shape tool (i.e. razor blade) carefully. It is press-fitted. The original transducer then can be removed, along with the wiring and strain relief. Next you will find there is thin sheet of foam on the inside that cover 4 vent holes on the housing. It will very likely fragile and going to crumble by any light touch so it should be removed as cleanly as possible. Underneath the thin foam sheet there should be a rounded foam pad near the faceplate - we will need to use it again so just take it out for now and keep it safe. The 4 large vent holes (*red arrow in picture) that were originally covered by the foam sheet will need to be completely sealed off - I used UV glue for this There is another hole left ashen the strain relief was removed - it should be sealed off as well, but only after the MMCX socket was installed.
The planar magnetic transducer is actually slightly largest than the cavity in the housing, plus there are a few plastic pieces that stop the transducer from going in. You will need to grind them off and enlarge the cavity, but be careful not to over grind it. If you do it correctly, the planar transducer will fit into the space tightly and won't required any glue to hold it. Once the grinding has finished, solder the wires to the MMCX socket and install them onto the housing with maybe a bit of superglue. Because the fitting between the transducer and the housing will be very tight, you will need to use very thin but strong wire between the transducer and MMCX socket. Linum wires that is meant for IEM internal wiring will be perfect for this job. Once the MMCX is installed, be sure to seal off the last hole near the MMCX socket. I used UV glue for this.
If you get the same dampening papers set from the Taobao store I linked above, you will get 5 different sheets. What we are interested are however just the light dampening paper (*white in the picture below) and the mid dampening paper (*dotted in the picture below). You will also need to have some extra earbud foam pad as well. Any regular foam pad will do - but given foam pad will degrade with time, it is better to start with high quality one. I used foam pad from VE, but I reckon Hiegi might work just as well.
To put the earbud back together: first, put the original rounded foam taken from the inside back to its original position (near the faceplate). Second, cut the mid dampening paper to slightly larger than the round foam and insert it just after the rounded foam. Lastly, cut a foam pad to a little small than the rounded foam and insert it after the dampening foam. The three layers sandwich goes like: (front) - original rounded foam - mid dampening foam - foam pad - (back) planar transducer.
Unlike the original reversed mounted dynamic driver, The planar transducer will be mounted facing the front direction. As you can see in the picture below, the wiring will need to be squeezed between the housing and the transducer. You can grind just a tiny groove in the housing just so the wires won't get squeezed too much, but make sure you don't over grind it as we still want some tightness to make sure air won't vent out to the back chamber easily.
For the back chamber, we will cut the white dampening paper to fit on the whole backplate, then follows by a similar trimmed foam pad (*orange in picture below). Now you can press the backplate back to the housing and the build is completed.
Note. All the foam materials and dampening paper are to provide the right acoustic impedance on the front and back to achieve the desired sound / FR curve. While my preference is described in the build, you can certainly play with different materials and configuration to find the best combination to your taste. It is also important to note that the front chamber mush be fully sealed on all the vent in order for the planar transducer to sound right. If not, it will sound very bass lean and possibly overly bright.
Afterthought: The best part about this build is that I finally built an planar magnetic earbud that required almost no fitting compensation to sound 'right;. It means it fit as well as it sounds just like a normal earbud even if you have no idea what driver it is using. Given it is still a planar driver, the bass quantity is still not quite up to the same level of a dynamic driver, especially near the sub-bass region. For most part however, I am happy with it on the fact that I am not a bass head to begin with., On the major plus side - the planar driver has some of the best resolution and upper extension that you will ever find on any earbud. The earbud itself is not difficult to drive at all, but with the right source (or a bit of bass boost if you desire), it can approach (or at least pretty close to) the level of an ToTL earbud. All and all, this build is 100% successful.
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