[Mr.HiAudio]

how it sounds with the MX500 faceplate

I try to put a planar from KZ PR1 - very bad sound :/

 

[BotByte]

Received mine last month, I made some changes to the MX500 shell, and it ended up having very, very little bass, haha! It's my most resolving pair of earbuds so far, though, better than the VE Zen Lite Vita, for example.

It has a pretty unique sound, tbh. I thought about comparisons for a while and couldn't think of anything that sounds like it. It's midcentric, but it's not offensive; It's detailed, but it's not fatiguing. Bass-wise, it's like an AKG K701 lol.

Ah, and I made the silly choice of purchasing a purple/silver 8-core braided cable from XINHS, just to match with the driver color, so... I had to sand down the "cable hole" of the shell, it's most likely what caused the bass reduction.

I really like how it turned out, definitely my favorite so far!

Yeah, you'll need some air for those drivers. You can do a hole like previously stated. Or even play around with a rivet and sealing the cable hole.

Love the purple with clear shells, btw. Grab some trig-rain purple foams and you'll be off.

 

[lucasrepolho]

Awesome! What planar drivers are you using?
Instead of MX500, you should be able to use any PK shells or most DIY metal shells with those drivers....
Also you can easily fit the drivers into standard faceplates by using a thicker double-sided tape around the drivers.
Keep us posted!

I searched all over the internet and all OEM planar drivers I found would end up at ~100USD (50USD + 50USD shipping) each pair, so I purchased a KZ PR1 (non-pro) for 40USD and stole its driver haha!

I really, really disliked the KZ PR1, but it could achieve some very nice bass. I never tuned anything with a micro planar driver, but I'm hoping that it's as responsive to acoustic changes as the planar drivers found in over-ear headphones, got tons of design ideas to test in the next few weeks

Wow, I was thinking about fitting these 8-core XINHS cables in the MX500 shells. Now I can finally see it .
For more bass you might have to drill more holes in the shell, or open the fake vent in the stem.... and use the standard black plastic shells instead of the transparent ones.

It was a pain to fit the cables in, I spent a ton of time sanding the shell and it's still really, really tight lol. I love how it looks though, so I'll definitely do it again soon, got another pair of 600ohm Bery coming in the mail!

Oh, and I'll try drilling some vents for this next one, for sure! There are lots of acoustic changes that I haven't tested yet, the transparent shell is a must for me though, I made tons of ugly prototypes for IEMs and other earbuds, so I'm trying to finally achieve some nice looks as well lol

 

[lucasrepolho]

I try to put a planar from KZ PR1 - very bad sound :/

Oh boy, that's exactly where I got the drivers from hahaha!

Hope it's "fixable" with different shells, the one I'm making leaves a lot more space than the PR1 original shell, and I'll also work on some custom faceplates, I'm curious to check how similar tuning techniques from over-ear planars work on these micro-planar drivers.

Yeah, you'll need some air for those drivers. You can do a hole like previously stated. Or even play around with a rivet and sealing the cable hole.

Love the purple with clear shells, btw. Grab some trig-rain purple foams and you'll be off.

Thanks! I got another pair coming and I'll dye some shells purple for those hehe

Ooh, I got a bunch of colored foams, but I didn't really like how these sound with foams on
I tried using thick, medium and donut foams, but I don't have any of those really thin ones, I might get some to test it eventually, but vents seem to be the way to go, so far. Ah, here's a pic of them with purple foams!

 

[sfrsfr]

I try to put a planar from KZ PR1 - very bad sound :/

I searched all over the internet and all OEM planar drivers I found would end up at ~100USD (50USD + 50USD shipping) each pair, so I purchased a KZ PR1 (non-pro) for 40USD and stole its driver haha!

I really, really disliked the KZ PR1, but it could achieve some very nice bass. I never tuned anything with a micro planar driver, but I'm hoping that it's as responsive to acoustic changes as the planar drivers found in over-ear headphones, got tons of design ideas to test in the next few weeks

You guys beat me to it.... I had the exact same idea, just not enough time to execute it yet.
The PR1 drivers are of a very good quality so I expect to be able to tune them to sound right even in earbud shells.

@Mr.HiAudio What shells did you try? What specifically was wrong with the sound?

 

[DBaldock9]

Make your own Graphene drivers?
.

 

[Mr.HiAudio]

You guys beat me to it.... I had the exact same idea, just not enough time to execute it yet.
The PR1 drivers are of a very good quality so I expect to be able to tune them to sound right even in earbud shells.

@Mr.HiAudio What shells did you try? What specifically was wrong with the sound?

My diy shell

Spoiler

The sound was very thin, although the bass was very weak. You need a lot of power. I think that the situation is the same here as with the BA - need a closed environment

 

[silverszi]

If you look at the green line, this driver can be tuned almost 'flat' or monitor style neutral.

