[hozo]

Just an update on some homemade electrostats. It's normally on the DIY forum, but I thought the Headphone guys might be interested. Original thread

Mods, please move this back to the diy forum if deemed inappropriate. thx.

This pair is currently my best sounding attempt. The Sennheiser ellipse is really comfortable; it seals better than my round housing attempt too. Soundwise, I think I finally solved the mid-bass peak problem. The only thing left is a real amp. Four years after Dr. Gilmore's suggestion to make one of his amps on headwize and still... I have all the KGSS parts at least

ps, I sent cmoy some construction pics. not sure if he'll post them though...

Wen

 

[jagorev]

Wow. I want to have the skills to build my own headphones someday. Mad props, man.

 

[kramer5150]

WOW!! Nice handy work. I like the headband design... Simple and certainly looks effective.

!!

 

[MrJoshua]

Amazing!

 

[rhythmdevils]

how do they sound? they look awsome! way to go man

 

[Svperstar]

Wow that is very sexy.

Can you make me one?

 

[hardbop]

Impressive.

 

[adhoc]

Quote:

Originally Posted by hardbop Impressive.

VERY impressive.

 

[squall2072]

How do they sound compared to other headphones you've tried/got?

Seriously you deserve alot of credit, I wouldn't know where to start if I was going to make a headphone!

 

[nabwong]

What's the total cost of the headphones?

 

[gpalmer]

That's quite an accomplishment but I think I'll keep my HE-90s!

 

[hozo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kramer5150 I like the headband design... Simple and certainly looks effective.

Hehe, I got tired of trying to make better looking headbands. Finally went back to my trusted and true ghetto coat hanger method.

Cost? If you count the scrollsaw, sander, perf metal, etc. It gets up there. However, pure material cost is neglegible (not including amp).

Sound compared to my HD580, K1000, stax ear buds? I like them for different things. I think all my headphones are colored. I match the coloration to certain types of music. Being an electrostat, imaging and transient response is good. Soundstage in the ellipse config really depends on the recording. It produces no artifical soundstage. Since I'm biased, Mulveling and Purk gave some sound impressions for one of my previous versions here and here (sry for quoting you guys

) in a recent Atlanta meet.

Although I've improved the highs and bass, the impedance matching transformers are the bottleneck. They definately don't help with the 100hz bass hump (they start "singing"). Air, aka high freq response, is much more pronounced in the latest version. Again, the trannies aren't helping.

Here are some earlier version freq plots measured using the ratshack spl meter, which is not the most accurate mic around. Input/output came from my soundcard, which is also far from flat (and has harmonic weirdness). That said, it's useful for comparison testing.

take w/ grain of salt..
random offshoot version: small driver, high tension. nonexistent bass, huge midbass resonance.

very old version: midsized driver, thick diaphragm. high tension. w/ dampening open measurement. This one really puzzled me. The music didn't really sound smooth, and I didn't notice an airy sound (from the elevated high freq).

old version: large square mylarish driver. w/o dampening

 

[Jahn]

The coat hanger is part of your signature - even if you go bigtime someday, you have to keep a part of a coat hanger in there somewhere!

i would put this right up with rice racers that put ferrari moldings on fieros, except that you built yours from scratch - it's more like the flintstones making a car out of wood, animal skin and granite! funky, folksy and ballsy! congrats!