DIY Earbuds

[jeejack]

Hi everyone. I'm starting my first DIY earbuds. I've read through the DIY earbuds guide. There’s so much information here that I’m a bit lost. I’m stuck on selecting the driver. For now, I don’t want to invest too much since I’m still a beginner. I’m looking for a warm, long-listenable sound with silky highs and good bass and sub-bass, mainly for electronic music. I’m a bit sensitive to high frequencies, but I still want them to be there. Which driver do you think would be the most suitable for this sound signature? Should I use the tuning foam on the shell or the driver, or maybe both? I want to use the mx500 shell without modifications and the RY cable, but the driver is still a big question.

To begin with, I recommend these two drivers. And because you will not stop here, we are waiting for you with other recommendations
https://a.aliexpress.com/_Ev3u6Sc
https://a.aliexpress.com/_EGB8irQ (warmer than the first one).
You need horseshoes foam on both shells and drivers

 

[droenald]

Hi everyone. I'm starting my first DIY earbuds. I've read through the DIY earbuds guide. There’s so much information here that I’m a bit lost. I’m stuck on selecting the driver. For now, I don’t want to invest too much since I’m still a beginner. I’m looking for a warm, long-listenable sound with silky highs and good bass and sub-bass, mainly for electronic music. I’m a bit sensitive to high frequencies, but I still want them to be there. Which driver do you think would be the most suitable for this sound signature? Should I use the tuning foam on the shell or the driver, or maybe both? I want to use the mx500 shell without modifications and the RY cable, but the driver is still a big question.

Best to get the full choice of tuning materials!
For the back of the driver:
Assortment of tuning papers (Y2-Y6)
Different tuning foams (7:1, 10:1)
For the shell:
Horseshoe foam (used to be available in thin/medium/dense. Last time I checked only medium was available. I procured medium and dense back then. I sure wish they still had lthin and dense!)
There is also horseshoe foam that looks like it is one big disc. In fact the outer part is a normal horseshoe, the inner part seems to be an extra piece you can stick in anywhere in the shell to damp isome more. I was not aware of the fact that this is indeed 2 pieces in 1, which is why I didn't buy it back then.
You could buy this instead and not the normal medium density horseshoes...
Better to have everything on hand than have to order 2 times. I learned the hard way.
NSC Audio shop and XinYue are good for those materials.

 

[mt877]

Hi everyone. I'm starting my first DIY earbuds. I've read through the DIY earbuds guide. There’s so much information here that I’m a bit lost. I’m stuck on selecting the driver. For now, I don’t want to invest too much since I’m still a beginner. I’m looking for a warm, long-listenable sound with silky highs and good bass and sub-bass, mainly for electronic music. I’m a bit sensitive to high frequencies, but I still want them to be there. Which driver do you think would be the most suitable for this sound signature? Should I use the tuning foam on the shell or the driver, or maybe both? I want to use the mx500 shell without modifications and the RY cable, but the driver is still a big question.

To begin with, I recommend these two drivers. And because you will not stop here, we are waiting for you with other recommendations
https://a.aliexpress.com/_Ev3u6Sc
https://a.aliexpress.com/_EGB8irQ (warmer than the first one).
You need horseshoes foam on both shells and drivers

Besides the excellent suggestions by @jeejack, if your source can drive 150Ω transducers, then you can also try 150Ω Blue Glue (BG) drivers.

Follow the tuning suggestion in the link to the following post, you will end up with a very good sounding set of buds.

Post in thread 'DIY Earbuds'

Apr 2, 2022

This for n52 or 150 bg? Which white filter? Y2- Y5?

150BG, medium foam on the shell + Y3 or Y4 should be fine. N52 should sound good even whitout changing the pre-applied foam although it is usually a good idea to always replace it with a more standard HS.

• Rary

• 

 

[droenald]

Besides the excellent suggestions by @jeejack, if your source can drive 150Ω transducers, then you can also try 150Ω Blue Glue (BG) drivers.

Follow the tuning suggestion in the link to the following post, you will end up with a very good sounding set of buds.

