[LordJesus]

Do you know of any cheap (below 100$) earbuds that come pre-terminated with a 4.4 mm Pentaconn plug?

I'm asking because I just bought a Sony DAP and I want to try out the balanced output.

 

[kingdixon]

Do you know of any cheap (below 100$) earbuds that come pre-terminated with a 4.4 mm Pentaconn plug?

I'm asking because I just bought a Sony DAP and I want to try out the balanced output.

I don't know if there are any pre-terminated into 4.4 but your other option would be one terminated to mmcx, then use any 4.4 cable of your choice.

i have willsound mk2 and it sounds amazing on my wm1a balanced, it comes in mmcx, then you can use any cable or buy one terminated in 4.4.

also, if you are set on a specific earbud, you can ask aliexpress sellers if it can be terminated to 4.4 for extra, alot of them can do such mods.

 

[mbwilson111]

Do you know of any cheap (below 100$) earbuds that come pre-terminated with a 4.4 mm Pentaconn plug?

I'm asking because I just bought a Sony DAP and I want to try out the balanced output.

If you cannot find one that is 4.4mm you can use an adapter like this with 2.5mm balanced cables.... or buds that are already terminated with 2.5 balanced.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/FiiO-BL44-...argid=aud-544645955450:pla-529960211437&psc=1

 

[40760]

Most Venture Electronics earbuds does come in 4.4mm Pentacon options...

 

[HungryPanda]

I bought my Linsoul BLD 150 in 4.4 terminated

 

[seanc6441]

I think some quantity of foam is necessary for the earbud to work properly, either on the drivers or on the vents. But my experience is that if you keep adding more to the vents it will flat out the sound in the expense of bass extension and clarity. Basically reduces all frequencies below 3-4k with the most effect on mid/upper bass while smoothing out upper mids/lower highs around 2-4k. For example I have 3 different sounding vidos and the only real difference between them is the thickness of foam on the vents. The one with the thickest foam (y-blue) sounds flattest with shallowest bass muddiest mids while the one with thinnest foam (new white) is the most V shaped with deepest bass.

That's my experience, it really depends on how the stock tuning is done. Many earbuds are overdamped with thick tuning cotton to reduce frequency below 2khz to increase perceived detail in the highs (literally just making many earbuds treble heavy especially from 3-8khz which seems to be very prominent in many earbuds).

However some buds will suffer if you remove some of the tuning foam becauss they are not overdamped.

Pk shells give you more tuning flexibility because you can tune the driver damping and also the shell separately. But in mx500 shells the tuning foam effects both the driver and the shell simultaneously.

 

[seanc6441]

Interesting, so to increase bass, the key is to reduce some tuning cotton from drivers? this is strange because in all my DIY tries I conclued the contrary (at least in my MX500 mods), if I generally remove all the tuning foams attached on drivers, there is much less bass (as less tight/pressure) and soundstage becomes rough, due to too much opened holes at the same time (from shells side).

Depends on the stock tuning, the shell type (mx500 has only one variable which is the horse shoe tuning foam, pk and similar shells have two). Also depending on if you convert to mmcx and add a bass port (which you should because it makes a difference to bass extension and soundstaging in my experience). Although like everything else with tuning you must use trial and error. I usually make a very small 1-1.5mm bass port and see how it performs, too much will ruin the shell tuning.

If it's a pk or similar shell I find tuning the driver first without foams and out of its shell is a good idea. I use the paper filters of various thinkess or some sticky backed tuning foam to tune the driver to get a clear but unrestricted open sound. (I find overdamped drivers sound flat and dead, underdamped sounds muddy and also lacks energy). You'll know when it's damped to the right level by testing the extremes first until you reach a good level.

After that i put it in the shell and tune the shell with a full foam attached to the earbud, that will give me an idea of what the final sound will be like.

I usually allow the earbud to sound slightly warmer than ideal because when you seal up the driver to the shell it tightens up the sound slightly and that extra warmth is reduced.

While you can add more bass to some tunings because they were overdamped. That's not always the case. So really its a trial and error game. So you are right in saying that removing too much damping will also negatively effect the bass impact.

