Well, I've placed an order for enough parts to assemble 9 pairs of earbuds - various drivers (Vocal, Bass, Subwoofer (as described on the AliExpress pages)), various MX760 & MX500 shells, various driver tuning foams, various colors of wire, and 3.5mm TRS plugs.
This should be a fun experiment.
I wonder if the color of wire will make the biggest difference in sound quality?
Today I opened up my Vido looking to recable it for furthur comparisons vs CF2. The shells were a struggle to open, but once I got in there the drivers were very easy to liberate from the front baffle. One popped out all on its own when I finally got the shell open.
I viewed this as an oportunity to do a comparison between different front baffles/grills. In the past I have taken lots of measurements of various mods on full size headphones, and I find making changes to the baffle/grill in front of a driver often results in a change in treble response. Measurements I’ve taken of earbuds have shown that many (but not all) mx500 style earbuds share a similar treble FR curve from about 7kHz onward, and I suspected this might at least in part be due to the design of the baffle. The buds in my collection with the best treble extension are the MX980, Shozy BK, and Edifier H180. The baffles on all of these are different from the mx500 as well as each other. I had some metal baffles I purchased from Taobao, as well as a SHE3800 baffle (same as Edifier H180) on hand for experimenting with. Here are some photos of liberated Vido drivers, different baffles, and FR graphs comparing them:
The metal baffle and SHE3800 baffle both seem to offer better treble extension beyond 10kHz, but at the expense of less energy between 5-10kHz. The metal baffle effects the response all the way back to about 1kHZ. I suspect this might have something to do with the metal interacting with the magnet on the driver, but I might be way off here, its just a hunch. I could feel the driver magnet pull on the metal grill when placing the drivers in the baffle.
I thought the response of the metal baffle looked interesting so I set it up on both channels and took a listen. I only have one pair of Vido’s at the moment so I couldn’t do a volume matched comparison between the metal baffle and stock configuration. I think the metal baffle mod made the sound darker overall. It sounded very smooth, and I could hear detail in the furthest reaches of the treble, but I’m not sure how I feel about the modification one way or the other. Without having a stock Vido to compare to it is hard to really say anything definitively. I think the results of the experiment were very interesting though, and when my other pairs of Vido’s come in I plan on experimenting some more. Here are some FR graphs comparing the two new baffle configurations to some of my other earbuds:
Finally I just wanted to mention that when looking at my FR graphs comparing different earbuds, I think it is best that we view anything below 100Hz as a sort of “no guarantee zone” similar to what golden ears does with their measurements. This is because in real world listening the shell type, dampening design, and fit will all have an impact on how bass is perceived. As an example, it isn't exactly fair to compare a Shozy BK vs Vido in the bass area since they use different shells, different approaches to dampening the driver, and will have a different real world fit.
Today I opened up my Vido looking to recable it for furthur comparisons vs CF2. The shells were a struggle to open, but once I got in there the drivers were very easy to liberate from the front baffle. One popped out all on its own when I finally got the shell open.
I viewed this as an oportunity to do a comparison between different front baffles/grills. In the past I have taken lots of measurements of various mods on full size headphones, and I find making changes to the baffle/grill in front of a driver often results in a change in treble response. Measurements I’ve taken of earbuds have shown that many (but not all) mx500 style earbuds share a similar treble FR curve from about 7kHz onward, and I suspected this might at least in part be due to the design of the baffle. The buds in my collection with the best treble extension are the MX980, Shozy BK, and Edifier H180. The baffles on all of these are different from the mx500 as well as each other. I had some metal baffles I purchased from Taobao, as well as a SHE3800 baffle (same as Edifier H180) on hand for experimenting with. Here are some photos of liberated Vido drivers, different baffles, and FR graphs comparing them:
The metal baffle and SHE3800 baffle both seem to offer better treble extension beyond 10kHz, but at the expense of less energy between 5-10kHz. The metal baffle effects the response all the way back to about 1kHZ. I suspect this might have something to do with the metal interacting with the magnet on the driver, but I might be way off here, its just a hunch. I could feel the driver magnet pull on the metal grill when placing the drivers in the baffle.
I thought the response of the metal baffle looked interesting so I set it up on both channels and took a listen. I only have one pair of Vido’s at the moment so I couldn’t do a volume matched comparison between the metal baffle and stock configuration. I think the metal baffle mod made the sound darker overall. It sounded very smooth, and I could hear detail in the furthest reaches of the treble, but I’m not sure how I feel about the modification one way or the other. Without having a stock Vido to compare to it is hard to really say anything definitively. I think the results of the experiment were very interesting though, and when my other pairs of Vido’s come in I plan on experimenting some more. Here are some FR graphs comparing the two new baffle configurations to some of my other earbuds:
Finally I just wanted to mention that when looking at my FR graphs comparing different earbuds, I think it is best that we view anything below 100Hz as a sort of “no guarantee zone” similar to what golden ears does with their measurements. This is because in real world listening the shell type, dampening design, and fit will all have an impact on how bass is perceived. As an example, it isn't exactly fair to compare a Shozy BK vs Vido in the bass area since they use different shells, different approaches to dampening the driver, and will have a different real world fit.