Post in thread 'DIY Earbuds'

Apr 2, 2022

This for n52 or 150 bg? Which white filter? Y2- Y5?

150BG, medium foam on the shell + Y3 or Y4 should be fine. N52 should sound good even whitout changing the pre-applied foam although it is usually a good idea to always replace it with a more standard HS.

• Rary

• 

Short and sweet! I'll follow the instructions. There is a Faaeal Rosemary living in my drawer that I can butcher for it.

 

[jogawag]

Are DP100 shells compatible with mx500 drivers or they need some tweeks?

Both sizes are 15.4mm, so DP100 shells are compatible with mx500 drivers.

 

[Eduardiofilo]

Both sizes are 15.4mm, so DP100 shells are compatible with mx500 drivers.

Thank you

 

[droenald]

Hey experienced DIYers!
In the build I did yesterday I wanted to finetune the bass vs treble relation by giving a little more venting to reduce pressure in the shell. I was experiencing some hot female vocals, but lower amount of upper treble. There was already a lot of bass, but I still decided it was better to go for a darker signature then.
So I started to drill 0.5 mm holes in the shell, started with one hole., not much change. Then a second, then a third.
Surprisingly now I seem to get more upper treble/air, female vocals seem a little less forward, bass might be a tiny bit less, but I am not sure. I have to say, I am not entirely sure if that is what's happening, because there is time passing between me drilling holes and checking the result... But What is going on?
Is it possible that tiny holes in the shell increase the treble?!? Because bigger vent holes absolutely increase the bass.
Edit: I like how the build sounds now, but it is not what I expected!

 

[konyvkukac]

Besides the excellent suggestions by @jeejack, if your source can drive 150Ω transducers, then you can also try 150Ω Blue Glue (BG) drivers.

Follow the tuning suggestion in the link to the following post, you will end up with a very good sounding set of buds.

Post in thread 'DIY Earbuds'

Apr 2, 2022

This for n52 or 150 bg? Which white filter? Y2- Y5?

150BG, medium foam on the shell + Y3 or Y4 should be fine. N52 should sound good even whitout changing the pre-applied foam although it is usually a good idea to always replace it with a more standard HS.

• Rary

• 

Thanks guys for all the help. I'm so excited, this will be my first DIY project. I'm just searching for the parts to put in my shopping cart, but I still have a fight with my wife, you know, she's the boss

 

[droenald]

300ohm Blue Glue in the most terrible to work on shell ever. Slightly darker tuned because of forward female vocals. Very good technicalities despite the darkish tuning, big and punchy well textured bass, very detailed in the mids.
After comparison with a few other buds I have to say it is not the most natural sound. Maybe the tiny shell with low air volume is at fault? For now it may stay in there, but I might want to try the driver in a different shell at one point. Works well with electronic music, not so good for acoustic music.
I'll name this one "Donkey Honk".

Next up: 130ohm Bery with 1,5 mm Bass tube through the fake bass port.
Making the bass port a real bass tube was fun and very rewarding, super happy with how that worked out and looks! It actually extends about 1,5 cm into the shell, so is about 3 or 3,5 cm I guess.
Sadly when I closed the build the first time there was next to no bass however and jarring treble! So first I exchanged the stock tuning paper with Y2. No change!
Step by step I had to drill 5 (yes five!!!) 1 mm holes and also made the stock vent holes a tiny bit bigger with a 1,5mm drill bit. At this point it was sounding balanced but with quite a big bass boost, treble was where it needed to be. Also the bass tube now literally had no influence on the sound which I found out when sealing it with my fingers while listening! Bass was also a bit softer than I like.
I then exchanged the medium to a high density horseshoe, as in another build this tightened up the bass and made it punchier without any real drawbacks. Here it added bass and reduced treble quite a bit. So I was able to seal 3 of the 5 1mm holes I had drilled. Now it sounds absolutely great with strong bass, great clarity and sparkly treble. The treble can be a bit spicy on certain tracks, but in general it balances nicely with the big bass. When now closing the bass tubes with the fingers there is at least some change to the bass response, but the bass tube seems to be more of a gimmick here sadly. I think the diameter of the tube is too small for this driver, and the driver "breathes" mostly through all the other vent holes. The bass tube should work better with drivers that don't need as much ventilation as the 130r bery I believe. I might try this mod on my 400r graphene build.
While this build sounds fabulous now, I am a bit surprised that the staging is not especially noteworthy or deep, seeing that the frequency response seems to be balanced with a healthy lift in both bass and treble. The dynamics and transient response of the driver, while not bad seem to be not on the same level as the 400r graphene and especially the 300r bg "donkey" driver...
I will name this bud "Blackbery"

