[Themilkman46290]

These 32ohm n52 "strong bass" drivers I got fron nsc sound almost as good as my 130ohm and 400ohm, very easy to tune, pretty fun and enjoyable sound, has pretty good sub bass, but the 400ohm are still the best so far, pretty upset with the 600ohm, someone on here said they are better with factory tuning and I have to say I agree, if the highs weren't rolled off so early they could be awesome but what good is all that bass without the highs, they sound too dark, have very little details
Still waiting on the $15 64 ohm titanium driver, seems its all ready in the country so it won't be long, I will compare them to the others I have and let you guys know how I feel

 

[Merlin-PT]

400ohm are also my favorites, I've even opened a few holes (partial removing the driver tuning paper) for extra detail. (Also using a plastic mx500 shell).
I want another pair of 400ohm, can anyone tell what's better with theses drivers, metal mesh grills or mx500 plastic mesh grills?

I bought 100 units of this tunning cotton/paper, I asked for 40xY2+30xY3+10xY4+10xY5+10xY6 thickness, they sent me like 140 units :
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32934747488.html
Using a thinner filter in the 600ohm drivers will give more detail at the trade off of less bass control.
I've a mx500 shell, closed with mmcx connectors, but I'm still looking for a better shell and tune for this 600 ohms drivers.

 

[Themilkman46290]

400ohm are also my favorites, I've even opened a few holes (partial removing the tuning paper) for extra detail (in a plastic mx500 shell).
I want another pair of 400ohm and wanted to know what's better with theses drivers, metal mesh grills or mx500 plastic mesh grills?

I bought 100 units of this tunning cotton/paper with all Y2Y3Y4Y5Y6 thickness, they sent me like 140 units :
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32934747488.html
Using a thinner filter it in the 600ohm drivers will give more detail at the trade off of less bass control.
I've a mx500 shell, closed with mmcx connectors, but I'm still looking for a better shell and tune for this 600 ohms drivers.

Yeah, it's like no matter what, you either get good details and almost no bass, or sloppy bass and no details, I have used around 30 something tuning papers and foam on them in different combos but it's always one or the other with the 600ohm, in mx500, wood shells or metal shells
I give up on it, it's good driver for people that don't hear past 15khz

Too bad too, now I am waiting for my replacement 500ohm driver, really hoping it's not the same as the 600ohm, just ordered the metal mesh 400ohm from yuming

Does anyone know where to source more high impedance drivers? It would be nice to find some 200ohm or 350ohm..

 

[robar]

NSC store answered me about the new steelmesh titanium 32ohm speaker and they said it's closer to the "low frequency" tuning, which is really good news at least for me

Yeah, it's like no matter what, you either get good details and almost no bass, or sloppy bass and no details, I have used around 30 something tuning papers and foam on them in different combos but it's always one or the other with the 600ohm, in mx500, wood shells or metal shells
I give up on it, it's good driver for people that don't hear past 15khz

Too bad too, now I am waiting for my replacement 500ohm driver, really hoping it's not the same as the 600ohm, just ordered the metal mesh 400ohm from yuming

Does anyone know where to source more high impedance drivers? It would be nice to find some 200ohm or 350ohm..

If you hear very poor bass or treble, it's very likely that your gear can't drive the speaker probably. I experienced something similar with for example Faaeal Rosemary 150ohm.. I received my new dac yesterday and the Rosemary came alive, the bass and treble extension become much greater with more dynamics and details. It was very dull, soft (from like 6-7khz upwards) and midcentric before with my previous weak source, I almost sold it but now I really enjoy its sound.
Btw about the N52, did you write about the cheap N52 that goes for about 4usd? I had one of those as well, but to be honest I found it very average, sound is decent but nothing special, about on the level of better 10usd earbuds. I even prefer the emx500 speaker to it, because it has better bass extension with similar level of detail. The similarly priced 32ohm 19-21 heavy bass speaker is miles ahead, in a total different league in my opinion.

 

[Lex11180]

I'm very curious about building my own earbud as I'm looking for a cheap option that has very good bass / deep sub bass. I'm currently using an RY4S Plus MMCX and using that as my baseline for comparison. I'd love to get more sub bass than that currently offers, but even if it's just more midbass I'd love to try it out. I'll be using it powered off KZ APTX HD cable or 4 core silver plated cable attached to either my Scarlet Solo or Pocophone F1.

Would this be the most recommended driver? What sort of housing should I be looking to pair with it? Where can I find these foam cutout pieces that people use, and which ones should I use? Preferably would love an MMCX setup to pair with my cables but if there's a cabled shell better recommended then could go with that and just recable it.

The two ideas I've had so far is buying a Fengru DIY MMCX unit and swapping the drivers, or buying this Sandalwood shell as I'm getting a bit tired of the MX500 housings and fancy a change, but no idea what would be better for what I want.

Thanks!

