DIY Earbuds

[robar]

I will buy one of these Titanium 32ohm for sure. For me, balanced means specific sound signature where lows, mids and highs are clear and strong enough
but the most important thing is that at different volumes stay consistent without unusual peaks. This is one of the advantages of high impedance drivers,
clear sound on low and high volume levels.
I noticed that on the LG G7 when using the earbuds with low impedance, QuadDac uses automatically low gain and it sounds like it's off,
so I need to crank up the volume around 80%. With high impedance drivers, QuadDac automatically turn on high gain, and I use the volume in between 40-75%.
Because of that, I bought an Impedance plug for low impedance earbuds to cheat my phone and works fine for now.

Well I'm not that experienced as you, so if you happen to try one of these I'll be happy to read your impressions as well! I don't think those 32ohms are titanium by the way, I think it's just regular stuff material-wise but I haven't disassembled it. This is specifically that 32ohm we like with @subwoof3r https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000281063945.html


(EDIT) Ohh, by the way happy 100th page folks we did it haha!

 

[furyossa]

I’ve never build any headphone from the ground up no but modded quite a bit. Every set is going to be different and depends on what you want to change in the frequency response. Hobby Lobby is a great place to go get supplies. Regular felt, adhesive felt, cotton balls, varying density masking tape and foam. All great to have around. Headphone pads make a very large impact on sound as well.
As far as materials most all the sellers on Ali have headphone drivers and headphone shells of varying types. I’ve kind of been milling over if it’s more cost effective to buy something like the BLON B7 and just ripe out the driver and plunk a new one in and fine tune it from there. All fun stuff.

@furyossa
Yeah the BLON BL03 is a nice set indeed. I own both the silver and gun metal. Every time I put them in I turn in Tycho - Weather and get lost for the duration. Wondering how the BL05 will compare. I can’t bring myself to pay $200+ on an earbud but will for a headphone or iem. But it’s becoming unnecessary to do for IEMs as well with companies like BLON and TinHifi doing amazing things with single drivers. For headroom and sound signature my favorites are still my fearless S6pro. It’s about as studio neutral DF neutral as one can get right now. I will spend $1000+ on a guitar but I can’t do it on headphone type stuff. So I don’t know what I am missing with things like 64 audio etc. I was not that impressed with my Alclair set and customs are a pain in the rear to get fitted for properly. Rabbit trail sorry.

AliX really has a great selection of 30mm-50mm high-quality drivers for headphones. And yes, tuning the sound of these drivers is very time consuming and you need a measurement gear for testing.
Swapping the earpads is the easy part but tuning the driver housing is the science. Fostex T50RP is one of the most famous models for modding. I have a newer seriesTR90 that has a dynamic driver and not a planar like T50RP. I don't use them as much because they are heavy for the long listening season.
BL05 looks cool and is hybrid, not single DD. I hope that BLON didn't change the sound signature a lot.
Fearless S6pro is probably a "gem" in your collection, and I can only imagine how they sound.
The latest single DD mode, when it was announced late last year, it was said that the price would be around $100 b
but the price is $200 now. I would probably spend that money on a device like DAC or AMP
rather than a earphones (item or earbuds). $1000+ only for a laptop for work and probably not for audio equipment.
But that doesn't mean I'm not interested in expensive models, what I'm most interested in is their technology.
One of these is oBravo lineup.

Have you tried modding PK type shells? I have a pair of B40's with damaged tuning foams and I wasn't fan of the overly mid dominant tuning anyway so I would like to do something similar to my z-sound mod - drilling new vents and putting regular horseshoe tuning on them, while closing down the long hole on the top.

Yes, once but without luck. The shells were damaged and the driver was glued so I threw them out the window.
Anyway, I agree about your modding idea.

Well I'm not that experienced as you, so if you happen to try one of these I'll be happy to read your impressions as well! I don't think those 32ohms are titanium by the way, I think it's just regular stuff material-wise but I haven't disassembled it. This is specifically that 32ohm we like with @subwoof3r https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000281063945.html

Well, I'm an architect who works as a game designer. Music is just a hobby, but I like also industrial design.
I can talk about the anatomy and design of earphones is not a problem
I assume that @headenvelopedinsound works in the music industry. He knows to explain the sound in general
and audio equipment.
And about 32ohm ... It seemed to me because they resemble Titanium 64ohm a little because of this black glue.
BTW ... It has a very promising specification. Now you convinced me to buy them

 

[furyossa]

(EDIT) Ohh, by the way happy 100th page folks we did it haha!