I am having a few days off (the family is away too!), was very industrious and also retuned the Faaeal Rosemary with the 150r blue glue. It sounds fabulous as well now! I think the technicalities of this driver might be a tiny bit ahead of the 130r bery as well (not sure!) because I don't miss out on details, even though there is a bit less treble. Staging is similar on both. The Blackbery is a bit more exciting, a bit like retuned Rosemary on steroids.
Btw, I would like to thank @metrics again for taking the time and making this great post, it supplied me with some much needed background information about the different tuning materials and what they do. It is what finally made me really get into DIY. A higly recommended read in addition to the DIY guide @konyvkukac and anyone else interested in doing DIY.

 

[BCool]

Trying to get back into headphone/earbud building and curious, what kind of set-up does everyone have? I'm thinking of upgrading from my crappy £15-Amazon-special that I got like 10 years ago but can't decide whether to get a Pinecil or invest in something like a Aifen A9 . Also should probably get a fume extractor fan, are there an other peripherals/accessories worth looking at while I'm at it?

 

[jeejack]

Trying to get back into headphone/earbud building and curious, what kind of set-up does everyone have? I'm thinking of upgrading from my crappy £15-Amazon-special that I got like 10 years ago but can't decide whether to get a Pinecil or invest in something like a Aifen A9 . Also should probably get a fume extractor fan, are there an other peripherals/accessories worth looking at while I'm at it?

I use a $10 soldering iron and instead of a vice I use plasticine to keep the drivers from moving.
You also need flux and a fine-tipped tweezer and you are good to go

 

[droenald]

I use a $10 soldering iron and instead of a vice I use plasticine to keep the drivers from moving.
You also need flux and a fine-tipped tweezer and you are good to go

!
I would like to emphasize the importance of using soldering flux. All the difficulties I ever had when soldering came from me not knowing how important it is to use flux. Since I use it soldering is a breeze!
On some product pages the sellers advise to not solder hotter than 300degree celsius and to not stay on the point you solder for longer than three seconds.
Otherwise you risk burning out the voice coil of the driver. Another risk is that high temperatures can demagnetize the magnet and you might end up with channel imbalance, as the driver with the partly demagnetized magnet will have less output.
I have found that soldering with a slightly higher temperature (say 330-350) works a lot better and I have to stay on the solder point only around a second or so.
If you stayed on a solder point for around 3 seconds and you somehow don't have a nice solder joint take your time and let everything cool off for a minute or so before trying again.
If the tip of your soldering iron is reasonably small I don't think you need to buy a new soldering set. I believe it is not crucial to know at which temperature you solder at. Just check the specs of your cheap soldering iron and give it enough time to preheat.
If you don't want to build buds with mmcx and don't have to solder wires to the tiny mmcx connectors @jeejack's suggestion with plasticine is great! I did that too before getting the helping hands. It worked great.
I soldered my first mmcx connectors using the plasticine method as well. This is a mess. The plasticine melts into the mmcx connector. I managed do get it clean again with hot water.
I have got this soldering station .
I bought the cheaper version and ended up buying the helping hands and a solder sucker later on.
The station itself is fine, heats up very fast, and is a breeze to work with. I would advise to get the more expensive version of the station should you lean towards investing in a new soldering station. There you get the tweezers, helping hands and solder sucker on top.
But @jeejack is right: if you already have a soldering iron, fine tweezers and flux you are good to go!

