[beanxinh]

My second pair of DIY, this time I'm using an 150 ohm driver.
The bass is a little bit too much for my liking so are there anyway to reduce it? I see you guys often modding the shell to get the desired sound signature, so are there any rule to it? Thank.

 

[robar]

My second pair of DIY, this time I'm using an 150 ohm driver.
The bass is a little bit too much for my liking so are there anyway to reduce it? I see you guys often modding the shell to get the desired sound signature, so are there any rule to it? Thank.

What is the current tuning? We can help if we know what's inside at the moment. Generally speaking, with mx500 shells you get a balanced tight sound if you put a standard horseshoe on the shell and nothing or at max very thin (white) horseshoe on the speaker. If there is foam on the speaker and you dont want to remove it, you can try covering/blocking some of the vents on the shell but it will brighten up the mids.

In my experience the general logic is this:

1. covering the vents of the shell tightens up the bass and increases upper midrange (about 1.5-3khz) It also makes the bass deeper to some extent compared to completely open vents. However if the vents are blocked too much, the bass will vanish and the mids become piercing. (not really a concern of you atm, it only happens in extreme cases) So if an earbud sounds dark and boomy, cover the vents more.

2. Covering the back of the speaker pushes the lower midrange back (about up to 1.5khz) essentially making the midbass and upper mids more prominent. Basically if the earbud sounds too midcentric or flat, try adding a thin foam on the speaker. If the bass and upper mids are too prominent, try removing it or replacing with thinner type.

3. Drilling new vents on the shell creates more headroom for the previous tuning options. It usually pushes back the upper mids and increases mid/upperbass. If a shell has insufficent vents (quite a lot generic shells need more vents, also mmcx mod can block vents ) then this is the only way to make proper tuning possible. But too much vents make the sound sloppy and impactless. Basically if the earbud sounds bright or sharp and you have no other option, then add more vents.

This is a balancing game really. Tuning is about relative differences, so any change will affect the whole sound. I'll post measurements which make these points much more clear

 

[beanxinh]

What is the current tuning? We can help if we know what's inside at the moment. Generally speaking, with mx500 shells you get a balanced tight sound if you put a standard horseshoe on the shell and nothing or at max very thin (white) horseshoe on the speaker. If there is foam on the speaker and you dont want to remove it, you can try covering/blocking some of the vents on the shell but it will brighten up the mids.

In my experience the general logic is this:

1. covering the vents of the shell tightens up the bass and increases upper midrange (about 1.5-3khz) It also makes the bass deeper to some extent compared to completely open vents. However if the vents are blocked too much, the bass will vanish and the mids become piercing. (not really a concern of you atm, it only happens in extreme cases) So if an earbud sounds dark and boomy, cover the vents more.

2. Covering the back of the speaker pushes the lower midrange back (about up to 1.5khz) essentially making the midbass and upper mids more prominent. Basically if the earbud sounds too midcentric or flat, try adding a thin foam on the speaker. If the bass and upper mids are too prominent, try removing it or replacing with thinner type.

3. Drilling new vents on the shell creates more headroom for the previous tuning options. It usually pushes back the upper mids and increases mid/upperbass. If a shell has insufficent vents (quite a lot generic shells need more vents, also mmcx mod can block vents ) then this is the only way to make proper tuning possible. But too much vents make the sound sloppy and impactless. Basically if the earbud sounds bright or sharp and you have no other option, then add more vents.

This is a balancing game really. Tuning is about relative differences, so any change will affect the whole sound. I'll post measurements which make these points much more clear

Thank for your information. This is what inside my bud. I'll spend more time to burn the driver to see if the sound improve. After that I will try to mod the shell base on your guide.
Also I'm quite sure what do you mean by "back of the speaker", does it where I currently put the horse shoe?

 

[Themilkman46290]

Thank for your information. This is what inside my bud. I'll spend more time to burn the driver to see if the sound improve. After that I will try to mod the shell base on your guide.
Also I'm quite sure what do you mean by "back of the speaker", does it where I currently put the horse shoe?

Try putting the horse shoe on the shell vents instead of the driver

 

[robar]

Thank for your information. This is what inside my bud. I'll spend more time to burn the driver to see if the sound improve. After that I will try to mod the shell base on your guide.
Also I'm quite sure what do you mean by "back of the speaker", does it where I currently put the horse shoe?