 

[furyossa]

Yeah, it's like no matter what, you either get good details and almost no bass, or sloppy bass and no details, I have used around 30 something tuning papers and foam on them in different combos but it's always one or the other with the 600ohm, in mx500, wood shells or metal shells
I give up on it, it's good driver for people that don't hear past 15khz

Too bad too, now I am waiting for my replacement 500ohm driver, really hoping it's not the same as the 600ohm, just ordered the metal mesh 400ohm from yuming

Does anyone know where to source more high impedance drivers? It would be nice to find some 200ohm or 350ohm..

I agree, Diy 600ohm is a "tricky little person" driver I love it but I hate it at the same time. Definitely is not intended for every music genre. Diy 400ohm covers most of the genres I listen to.

 

[robar]

I'm very curious about building my own earbud as I'm looking for a cheap option that has very good bass / deep sub bass. I'm currently using an RY4S Plus MMCX and using that as my baseline for comparison. I'd love to get more sub bass than that currently offers, but even if it's just more midbass I'd love to try it out. I'll be using it powered off KZ APTX HD cable or 4 core silver plated cable attached to either my Scarlet Solo or Pocophone F1.

Would this be the most recommended driver? What sort of housing should I be looking to pair with it? Where can I find these foam cutout pieces that people use, and which ones should I use? Preferably would love an MMCX setup to pair with my cables but if there's a cabled shell better recommended then could go with that and just recable it.

The two ideas I've had so far is buying a Fengru DIY MMCX unit and swapping the drivers, or buying this Sandalwood shell as I'm getting a bit tired of the MX500 housings and fancy a change, but no idea what would be better for what I want.

Thanks!

Yes I'd definitely recommend that speaker. It would be a good idea to buy two pairs so you can compare different tunings/shells side by side. For first build I'd recommend the mx500 shell, others might be able to help you with finding the alternative. I tried many shells but from a pure sound perspective mx500 is still the winner for me, though I haven't tried the more pricy metal shells. For buying tuning foam you can find many options at nsc store, but I haven't tried those personally yet. You can get the basic regular horseshoe with the set of mx500 shells from cklewis for example. It's a good idea to have some spare new mx500 shells anyway because as you progress through builds there will be leftover speakers that you can just put into those and gift away or make identical builds for comparison/backup. I haven't tried the thin white horseshoes because they are very pricey lol. I only had RY4S UE version and the speaker above is definitely better in terms of bass extension and details. If you plan to build mmcx buds I'd recommend buying a cheap set of drills around 0.7-1.5mm

 

[Themilkman46290]

NSC store answered me about the new steelmesh titanium 32ohm speaker and they said it's closer to the "low frequency" tuning, which is really good news at least for me


If you hear very poor bass or treble, it's very likely that your gear can't drive the speaker probably. I experienced something similar with for example Faaeal Rosemary 150ohm.. I received my new dac yesterday and the Rosemary came alive, the bass and treble extension become much greater with more dynamics and details. It was very dull, soft (from like 6-7khz upwards) and midcentric before with my previous weak source, I almost sold it but now I really enjoy its sound.
Btw about the N52, did you write about the cheap N52 that goes for about 4usd? I had one of those as well, but to be honest I found it very average, sound is decent but nothing special, about on the level of better 10usd earbuds. I even prefer the emx500 speaker to it, because it has better bass extension with similar level of detail. The similarly priced 32ohm 19-21 heavy bass speaker is miles ahead, in a total different league in my opinion.

I can get good bass but at the expense of details, it's not that the 600ohm is sounding bad, it has great depth and really good separation, but it took a long time to get it tuned and it turned out fairly dark, or too bright depending on the way I had it tuned, sub bass is awesome but it rolls off too early on the highs

The n52 I got are the 4 dollar ones, they are good, really good if you catch the right tuning, but all the high impedance drivers still sound on a different level
I think I may try the 19-21 sometime soon, you've got me interested

 

[robar]

I can get good bass but at the expense of details, it's not that the 600ohm is sounding bad, it has great depth and really good separation, but it took a long time to get it tuned and it turned out fairly dark, or too bright depending on the way I had it tuned, sub bass is awesome but it rolls off too early on the highs

The n52 I got are the 4 dollar ones, they are good, really good if you catch the right tuning, but all the high impedance drivers still sound on a different level
I think I may try the 19-21 sometime soon, you've got me interested

Oh I understand, some speakers are like that, if there is not enough extension on one side you can only compensate by sacrificing the response on the other side. Everyone has different tastes and it's better to just start with the right speaker, because tuning can only adjust the balance of whats already there. How did you tune the n52 by the way? I tried many many things with it and it sounded decent but I could never tune it close enough to my ideal response, simply not enough raw bass extension. It only gives ok bass if I tune it quite V shaped but even then its more like soft mid/high bass with thin vocals and not that clean deep hitting punch around 40-80hz with full flat mids which I love. I'll look for previous measurements if you're interested.
If you try the 19-21 heavy bass, let us know how you like it, the more opinions the better Personally it's the most well rounded speaker from what I tried, great bass and crispy treble plus really really cheap. Will build more buds and share the result/process after I received my second order. Only the 6usd titanium 64ohm can beat it in bass extension by slight margin, but that speaker has darker treble which I dont think you would be satisfied with