 

[lpcken]

Does anyone has the link of red film pk1 150ohm driver?

https://www.goofish.com/item?spm=a2...08m3lYH5&id=793319549049&categoryId=126856508
https://www.goofish.com/item?spm=a2...08Yt80EN&id=882859404778&categoryId=126856508

 

[trevdawg94]

Trying to get back into headphone/earbud building and curious, what kind of set-up does everyone have? I'm thinking of upgrading from my crappy £15-Amazon-special that I got like 10 years ago but can't decide whether to get a Pinecil or invest in something like a Aifen A9 . Also should probably get a fume extractor fan, are there an other peripherals/accessories worth looking at while I'm at it?

I had a 20+ year-old Weller soldering iron that I used up until I started building buds when I decided to get a Pinecil so I would have temperature control and it is so, so much better than the old Weller that for the price (if you buy direct and don't mind waiting for shipping) it likely beats any soldering iron below $100. With rosin core (flux in the center) solder I can easily solder at 280 as long as I melt some on the tip before starting and it's much cleaner than applying flux separately even if you use a syringe. A really nice feature of the Pinecil is that it has a "powershot" feature that temporarily increases the temperature by holding down the plus button so you can add a little extra heat if you need it to get the solder flowing and then let it go back down to a lower temp afterward. But any cheap soldering iron will work fine you just need to be more mindful of not holding it to the driver for too long and adjust the temperature if it has that feature. Also like @droenald mentioned a decent helping hands makes everything go together so much easier.

 

[digititus]

Riobuds 300Ohm LCP mini Review

A belated New Year gift to myself arrived in February. As an owner of 3 pairs of Riobuds, I couldn't resist ordering the 300 Ohm LCP to add to the collection. The fact that all Riobuds share the same excellent shell (ergonomic and sonic masterpieces IMO) a new color was required in order for me to identify them correctly, so purple was decided upon! I paired them with the excellent 4.4 balanced XINSH4 core 6N single crystal copper cable to complete the set.

I have listened to them exclusively for the last month, without switching to other buds. They were paired with a Hiby R1 connected to a Fiio K7 DAC/amp via USB or with a Venture Electronics Devastator dongle.

Being 300 Ohm I was expecting to have to crank up the amp to get any decent volume. That wasn't the case. On the Fiio I listened to the volume at around the 2 o'clock position. That was plenty. With the Devastator around 60-70 was good.

Sound wise, my first impression was of a wide scene, great separation and excellent detail. I do like my bass and whilst these don't dig as deep as the 130 Ohm Beryllium driver, they still produce excellent bass quality within the frequency response range. In fact, I would say all the Riobuds that I have heard have excellent textured bass. Maybe this is due to the shell design optimizing bass response, or maybe I'm just making crap up. Regardless, none of them disappoint in this area.

I recently found an old collection of FSOL recording (all of their live ISDN broadcasts from the 90's - 00's) in mp3 format, so I decided to see how they sound with the 300 LCP's. I would guess I spent a good 30 hours with these. FSOL from this time consists of breakbeat techno sounds, mixed with field recordings, film samples and ambient soundscapes (with the odd voice message recording thrown in for good measure). Listening to this all again was really enjoyable. I was able to dissolve into an analogue soundscape, drifting from scene to scene, easily forgetting that I am actively listening to music. For me, these are the most comfortable shell design I have. They disappear in my ears and are quite stable. Most of the time I was able to switch off from the world and be taken on a journey.

After the initial 30 hours I moved on to more varied artists. Subterranean dub techno from CV313, psychedelic space reggae from the Ozric Tentacles, Mancunian Rock & Roll from early Oasis, American Country and Western from Sheryl Crow, Bjork, Psytrance from Hallucinogen and Techno from L.S.G to name but a few. Nothing made me feel like they couldn't handle a particular genre or that they were more suited to one style of music. I enjoyed them all and each of the albums played I know really well.

The main take away from all of this? These are great. It is fantastic what sound quality can be achieved with earbuds and these don't disappoint. If you like sitting in a room with a big pair of monitor speakers, in a big soft leather chair with maybe a glass of wine or two and where no one will disturb you for a few hours, then maybe you'll like these.