[furyossa]

Have you tried putting the 14.8mm PK2 speakers in earbuds like Qian39 or Faaeal Z-sound? I wonder if they are compatible. I really like the form factor of those but the sound could be easily improved with better drivers.
Also, have you tried the 6-hole wooden shells from nsc store? I'd get one if I know for sure they snap on 15.4mm speakers.
Yes ghxamp store has been selling those for a long time, jietu just recently added it. At ghxamp you can find reviews and graphs, I think this is very different from the 64ohm titanium, it's more like a bright midcentric speaker.

For 14.8mm driver I only used metal shell (blue one on image below), PK, Docomo and this one for "sleeping buds" (I will post the image when I finish the cable).
About old titanium 32ohm: I also heard that it was bright mid-centric and skipped that offer.
As for the wooden shell, I always pay attention to the following:

The first type with concave arc back can be seen on the models: NiceHCK EBX, Toneking models, Yinman 600om, etc.
EBX uses a 14.8mm driver but because of this shape seems like 15.4mm in the ear. Personally, I avoid this shape because I do not have good sealing.
The second "angled" shape uses Moondrop and also can be seen on Yinman 150ohm and some DIY models. This form is ok.
The third with a concave arc s my favorite shape for the reason that it has good ergonomics and is comfortable.
I will explain more about the design and ergonomics of different types of shells that I own when I have free time.
I recently tried a little experiment with this shell. The stock shell is too shallow and does not have good air circulation. On the plus side, the 15mm driver fits very well
and it's light-weight. So I try to drill hole on the backside and the shell split from heat into two parts. I replaced back part with a custom made wooden part.
I added a small hole at the back and mmcx socket.

Wood is not good quality but it served well for this experiment. The harder the tree the better.
The soundstage on these is wide and deep and it's quite noticeable. The sound is warm and resonance is produce an interesting effect.
For mid-centric drivers is a good choice, for bass dominant will be overwhelming.

 

[Themilkman46290]

I see you guys using medical tape on the inside of your shells, have you guys tried fluffing up cotton? When I was younger we used to fill subwoofer boxes with loose fluffy cotton and it would make it sound deeper, more controlled, basically it made a small box sound like a big box, I started doing it with my buds recently and noticed it helps to remove some harshness and slightly boost the bass a bit, but it depends on drivers, sounds great on my 130ohm not so good on the 600ogm........

 

[furyossa]

I see you guys using medical tape on the inside of your shells, have you guys tried fluffing up cotton? When I was younger we used to fill subwoofer boxes with loose fluffy cotton and it would make it sound deeper, more controlled, basically it made a small box sound like a big box, I started doing it with my buds recently and noticed it helps to remove some harshness and slightly boost the bass a bit, but it depends on drivers, sounds great on my 130ohm not so good on the 600ogm........

Yup. "Fluffing" cotton is probably the most used dampening material, also is it great to reduce cavity size. Probably the best material is mineral wool but for earbuds
but that would be so ridiculous

 

[robar]

For 14.8mm driver I only used metal shell (blue one on image below), PK, Docomo and this one for "sleeping buds" (I will post the image when I finish the cable).
About old titanium 32ohm: I also heard that it was bright mid-centric and skipped that offer.
As for the wooden shell, I always pay attention to the following:

The first type with concave arc back can be seen on the models: NiceHCK EBX, Toneking models, Yinman 600om, etc.
EBX uses a 14.8mm driver but because of this shape seems like 15.4mm in the ear. Personally, I avoid this shape because I do not have good sealing.
The second "angled" shape uses Moondrop and also can be seen on Yinman 150ohm and some DIY models. This form is ok.
The third with a concave arc s my favorite shape for the reason that it has good ergonomics and is comfortable.
I will explain more about the design and ergonomics of different types of shells that I own when I have free time.
I recently tried a little experiment with this shell. The stock shell is too shallow and does not have good air circulation. On the plus side, the 15mm driver fits very well
and it's light-weight. So I try to drill hole on the backside and the shell split from heat into two parts. I replaced back part with a custom made wooden part.
I added a small hole at the back and mmcx socket.

Wood is not good quality but it served well for this experiment. The harder the tree the better.
The soundstage on these is wide and deep and it's quite noticeable. The sound is warm and resonance is produce an interesting effect.
For mid-centric drivers is a good choice, for bass dominant will be overwhelming.