Currently have the 150Ω redfilm drivers on the 'red' setup. Haven't listened to it yet as I just epoxied the MMCX and will need to wait for it to cure.


Of all the 14.8mm drivers I've tried it has the least bass roll off.

I know it has been a few years but do you remember how the hell you got no additional gain on it and maintained extension *with no hump either?*
I'm currently compiling a list of 14.8mm drivers I want to **** with (head-fi censors swear words? since when?) to get something I actually like, thinking that something bloated as hell might be able to get me something similar by flattening the low shelf.

 

[silverszi]

I'm thinking if I get a bloated 14.8mm driver and do what I did to it there (choke it to hell by putting foams inside) I can get something like this.
needs to be bloated and have bass
not many PK drivers with bass though

 

[assassin10000]

I know it has been a few years but do you remember how the hell you got no additional gain on it and maintained extension *with no hump either?*
I'm currently compiling a list of 14.8mm drivers I want to **** with (head-fi censors swear words? since when?) to get something I actually like, thinking that something bloated as hell might be able to get me something similar by flattening the low shelf.

Minimal. Stock shell and foam iirc.

I'm thinking if I get a bloated 14.8mm driver and do what I did to it there (choke it to hell by putting foams inside) I can get something like this.
needs to be bloated and have bass
not many PK drivers with bass though

No bloat but is 2nd place to the 150Ω redfilm (the ones in the above measurement) are the 32Ω Ti 14.8mm drivers.

If you want a smoother upper mid/lower treble you could try the 40Ω ti 14.8mm drivers.


The 64Ω 14.8mm are brighter and have rolled off bass/mid-bass. I'd skip them given what you're trying to do.

 

[silverszi]

Minimal. Stock shell and foam iirc.



No bloat but is 2nd place to the 150Ω redfilm (the ones in the above measurement) are the 32Ω Ti 14.8mm drivers.

If you want a smoother upper mid/lower treble you could try the 40Ω ti 14.8mm drivers.


The 64Ω 14.8mm are brighter and have rolled off bass/mid-bass. I'd skip them given what you're trying to do.

32 ti is in my cart
40 i saw but don't have the tao link for because i think it was deleted
will search for it and try both, and hopefully get back to you in a few weeks, thanks

 

[silverszi]

If you want a smoother upper mid/lower treble you could try the 40Ω ti 14.8mm drivers.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4001344880586.html this listing? i see why i couldnt find it since they show the impedance measurement at 31.2 ohm, making it more likely to be a 32 ohm driver and listed as such on tao

nope nvm found it searching for titanium https://parcelup.com/shop/item.php?id=695461108568#5111701027791
from qigom themselves: https://parcelup.com/shop/item.php?id=623438107756#4575338342908
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005004652657853.html

 

[assassin10000]

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4001344880586.html this listing? i see why i couldnt find it since they show the impedance measurement at 31.2 ohm, making it more likely to be a 32 ohm driver and listed as such on tao

nope nvm found it searching for titanium https://parcelup.com/shop/item.php?id=695461108568#5111701027791
from qigom themselves: https://parcelup.com/shop/item.php?id=623438107756#4575338342908
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005004652657853.html

Yep, that's them.

I gave a pair to @JAnonymous5150 and he made a pair of earbuds with them.

 

[JAnonymous5150]

Yep, that's them.

I gave a pair to @JAnonymous5150 and he made a pair of earbuds with them.

Thanks again, BTW. The "40 Cal Assassin" buds that I made with the 40ohm Ti drivers actually came out quite good. I had some trouble with some peaky upper mids/lower treble to begin with, but was able to bring it in line.

I was pleasantly surprised with the bass on these drivers. Give them enough air and they can pack a punch! I'll probably still revise them at least one more time because I'm still finding the mids to be a bit lean in the current configuration. I have the 40Ti drivers in some adapted MX500 shells that terminate in an MMCX connector and the shell itself seems to create a bit of difficulty in gettin clean, linear mids. I'm still experimenting with how to solve it.

 

[assassin10000]

Thanks again, BTW. The "40 Cal Assassin" buds that I made with the 40ohm Ti drivers actually came out quite good. I had some trouble with some peaky upper mids/lower treble to begin with, but was able to bring it in line.

I was pleasantly surprised with the bass on these drivers. Give them enough air and they can pack a punch! I'll probably still revise them at least one more time because I'm stilm finding the mids to be a bit lean in the current configuration. I have the 40Ti drivers in some adapted MX500 shells that terminate in an MMCX connector and the shell itself seems to create a bit of difficulty in gettin clean, linear mids. I'm stikk experimenting with how to solve it.

This kind of makes me want to order another pair (or more) and experiment with them again.





And I've still got like 6-8 pairs I can build with my spare drivers.

I did get 3 pairs of these shells during the last sale. Considering mmcx modding one along with 2 more pairs of K's LB shells.