We talk too much

 

[robar]

AliX really has a great selection of 30mm-50mm high-quality drivers for headphones. And yes, tuning the sound of these drivers is very time consuming and you need a measurement gear for testing.
Swapping the earpads is the easy part but tuning the driver housing is the science. Fostex T50RP is one of the most famous models for modding. I have a newer seriesTR90 that has a dynamic driver and not a planar like T50RP. I don't use them as much because they are heavy for the long listening season.
BL05 looks cool and is hybrid, not single DD. I hope that BLON didn't change the sound signature a lot.
Fearless S6pro is probably a "gem" in your collection, and I can only imagine how they sound.
The latest single DD mode, when it was announced late last year, it was said that the price would be around $100 b
but the price is $200 now. I would probably spend that money on a device like DAC or AMP
rather than a earphones (item or earbuds). $1000+ only for a laptop for work and probably not for audio equipment.
But that doesn't mean I'm not interested in expensive models, what I'm most interested in is their technology.
One of these is oBravo lineup.


Yes, once but without luck. The shells were damaged and the driver was glued so I threw them out the window.
Anyway, I agree about your modding idea.

Well, I'm an architect who works as a game designer. Music is just a hobby, but I like also industrial design.
I can talk about the anatomy and design of earphones is not a problem
I assume that @headenvelopedinsound works in the music industry. He knows to explain the sound in general
and audio equipment.
And about 32ohm ... It seemed to me because they resemble Titanium 64ohm a little because of this black glue.
BTW ... It has a very promising specification. Now he convinced me to buy them

These newer models share the same kind of layout, only the color of the glue blob dot tells them apart as far as I saw. (edit: actually, not the glue but the color of marking - red is 32ohm bass, darkblue is 64ohm titanium, there are also cyan and other colors for others like the balanced, clear version etc oops, clear sound is also red. So we can only identify it by checking both name/signature and dot color)
I'll try the B40 mod and share my experience. I plan to do similar adjustments on an ry4x/earbuds anonymous type shell.

Wow cool carreer choice, what kind of game designer are you? I mean video/board game, what field etc. I assumed you must be some sort of designer/engineer based on your detailed blueprint illustrations I'm a graphic designer (digital focused)
myself so while I'm not well versed in the physical product and game design process but I'm interested in them and appreciate those greatly.

 

[headenvelopedinsound]

AliX really has a great selection of 30mm-50mm high-quality drivers for headphones. And yes, tuning the sound of these drivers is very time consuming and you need a measurement gear for testing.
Swapping the earpads is the easy part but tuning the driver housing is the science. Fostex T50RP is one of the most famous models for modding. I have a newer seriesTR90 that has a dynamic driver and not a planar like T50RP. I don't use them as much because they are heavy for the long listening season.
BL05 looks cool and is hybrid, not single DD. I hope that BLON didn't change the sound signature a lot.
Fearless S6pro is probably a "gem" in your collection, and I can only imagine how they sound.
The latest single DD mode, when it was announced late last year, it was said that the price would be around $100 b
but the price is $200 now. I would probably spend that money on a device like DAC or AMP
rather than a earphones (item or earbuds). $1000+ only for a laptop for work and probably not for audio equipment.
But that doesn't mean I'm not interested in expensive models, what I'm most interested in is their technology.
One of these is oBravo lineup.


Yes, once but without luck. The shells were damaged and the driver was glued so I threw them out the window.
Anyway, I agree about your modding idea.

Well, I'm an architect who works as a game designer. Music is just a hobby, but I like also industrial design.
I can talk about the anatomy and design of earphones is not a problem
I assume that @headenvelopedinsound works in the music industry. He knows to explain the sound in general
and audio equipment.
And about 32ohm ... It seemed to me because they resemble Titanium 64ohm a little because of this black glue.
BTW ... It has a very promising specification. Now he convinced me to buy them

Going to be changing out shells today. Woody to the standard plastic500. And learn a bit of tuning.

I work in the IT field primarily and musician is only serious hobby now. After kids I cut back a lot. My dad is an architect, very cool. Game design has to be an intense fold to be in.

 

[robar]

Has anybody tried those cute little 14.2mm wood shells with these speakers? Might be a nice gift for relatives with small ears https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000272267259.html https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000273914135.html

Going to be changing out shells today. Woody to the standard plastic500. And learn a bit of tuning.

I work in the IT field primarily and musician is only serious hobby now. After kids I cut back a lot. My dad is an architect, very cool. Game design has to be an intense fold to be in.

Nice! Will you swap the shells of your N50 steel mesh speaker build?

