Armored Soul
Head-Fier
I got a commission to make a new headband for the Heddphones. The Heddphone has a pretty bad headband. It's too small and just uncomfortable. My current headband design had a lighter clamp and was designed for my own headphones, which weigh as much or maybe even less than a single Heddphone earcup, so they simply wouldn't work. So I decided to go with a design I had in my mind for some time now, a headband with adjustable clamp.
This design mainly came from the fact that 3D printed materials such as PETG can creep. Basically, once you stretch it out, say after a week, it stays stretched out. By having the clamp be adjustable, you can more or less just not have that problem anymore. Just make the clamp tighter so that lost clamping force from creep is just no more. Note: Just about all headphones can and most likely will stretch out and stay stretched out even if the headband uses metal. It's normal. It's the same for 3D printed ones.
What the finished version looks like compared to my Static Oval (right) and the Hifiman Arya (bottom). The headband looks like the perfect size for the Heddband due to how big it is. I use a suspension band that's elastic and just fits. No real need for adjusting it.
First prototype of the adjustable clamp headband. Clamp was just too much. It's also a modified version of my current headband design so it doesn't really work that well and the design wasn't made to handle this much clamping force.
Version two. It's more reinforced with less clamp. But the clamp is still a bit too much. I decided to redesign the entire thing with a different arc shape.
Version 3. It much more refined version built from the ground up using what was learned from the previous designs. It now has a new secondary top arc. The top arc should flex less so there's less clamping force.
How does it work?
The bottom band, or what I would call the main band, moves down when flexing out. By limiting the bottom band's movement by connecting the bottom band to the top band, you can also increase the clamping force by using the top band as extra clamping force. Yes, the top band does work as extra clamping force by itself, but since it's much larger in diameter, it moves less than the bottom band when flexing, so there's less impact to the clamp force than by the bottom band.
You'll also notice that there's a strap in between the two bands. That's where the clamp force adjusting happens. The smaller the strap is, the more clamp force there is. The strap basically pulls the top band when the bottom band flexes downwards. It's also made of TPU so the strap itself is also stretchy.
The headband in resting position.
The headband when it's flexing. Note how the space between the two arcs have increased. By forcefully reducing the space between the two arcs, you can increase the clamping force.
This design mainly came from the fact that 3D printed materials such as PETG can creep. Basically, once you stretch it out, say after a week, it stays stretched out. By having the clamp be adjustable, you can more or less just not have that problem anymore. Just make the clamp tighter so that lost clamping force from creep is just no more. Note: Just about all headphones can and most likely will stretch out and stay stretched out even if the headband uses metal. It's normal. It's the same for 3D printed ones.
What the finished version looks like compared to my Static Oval (right) and the Hifiman Arya (bottom). The headband looks like the perfect size for the Heddband due to how big it is. I use a suspension band that's elastic and just fits. No real need for adjusting it.
First prototype of the adjustable clamp headband. Clamp was just too much. It's also a modified version of my current headband design so it doesn't really work that well and the design wasn't made to handle this much clamping force.
Version two. It's more reinforced with less clamp. But the clamp is still a bit too much. I decided to redesign the entire thing with a different arc shape.
Version 3. It much more refined version built from the ground up using what was learned from the previous designs. It now has a new secondary top arc. The top arc should flex less so there's less clamping force.
How does it work?
The bottom band, or what I would call the main band, moves down when flexing out. By limiting the bottom band's movement by connecting the bottom band to the top band, you can also increase the clamping force by using the top band as extra clamping force. Yes, the top band does work as extra clamping force by itself, but since it's much larger in diameter, it moves less than the bottom band when flexing, so there's less impact to the clamp force than by the bottom band.
You'll also notice that there's a strap in between the two bands. That's where the clamp force adjusting happens. The smaller the strap is, the more clamp force there is. The strap basically pulls the top band when the bottom band flexes downwards. It's also made of TPU so the strap itself is also stretchy.
The headband in resting position.
The headband when it's flexing. Note how the space between the two arcs have increased. By forcefully reducing the space between the two arcs, you can increase the clamping force.
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