Thanks again for the amazing detailed answer From my collection I really like the angled profile of qian69 and the concave profile of faaeal z-sound. The qian39 is very comfortable as well.
BTW the metal shell on your images looks the same as RY04's shell, but that whole earbud is cheaper than the listing of the empty shell lol. https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32655283684.html

I was thinking about building a wood earbud with big open vents similar to headroom ms16, do you think it would work?
I bought the 3-hole wood shell from cklewis and while the shape was good for me personally, unfortunately I received faulty products where the two sides had different diameters and also none of them snapped on 15.4mm speakers so they're sitting in my box of unused shells. This is why I'm interested in the 6-hole matte wood from nsc. https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000477388117.html

I have quite a lot of "gray area 15mm" shells from cheap buds on aliexpress, which are too big for 14.8mm but too loose for 15.4mm, sadly I couldn't find a way to reliably attach a 15.4mm speaker to them without glue. These are some of the "gray area" shells I couldn't use so far: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32903306888.html (this is almost good but the glue damaged the edge >) https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32887035677.html (h180 lookalike but the edge radius is smaller > ) https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32882471978.html
I also tried this which happened to be 14.8mm but the stem was very weakly attached and fell out: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32894965305.html

 

[subwoof3r]

Btw how do you drill such tiny perfect holes? I plan to acquire the necessary tools but I'm not sure what to buy. Do you use hand drill similar to what @assassin10000 posted? It's a shame those white tuning foams are so expensive haha. So looking at the foam arrangement, did you find that the small parts of the horseshoe plus the square is better than simply putting the whole horseshoe on in the same place?

Exactly, I'm using the exact same tool, but I'm using my Digital Caliper (Tacklife DC02) to ensure using the right drills each time
The drills are very fragile depending of the diameter (especially less than 0.8mm, but thats no surprise anyway.. ^^)

I'm using this type of holes in most of my MMCX mods, its more convenient to do (easier and better looks/finish), almost invisible to final users (me ) and the result is really here depending on the holes diameters (I never exceed 1.0mm, the biggest holes were on my PK shells mods but into the bass port directly, not like my MX500 picture)
Also, its responds well with all kind of foams (except perhaps foams with too high density).

For the extra square foam added, I think its better with, but need some more experimentations to confirm, as its very fresh yet.

Maybe I missing something but these Titanium 32ohm can be found in many Aliexpress stores. Here is the lowest price
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000592420513.html

Thanks for the link! added in my shopping cart I will try these (anyway for the price, no risk). Also, a little comparison between the 64 ohm will be welcome I guess. From what I can read in the GHXamp customers reviews they are axed for bassheads with poor mids and treble (exaggerated "V" sound type?)... hmm that makes me hesitating but I really want to give a try anyway.

 

[robar]

Exactly, I'm using the exact same tool, but I'm using my Digital Caliper (Tacklife DC02) to ensure using the right drills each time
The drills are very fragile depending of the diameter (especially less than 0.8mm, but thats no surprise anyway.. ^^)

I'm using this type of holes in most of my MMCX mods, its more convenient to do (easier and better looks/finish), almost invisible to final users (me ) and the result is really here depending on the holes diameters (I never exceed 1.0mm, the biggest holes were on my PK shells mods but into the bass port directly, not like my MX500 picture)
Also, its responds well with all kind of foams (except perhaps foams with too high density).

For the extra square foam added, I think its better with, but need some more experimentations to confirm, as its very fresh yet.



Thanks for the link! added in my shopping cart I will try these (anyway for the price, no risk). Also, a little comparison between the 64 ohm will be welcome I guess. From what I can read in the GHXamp customers reviews they are axed for bassheads with poor mids and treble (exaggerated "V" sound type?)... hmm that makes me hesitating but I really want to give a try anyway.

Thanks I'll try to get some kind of hand drill. I had some minor success with wine opener but the drill is far from precise haha
Nope those ghxamp drivers seem like the exact opposite, I'm not sure what that last reviewer was thinking but everybody else who tried those drivers said that it's a bright midcentric sound with shallow bass > this is why it's called monitor. But the treble must be good. of course it would be interesting to hear your impressions. There was a guy on EA who had both and he said treble is better on the monitor 32ohm but the bass is a lot better on the 64ohm titanium

 

[furyossa]

Thanks again for the amazing detailed answer From my collection I really like the angled profile of qian69 and the concave profile of faaeal z-sound. The qian39 is very comfortable as well.
BTW the metal shell on your images looks the same as RY04's shell, but that whole earbud is cheaper than the listing of the empty shell lol. https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32655283684.html

I was thinking about building a wood earbud with big open vents similar to headroom ms16, do you think it would work?
I bought the 3-hole wood shell from cklewis and while the shape was good for me personally, unfortunately I received faulty products where the two sides had different diameters and also none of them snapped on 15.4mm speakers so they're sitting in my box of unused shells. This is why I'm interested in the 6-hole matte wood from nsc. https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000477388117.html

I have quite a lot of "gray area 15mm" shells from cheap buds on aliexpress, which are too big for 14.8mm but too loose for 15.4mm, sadly I couldn't find a way to reliably attach a 15.4mm speaker to them without glue. These are some of the "gray area" shells I couldn't use so far: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32903306888.html (this is almost good but the glue damaged the edge >) https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32887035677.html (h180 lookalike but the edge radius is smaller > ) https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32882471978.html
I also tried this which happened to be 14.8mm but the stem was very weakly attached and fell out: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32894965305.html