 

[robar]

That's my experience, it really depends on how the stock tuning is done. Many earbuds are overdamped with thick tuning cotton to reduce frequency below 2khz to increase perceived detail in the highs (literally just making many earbuds treble heavy especially from 3-8khz which seems to be very prominent in many earbuds).

However some buds will suffer if you remove some of the tuning foam becauss they are not overdamped.

Pk shells give you more tuning flexibility because you can tune the driver damping and also the shell separately. But in mx500 shells the tuning foam effects both the driver and the shell simultaneously.

Thank you for your explanations, they are very useful to me as a novice diy-er Yes I've only tried shells so far that have similar vents to mx500 (directly over the speakers) I have a diy mx760 project going one where the shell don't have any tuning foam added, just the speakers have a thin stripe of horseshoe, and the sound is already nice and clean but somewhat bright. It'll be interesting to see if adding a foam to the vents increase or decrease brightness. With medical tape on the vents the bass got less in depth and quantity, but maybe a regular thin horseshoe have different effect.
I have an empty pk shell from the faulty sr2 and it's not impossible that I'll have another one from the faulty b40 so I'll put them to good use at least in the future. My only obstacle right now is that I don't have any 14.8mm speakers unfortunately and the available parts at aliexpress are either expensive or only sold in 10 unit lots… I also plan to diy with small shells like ms16 etc. which should create interesting tuning options as well.
How do you drill bass ports on mx500 shells? You kind of guess where the hole should go and just start to drill from the inside?

 

[chaiyuta]

Between **** KP110 and Smabat ST-10, which one is a upper hand?

 

[Willber]

I have an empty pk shell from the faulty sr2 and it's not impossible that I'll have another one from the faulty b40

Can you please check those two side by side? I found that my B40 shell is slightly bigger than my SR2. In fact it is bigger than all of my 'PK' buds. Please confirm I'm not going mad!'

 

[robar]

Can you please check those two side by side? I found that my B40 shell is slightly bigger than my SR2. In fact it is bigger than all of my 'PK' buds. Please confirm I'm not going mad!'

I checked them for you and while the shells are exactly the same (apart from the one blocked vent on the b40) the B40's front cover is a lot bigger, mostly thicker but I think the diameter is also larger by a small amount. It looks similar to a 15.4mm speaker in size. Maybe this is why you feel the B40 is bigger, I think the front cover adds a few millimeters to the overall size. By the way I'm not particularly digging the comfort of these pk-buds (I mostly tried B40)… the bulgy body push my ears quite hard from the inside and it starts to hurt after 30mins. The fit is good but for long term listening I very much prefer even mx500 shells. (I'm a tall guy but have relatively small ears, so I guess that makes my ears average-sized? ) Qian69 is still the most comfortable earbud I've ever had. (closely followed by Qian39, which is even good for sleeping on the side)

 

[assassin10000]

@robar B40 is 16.7mm diameter, where as most pk buds are 16.1mm.

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/earbuds-round-up.441400/page-2985#post-15192231

 

[jogawag]

Between **** KP110 and Smabat ST-10, which one is a upper hand?

ClieOS says "KP110 is quite good, but if you have ST-10, you don't have to take KP110." elsewhere.

 

[robar]

@robar B40 is 16.7mm diameter, where as most pk buds are 16.1mm.

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/earbuds-round-up.441400/page-2985#post-15192231

So it's indeed really close to 15.4mm earbuds! (I meant covers for mx500 shell for example, and your measurements show 16.8mm for those vs 16.7mm for the b40) However the biggest difference is the thickness of the cover in my opinion, in a quick glance it's almost twice as thick as sr2, I think it makes the B40 taller/deeper

 

[Willber]

So it's indeed really close to 15.4mm earbuds! (I meant covers for mx500 shell for example, and your measurements show 16.8mm for those vs 16.7mm for the b40) However the biggest difference is the thickness of the cover in my opinion, in a quick glance it's almost twice as thick as sr2, I think it makes the B40 taller/deeper

Thanks for checking. I find the smaller & shallower SR2 more comfortable.