 

[Themilkman46290]

Oh I understand, some speakers are like that, if there is not enough extension on one side you can only compensate by sacrificing the response on the other side. Everyone has different tastes and it's better to just start with the right speaker, because tuning can only adjust the balance of whats already there. How did you tune the n52 by the way? I tried many many things with it and it sounded decent but I could never tune it close enough to my ideal response, simply not enough raw bass extension. It only gives ok bass if I tune it quite V shaped but even then its more like soft mid/high bass with thin vocals and not that clean deep hitting punch around 40-80hz with full flat mids which I love. I'll look for previous measurements if you're interested.
If you try the 19-21 heavy bass, let us know how you like it, the more opinions the better Personally it's the most well rounded speaker from what I tried, great bass and crispy treble plus really really cheap. Will build more buds and share the result/process after I received my second order. Only the 6usd titanium 64ohm can beat it in bass extension by slight margin, but that speaker has darker treble which I dont think you would be satisfied with

For the n52, I feel the same, it's missing the sub bass rumble that the high impedance have, I tuned it with black thick foam covering all but 4 holes, and y2 paper on those 4 holes, then I modded the mettalic "tingo shells" to give it better bass extension using some cloth tape and a couple well positioned holes

Have you guys noticed yuming store has 2 versions of the decidula 130ohm?

 

[assassin10000]

So the K's LBB I MMCX modded a while back needed some tuning.



The mod made a fairly big change in sound signature. It went from a dark smooth sounding bud to a much more balanced sound leaning towards an upper mids emphasis.

This is because the cable opening doubled as a port, as the wire diameter was approx 1.6mm vs 2.1mm hole. I grabbed my hand drill and used a .6mm bit to open a tiny hole. Used a ultra fine sharpie to darken the hole so it wasn't blindingly obvious.

I also used some Testors model flat black enamel I had laying around (from 10+ years ago lol) to coat the stem which had aluminum marks showing from clamping it in my drill to tap threads for the MMCX connectors.




Success. Brought back this buds unique smooth, darker and mid-bassy signature (sub-bass is rolled off). Definitely a non-fatiguing bud, probably a great sleep bud and for rock music.

 

[subwoof3r]

Long time I didn't posted anything here, as I'm only using my mod with the 32ohm drivers we like with @robar. I don't see any benefic using other earbuds, lol.
I glued my mod so it will stick like this for a while.
I still need to order some drivers spare but I'm waiting for this virus thing to calm down a bit before ordering from china again.

 

[golov17]

ST-10S

 

[robar]

I own both (metal and plastic grids), the difference between them is very slight, but almost the same. From my memory, the metal ones are a bit more warmish and bassy probably due to the tighter fit with the thinner driver cover than the standard MX500 plastic cover.

Long time I didn't posted anything here, as I'm only using my mod with the 32ohm drivers we like with @robar. I don't see any benefic using other earbuds, lol.
I glued my mod so it will stick like this for a while.
I still need to order some drivers spare but I'm waiting for this virus thing to calm down a bit before ordering from china again.

I think you can order just fine, my DAC came in 2 weeks which is one of the fastest shipment I had so far. I also ordered from NSC at the end of february (two more of our fav speakers) and it's already in a transit country probably in the EU somewhere. So aliexpress standard packages come really fast with no problem. (at least those that got shipped in the first place, this is why I always ask the seller first if it's ok to order - NSC is good to go fortunately)

Anyway, I had a small project yesterday with dp100 shell and N50 speakers. This is probably my favorite build with this shell so far. For me DP100 shell is very finicky, I had many experiments in the past but I wasn't really content with any of the builds. My ears only like this shell with either steel mesh or dp100/mx760 covers, the regular plastic mx500 is too big for me in this case and makes the sound very forward and aggressive. I put a thick horseshoe from Jietu on the vents, cut into two pieces. I also removed the stock foam from the N50 speaker, leaving it bare. The sound is close to neutral with tight though not so deep bass, full mids and airy but gentle highs. It's sort of an improved, more transparent blue qian25 or Nicehck B40 in terms of sound signature. (better bass than B40, roughly similar to blue qian25) Sounds quite nice with vocals, acoustic/folk/jazz music. I will use this as my portable street/podcast listening set, so the main goal was a very good fit in my ears plus nice full midrange reproduction. If this speaker had better bass extension, it would be a pretty nice all rounder kit. Maybe I'll try upgrading it to the new 32ohm titanium steelmesh in the future.

 

[slappypete]

I was browsing Aliexpress today and came across a picture of what looks like a planer earbud driver in a photo from the comment section on this link. Does anyone know where these drivers came from? I've been out of the loop for a while now.