 

[furyossa]

Has anybody tried those cute little 14.2mm wood shells with these speakers? Might be a nice gift for relatives with small ears https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000272267259.html https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000273914135.html

Nice! Will you swap the shells of your N50 steel mesh speaker build?

We're all here because of the hobby. Different opinions, suggestions and tastes in music make this thing interesting and attractive.
If we all shared the same ideas this would not make any sense and it would be boring as if we were talking about our job. No inspiration and no challenge.
That is why this hobby has a very large community.

I was planning to buy these wooden shells and combine them with this driver but didn't find any 14.2mm covers.
I have those drivers that you posted. At first, I thought they were used for NiceHCK EBX but I'd rather say it was EB2.
I use these with this shell, it's good for sleeping buds, which is 14.8mm and again I had to glue them as they are bigger so I suspect they are 14.2mm.
Average Mid-centric sounding driver nothing special here.

 

[robar]

We're all here for the hobby. Different opinions, suggestions and tastes in music make this thing interesting and attractive.
If we all shared the same ideas this would not make any sense and it would be boring as if we were talking about our job. No inspiration and no challenge.
That is why this hobby has a very large community.

I was planning to buy these wooden shells and combine them with this driver but didn't find any 14.2mm covers.
I have those drivers that you posted. At first, I thought they were used for NiceHCK EBX but I'd rather say it was EB2.
I use these with this shell, it's good for sleeping buds, which is 14.8mm and again I had to glue them as they are bigger so I suspect they are 14.2mm.
Average Mid-centric sounding driver nothing special here.

Thanks I modded the B40, tried out many different things with no noticeable improvement to be honest. I could recreate similar tuning to the original in many different ways, or alternatively make the sound worse The bass can be improved by damaging the mids, which is not my cup of tea so I stayed with minor adjustments compared to original. I drilled 3 holes in the end, tried different foam/tape combinations, closing fully or partially the top vent with blu tack etc. The only real advantage of the extra holes is that regular horseshoe tuning can be used instead of the less common rectangle type. Also it gives finer control over the sound but it won't really improve it. I only did one side so far, don't really have the motivation to do the same with the other half. Did not worth the effort so far. I would put the speakers in other type of shell but the diameter is larger than other usual 14.8mm. Maybe I'll try it in the z-sound shell and try the tape method.

 

[subwoof3r]

This is specifically that 32ohm we like with @subwoof3r https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000281063945.html

Honestly, my build with these drivers is my daily drug for now since few days already, I don't want to try any other earbuds at all since, lol

 

[robar]

Honestly, my build with these drivers is my daily drug for now since few days already, I don't want to try any other earbuds at all since, lol

Awesome, I'll order 1-2 additional pairs soon, maybe along with the 6-hole wooden shell Have you drilled an extra hole in this like in your titanium build?

 

[subwoof3r]

Have you drilled an extra hole in this like in your titanium build?

Here is how it looks for my 32 ohm build :






And as a bonus picture, I tried this little thing just tonight, I have to say I much prefer the overall look with these little heatshrinks (properly cutted) around the MMCX PINs :


Btw, which wires do you guys are using/recommends for interconnects (from MMCX PINs to drivers) ?

 

[HungryPanda]

I bought these as it saves a lot of time and bother

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000090574521.html?

 

[furyossa]

Here is how it looks for my 32 ohm build :






And as a bonus picture, I tried this little thing just tonight, I have to say I much prefer the overall look with these little heatshrinks (properly cutted) around the MMCX PINs :


Btw, which wires do you guys are using/recommends for interconnects (from MMCX PINs to drivers) ?

I bought these https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000309106367.html
I think that RY store use same wires https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000541099253.html
For "over-ear" ie short shell version I prefer these MMCX connectors https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32889902202.html
For earbuds thin cable (4core) I bought these male MMCX connectors https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32704947106.html
I planned to make this cable https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32855428262.html

 

[larry piencenaves]

Hey guys, Im new to this thread, just a random question, hoping someone could answer,

Is it ok to use an earbud driver unit on an iem shell?

 

[GREQ]

Hey guys, Im new to this thread, just a random question, hoping someone could answer,

Is it ok to use an earbud driver unit on an iem shell?

If you can actually find one small enough to fit, then sure, why not.
It'll just need careful tuning like any other driver-transplant project and may not even be able to be tuned the way you want because of it's designed purpose in buds.

I'm pretty sure the IEMs shaped like Sony MDR-7550 and Audio Technica ATH-CKS50 have 'earbud' drivers in them, so it must be possible.