@slappypete
Thanks for sharing, it's a very interesting reading.
Please also try to describe if the modifications sound good or bad.
I think music is much more complex than a frequency sweep, ie, with the graphs we can see how the freq. response changes, but we can only know if it sounds good or bad when you describe it.
when I look at freq. sweep graphs, sometimes I can see and try to guess if the sound is unbalanced, but when the graph looks good I can never say if it sounds good.
I use a miniDSP UMIK-1 measurement microphone with a makeshift home-made coupler on it that the buds rest against. I apply a firm amount of pressure just with my hand. I realize that sounds ridiculous, and likely inconsistent, but in practice I find it quite repeatable. Variable pressure will effect the bass response, but once you get to a certain level of pressure the response is the same on my setup. This makes it pretty easy in practice to get a good measurement, but of course I take multiple measurements per channel and average them to get the final result. In the past I tried using a silicone ear attached to the microphone as a means of eliminating the hand applied pressure, but this actually made for very inconsistent results. As I have said many times, please take everything I post with a grain of salt, and don't view any of my findings as definitive proof of anything. I am confident enough in the repeat-ability of the measurements at this point, but a certain amount of healthy skepticism is always good.
@slappypete
Thanks for sharing, it's a very interesting reading.
Please also try to describe if the modifications sound good or bad.
I think music is much more complex than a frequency sweep, ie, with the graphs we can see how the freq. response changes, but we can only know if it sounds good or bad when you describe it.
when I look at freq. sweep graphs, sometimes I can see and try to guess if the sound is unbalanced, but when the graph looks good I can never say if it sounds good.
I tried to get into my Taobao account, but I can't figure out the email/password combo I used at the moment sorry. I have only ever done one order on Taobao but it was for a lot of parts at the time. I remember it took me quite a while to find everything I wanted, but I can't even remember what my approach was to searching for everything. I just tried searching for the metal baffles on both Taobao and Aliexpress with no luck. I did find some baffle listings, and on Aliexpress they seem to be called "covers". The metal ones are likely still available, but you might have better luck asking someone else to help you find them. Some others in here seem to be quite good at finding things on Taobao.
I found a driver on Aliexpress that looks to have the same metal cover here. I also found MX760 & MX500 covers here. I haven't measured MX760 covers, but that could be interesting too. You really would be better off trying to find everything on Taobao. The stuff I ordered was dirt cheap compared to what I'm seeing on Aliexpress. The SHE3800 baffle I used in the measurements was taken from a disassembled SHE3800.
If I figure out how to get into my Taobao account I will post the proper links.
To make an amateur rig like mine or similar it is not hard or all that expensive. You just need some sort of full range microphone, a quality sound card to connect the mic to your computer, and a coupler. A microphone made to be used for measurement is obviously ideal. The coupler can be a simple plastic tube of some sort. To get an idea of what I mean take a look at the Vibro Veritas here. Doing a google image search for "vibro veritas" will yeild more photos that might give you a better understanding as well. I don't use that mic, but it looks like decent option to me. I would want to know the internal and external diameter of the coupler though to see if it would work well with earbuds. I thought I read about someone on head-fi using this setup to measure earbuds some time ago. You could always make a new coupler for the veritas as well if it didn't work out of the box.
There is also the Dayton IMM-6. This would be the cheapest option I think. I haven't used it either but know some use it for IEM's and get repeatable results with it. For earbud use I think I would build some sort of stand for it so the mic itself could stand up on a desk. Then I think I'd run an extension cable off the 3.5mm plug, and of course build some sort of coupler around the mic for earbuds.
I use the miniDSP UMIK-. It is a usb mic, so no additional sound card is necessary like with the veritas. You will need to build a coupler though.
For those of you who build your own cables, where have you found the best, tightest, most secure fitting 2.5mm TRRS Female Jack, to use in making Balanced Extension or Adapter Cables?
I've purchased some of these (available from many dealers) -
For those of you who build your own cables, where have you found the best, tightest, most secure fitting 2.5mm TRRS Female Jack, to use in making Balanced Extension or Adapter Cables?
I've purchased some of these (available from many dealers) -
I've used that one and it does indeed fall short of being usable. Waste of money. I ordered a cable from Veclan (monks) and he was using a different 2.5mm TRRS that looked like this one https://www.aliexpress.com/item/TRR...lgo_pvid=5c1e7c54-8e4a-4987-a74a-8cd6e3eb738a It's a tight fit without drop outs. At least it looks exactly like this one, but this one is expensive, so maybe you can find it somewhere else for less.
I've got a Impact Audio Cables custom 3.5mm TRS Male to 2.5mm TRRS Female Adapter, and Lindsay uses this Eidolic Jack - https://doublehelixcables.com/product/eidolic-2-5mm-4-pole-female-jack-for-astell-kern/
It is a good, secure connector - but it doesn't have a back-shell, so I'd have to improvise with heatshrink over the contacts - which is what Lindsay does.
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