You have to take into account that RY use indestructible glue if you try to soften it by heating I think aluminum will soften first than glue You can find on Ali also a red and blue variant as a whole earbud.
I think that the cover of the driver has a metal mesh (16mm) and it's easy to disassemble. Yup. I see now you mention these "gray area 15mm"
These NSC shells are very cheap. These with mmcx seem promising. But shell markings are so ... BIG . I already suggested in the previous post, if the diameter of shell is smaller then driver cover you can place double-sided adhesive tape on the inner walls of the cover
to decrease diameter and use glue on some places of the shell. The glue will stay on tape but not on the plastic cover which is good if you plan to make some changes later.
Edit: I bought from RY store RY4S Plus (silver) and mmcx is so outside of shell.
I thought it would fall off after I pull the cables off. But still, this is very "dangerous" glue after all

 

[robar]

You have to take into account that RY use indestructible glue if you try to soften it by heating I think aluminum will soften first than glue You can find on Ali also a red and blue variant as a whole earbud.
I think that the cover of the driver has a metal mesh (16mm) and it's easy to disassemble. Yup. I see now you mention these "gray area 15mm"
These NSC shells are very cheap. These with mmcx seem promising. But shell markings are so ... BIG . I already suggested in the previous post, if the diameter of shell is smaller then driver cover you can place double-sided adhesive tape on the inner walls of the cover
to decrease diameter and use glue on some places of the shell. The glue will stay on tape but not on the plastic cover which is good if you plan to make some changes later.
Edit: I bought from RY store RY4S Plus (silver) and mmcx is so outside of shell.
I thought it would fall off after I pull the cables off. But still, this is very "dangerous" glue after all

I tried slicing up double sided tape before for those shells, but I couldn't really make a straight 1mm strip, and even then I don't know how would I put it on place precisely. The tape doesn't really stick to the plastic either, it slips off very easily just about the first time I try to put on a cover. My conclusion was that it's not worth the effort for me. I have some salvaged covers though, I'll try to put in vido speakers, maybe they fit

 

[assassin10000]

I would look into a PVA or some sort of non-hardening glue that can be peeled off and isn't permanent for fixing the driver to the shell.

 

[HungryPanda]

I use E8000 glue, sticks well but can be easily opened

 

[subwoof3r]

I use E8000 glue, sticks well but can be easily opened

Definitely, this glue is the best for sticking drivers perfectly, loves the way how its easy to be removed after.
Can you please remember me which glue are you using for your MMCX mods (or when you want something more serious) ? I remember a letter and numbers but can't remember which one

 

[HungryPanda]

I use an epoxy two part glue to set mmcx connectors, I tried a glue gun but it is just too messy

 

[caracal]

Guys does anyone know is it possible to mount diy drivers on a sony E808+ shell?
Is the shell 15.4, 14.8 or some "gray area" in-between?

 

[robar]

I opened up my Faael Z-sound that I bought for 2.8usd on a sale. I think it has the potential to be a very nice base for DIY mods, because the shell is comfortable and the whole thing is neatly built. Taking off the front cover was very easy, there is no glue or at least I couldn't see any residue. The speaker is quite decent for the price, but the stock tuning is quite rough, because there is a peak around 2-4khz which makes the upper mids thin and harsh. Fortunately, there is nothing on the shell, only the speaker has a horseshoe so improving things wont be hard I guess. It would be also interesting to drill additional vents on the shell. I didn't desolder the speakers so I cant know for sure, but it looks like standard 14.8mm compatible to me. Will post updates on my progress.

(EDIT) So I tried bunch of things with foams but the brightness around 2-4khz is persistent. I think more vents needed for smoother sound. Removing the strain relief have a big effect by the way, it increases frequencies in the lows/mids, making the sound warmer and boomier but more dynamic. I'm not really comfortable with drilling and I don't have precise equipment either so I'll try some additional things before modding the shell.

@subwoof3r Do you have a picture of how the EB2 looks inside? If I remember correctly you adjusted the tuning of it, but the head-fi search is broken or at least I couldn't make it work haha. I'd like to see how a similar shell to Z-sound is tuned. From the aliexpress images I can see that it has 2 strips of vents on the sides plus one or two holes at the top, it would be interesting to see the foam arrangement inside.

 

[furyossa]

Guys does anyone know is it possible to mount diy drivers on a sony E808+ shell?
Is the shell 15.4, 14.8 or some "gray area" in-between?

Here are some comments related to SONY E808
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/absolute-best-budget-earbuds.812853/page-24#post-13182694
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/earbuds-round-up.441400/page-973#post-13041575
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/absolute-best-budget-earbuds.812853/page-25#post-13213893