Yes, the bass is boomy because the shell itself has no foam on the "platform". The current setup you have is almost always gives too much mid/upper bass and overly dominant upper mids (with the shell type you have). Do you have any other tuning foam? Usually the foam installed on the speaker is not ideal for putting on the shell. But if I see correctly your speaker has two foams on it, one regular on top of a thin layer. Try putting that top layer on the shell, maybe it will work!

 

[beanxinh]

Thanks. I still have other foam that come with the shells

The top ones were comed with the black mx500 shells and the bottoms comed with the white ones, I think they have the same thickness, and I don't know where to put the middle foams into the shell so I just leave it outside and just apply the horse shoe. The drivers do not come with the tuning foams, just that I put them on the wrong way and had chaged it according to themilkman46290 suggestion. I think the bass come a little less bloated.

 

[robar]

Quick rundown of my Titanium 64ohm build which is finally starting to come together. I used two different foams on the vents, one is the regular type (from set of mx500 speakers) the other is the thick jietu-type. The biggest lesson I learned is that in configurations like this it's very important to cut the foam strips to proper length. In the first prototype I just cut the foams into half and let the excessive parts hang. But it created sharp resonances in the upper mid/lower treble region. I also put a small piece of the horseshoe-middle between the vents, not sure what exactly is the effect but I think it further decreased resonances for the price of some bass impact (still thinking about removing it). Now it's very smooth with no peaks even at high volume.

The shell is regular mx500 black with white print, no modifications needed. Cable is RY-C10 from RY store. I had to cherry pick the best fitting shells for the speakers, because imperfect fit created channel imbalance otherwise and I didn't want to glue (well I don't have any glue haha). The thick jietu foam keeps the covers in position by the way, with only thin foam the speakers were loose.

I really like how it sounds, it has a full, weighty smooth sound with deep powerful bass. The bass is boosted but it is clean and the main boost is concentrated between 50-100hz. Mids and highs are natural. The upper mids are smooth and tamed. The top end of the treble is somewhat dark with less resolution which is expected with this speaker. Overall a gentle enveloping sound paired with excellent bass and beautiful vocals, it complements crispy/more analytic earbuds very well. Very good for long term listening, gaming, movies etc. Faaeal Rosemary - which is a well respected dark/smooth/bassy earbud - is boomy, muddy, shallow, less transparent in comparison.

Thanks. I still have other foam that come with the shells
The top ones were comed with the black mx500 shells and the bottoms comed with the white ones, I think they have the same thickness, and I don't know where to put the middle foams into the shell so I just leave it outside and just apply the horse shoe. The drivers do not come with the tuning foams, just that I put them on the wrong way and had chaged it according to themilkman46290 suggestion. I think the bass come a little less bloated.

Yep the horseshoe should go on the shell, the middle part is just the byproduct of cutting out the horseshoe shape. It can be used sometimes with different tuning scenarios.
Glad it works, did you remove all foam from the speaker? Have you tried putting the speakers into the black shells? Maybe it will sound better, at least I don't have positive experience with transparent plastic shells in general.

 

[phcjpp]

My second pair of DIY, this time I'm using an 150 ohm driver.
The bass is a little bit too much for my liking so are there anyway to reduce it? I see you guys often modding the shell to get the desired sound signature, so are there any rule to it? Thank.

Can I just say those are seriously nice - kudos!

Chris

 

[beanxinh]

Quick rundown of my Titanium 64ohm build which is finally starting to come together. I used two different foams on the vents, one is the regular type (from set of mx500 speakers) the other is the thick jietu-type. The biggest lesson I learned is that in configurations like this it's very important to cut the foam strips to proper length. In the first prototype I just cut the foams into half and let the excessive parts hang. But it created sharp resonances in the upper mid/lower treble region. I also put a small piece of the horseshoe-middle between the vents, not sure what exactly is the effect but I think it further decreased resonances for the price of some bass impact (still thinking about removing it). Now it's very smooth with no peaks even at high volume. The shell is regular mx500 black with white print, no modifications needed. Cable is RY-C10 from RY store. I had to cherry pick the best fitting units for the speakers, because I didn't want to glue (well I don't have any glue haha). The thick jietu foam keeps the covers in position by the way, with only thin foam the speakers were loose.
I really like how it sounds, it has a full, weighty smooth sound with deep powerful bass. The bass boosted but it is clean and the boost is concentrated between 50-100hz. Mids and highs are natural. The upper mids are smooth and tamed. The top end of the treble is somewhat dark with less resolution which is expected with this speaker.Very good for long term listening, gaming, movies etc. Faaeal Rosemary - which is a well respected dark/smooth/bassy earbud - is boomy, muddy, shallow, less transparent in comparison.



Yep the horseshoe should go on the shell, the middle part is just the byproduct of cutting out the horseshoe shape. It can be used sometimes with different tuning scenarios.
Glad it works, did you remove all foam from the speaker? Have you tried putting the speakers into the black shells? Maybe it will sound better, at least I don't have positive experience with transparent plastic shells in general.

Using the bud without any foam bring the bass down to my desire level . I'll try with the black shell later and see if the sound change for the better. I'm still waiting for the wood and the metal shells which will coming next week to swap around the driver.
Thanks again for your help

 

[robar]

Here's a fun tuning project I made few weeks ago which I'm very pleased with. This build is based on the blue mx760 set from NSC store, maybe it will be interesting for @subwoof3r because he has this set as well The speaker is very similar to the N50, just a bit crispier. It sure has a powerful magnet inside because the earbud shells snap together when they're close on the desk

The set originally doesn't come with any foam besides the thin white layer on the speaker. The sound was nice but the upper mids were too sharp and the bud had a tendency to be harsh and peaky in the lower treble. I made many modifications to the shell and tuning, and now it sounds really good for what it is. It is neutral, spacious with impressive bass from this shell/speaker combo. (tight with good depth and punch, reminiscent of much bigger shells) Btw I couldn't fit any other speaker to this particular shell.
It might not be in my top 3 based on sound alone (my preferred speakers are better of course), but it's still one of my favorite projects because I feel that I succeeded at bringing out the most from the material, utilizing many techniques and it does sound pretty decent. (I like it more than any stock earbud I bought below 15usd) It is a good all rounder but I especially like it with acoustic songs, symphonic orchestras, film scores etc. The fit and comfort is not the most ideal for me (bit too loose with sharp corners) but it could be pretty nice for small ears. The new shell from nsc seem to improve every aspect of this shell, this is why I'm excited about that.

These are the mods I made:
1. drilled one 1.5mm vent on the side, then covered it with thick jietu foam
2. opened bass port with 1.5mm drill bit
3. enlarged the cable hole with 2mm drill bit
4. put regular foam on the vent platform
5. removed thin white foam from the speaker

 

[furyossa]

Where can you buy a cable like this? Thank.

I build this cable with two spare cables from some old earbuds.
Parts that I use for this build
Cables: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32963864487.html ; https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32684911951.html
Shell: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/33046806795.html
Driver: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32877041035.html
Plug: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32700274028.html
MMCX: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000040929365.html
I cut splitters and plugs from black and white cables and braid new one from these wires

 

[furyossa]

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000844080550.html
This titanium diaphragm looks promising

 

[subwoof3r]

Here's a fun tuning project I made few weeks ago which I'm very pleased with. This build is based on the blue mx760 set from NSC store, maybe it will be interesting for @subwoof3r because he has this set as well The speaker is very similar to the N50, just a bit crispier. It sure has a powerful magnet inside because the earbud shells snap together when they're close on the desk

The set originally doesn't come with any foam besides the thin white layer on the speaker. The sound was nice but the upper mids were too sharp and the bud had a tendency to be harsh and peaky in the lower treble. I made many modifications to the shell and tuning, and now it sounds really good for what it is. It is neutral, spacious with impressive bass from this shell/speaker combo. (tight with good depth and punch, reminiscent of much bigger shells) Btw I couldn't fit any other speaker to this particular shell.
It might not be in my top 3 based on sound alone (my preferred speakers are better of course), but it's still one of my favorite projects because I feel that I succeeded at bringing out the most from the material, utilizing many techniques and it does sound pretty decent. (I like it more than any stock earbud I bought below 15usd) It is a good all rounder but I especially like it with acoustic songs, symphonic orchestras, film scores etc. The fit and comfort is not the most ideal for me (bit too loose with sharp corners) but it could be pretty nice for small ears. The new shell from nsc seem to improve every aspect of this shell, this is why I'm excited about that.

These are the mods I made:
1. drilled one 1.5mm vent on the side, then covered it with thick jietu foam
2. opened bass port with 1.5mm drill bit
3. enlarged the cable hole with 2mm drill bit
4. put regular foam on the vent platform
5. removed thin white foam from the speaker

Nice! thanks for the infos, I will maybe give a try, but for now I moved to another hobby, I'm learning to be a freestyle drone pilot and learning to build my first drone by myself (that is why I'm much less active here and on EA group, sorry for that)

 

[SiggyFraud]

Quick rundown of my Titanium 64ohm build which is finally starting to come together. I used two different foams on the vents, one is the regular type (from set of mx500 speakers) the other is the thick jietu-type. The biggest lesson I learned is that in configurations like this it's very important to cut the foam strips to proper length. In the first prototype I just cut the foams into half and let the excessive parts hang. But it created sharp resonances in the upper mid/lower treble region. I also put a small piece of the horseshoe-middle between the vents, not sure what exactly is the effect but I think it further decreased resonances for the price of some bass impact (still thinking about removing it). Now it's very smooth with no peaks even at high volume.

The shell is regular mx500 black with white print, no modifications needed. Cable is RY-C10 from RY store. I had to cherry pick the best fitting shells for the speakers, because imperfect fit created channel imbalance otherwise and I didn't want to glue (well I don't have any glue haha). The thick jietu foam keeps the covers in position by the way, with only thin foam the speakers were loose.

I really like how it sounds, it has a full, weighty smooth sound with deep powerful bass. The bass is boosted but it is clean and the main boost is concentrated between 50-100hz. Mids and highs are natural. The upper mids are smooth and tamed. The top end of the treble is somewhat dark with less resolution which is expected with this speaker. Overall a gentle enveloping sound paired with excellent bass and beautiful vocals, it complements crispy/more analytic earbuds very well. Very good for long term listening, gaming, movies etc. Faaeal Rosemary - which is a well respected dark/smooth/bassy earbud - is boomy, muddy, shallow, less transparent in comparison.



Yep the horseshoe should go on the shell, the middle part is just the byproduct of cutting out the horseshoe shape. It can be used sometimes with different tuning scenarios.
Glad it works, did you remove all foam from the speaker? Have you tried putting the speakers into the black shells? Maybe it will sound better, at least I don't have positive experience with transparent plastic shells in general.

Hold up. Are you saying that using either black or transparent coloured shell gives different tuning results?

 

[robar]

By the way, if anyone's interested, GHXamp store started to add new earbud speakers to its inventory with quite detailed info in some cases. They have 130ohm Beryllium speaker for an affordable price as well (+ they have coupons). I haven't bought anything from the store yet but it looks reputable and they answered to my question quickly in the past.

Nice! thanks for the infos, I will maybe give a try, but for now I moved to another hobby, I'm learning to be a freestyle drone pilot and learning to build my first drone by myself (that is why I'm much less active here and on EA group, sorry for that)

Awesome! But I hope you're not gonna fully disappear

Hold up. Are you saying that using either black or transparent coloured shell gives different tuning results?

I can't really tell for sure as I didn't have the chance to directly compare those. However I do know that there are significant differences between certain types of mx500 shells. For example black shells have two very different types with completely different molds, that I commented about earlier. I also have shells salvaged from Fengru Silver TC200 and white Vidos that yield significantly different response compared to other generic ones. (much more v-shaped with a strong boost on upper mid/low treble) These differences could have many reasons, like slightly different diameter of vents, or the material / finish itself could be partly responsible, even the way they snap on covers, I don't know the exact reason, but the difference is there. Also whenever I encountered earbuds with transparent shells, I had problems with their bass response, I found them to be too soft and sloppy. (I struggled a lot with dp100 shells with no real success so far) Also when I was into buying cheap buds, people often recommended me to avoid transparent versions (like RY4S, EMX500 etc) This might be a coincidence of course, but enough for me to avoid transparent shells ever since. At the end of the day, only direct comparison would reveal the truth, this is just my experience and theory