[piotrus-g]

So, this is where I impart some wisdom I've learned to this group in the hopes it makes you better builders and saves some time. I know some will love the idea...some will hate it, but here goes: I HAVE NOT USED MY MIC TO TUNE MY IEMS FOR MY LAST 20 BUILDS......I HAVE BEEN USING MY SOUNDTHIEF. The concept is simple....your ears are used for hearing and most people can discern differences in volume, tone, notching, static, distortion...etc. I assemble my BA's, wire them, put the tubing on, and then use my soundthief to check. The soundthief is simply a long tube with an earpiece on it. I put one end in my ear, and move the open end of the tube to the mouth of the tube I want to check. I check left and right ear at the same time and LISTEN for differences....volume, tone, notching, distortion, etc. I don't have to hook up to a mic....I use my ears. I usually just use a pink noise generator......If they sound identical, which they SHOULD be, I move on to the next set. If they do NOT sound the same, I know EXACTLY where to look. A bad graph says something is wrong, but doesn't show you where.....this does. It also can pinpoint bad glue joints as you move it around the BA...open spots can be heard! It also saves time in assembly as I can quickly isolate something that has come undone. If you have wired in reverse, you can hear a difference as it will sound notched or scooped in comparison to the other. Once a BA is assembled before the face goes on, I can check to see if my treble spout sounds too bright, if my bass spout is too loud or bassy, and I can determine which damper to put in. It can also isolate issues once the IEM is completely assebled as you can hover over each individual spout. Yes it takes some practice, but I was getting very frustrated with my builds. People would make build suggestions on what looked great on a graph and none of them sounded right to me...so I ditched the graph and started listening. Hope this helps.

interestingly enough this is opposite of my experience. 11years in and I still think buying GRAS IEC711 set was one of the best investment I have made.
Your solution is simple and effective for sure (and cheap), but definitely graphs will tell you much better where the problem is and what the problem is. Especially when you run both FR and Imp for troubleshooting. There are sometimes problems you won't hear. There are problems you could account by hearing to a problem with speaker but would be a problem with capacitor which naturally is considerably lower cost when replacing parts.

 

[swtnate]

interestingly enough this is opposite of my experience. 11years in and I still think buying GRAS IEC711 set was one of the best investment I have made.
Your solution is simple and effective for sure (and cheap), but definitely graphs will tell you much better where the problem is and what the problem is. Especially when you run both FR and Imp for troubleshooting. There are sometimes problems you won't hear. There are problems you could account by hearing to a problem with speaker but would be a problem with capacitor which naturally is considerably lower cost when replacing parts.

I echo these sentiments. I also understand where hes coming from with the “sound thief”. All this evaluation of sound-staging is gauged by the amount of scrutiny you desire. I built my first 10 sets, essentially, this way. They all sounded “passable”. When I found myself wanting more “juice from the orange”, so to speak, the sound thief method struggles. After I purchased my testing rig along with a calibrator, my WHOLE perspective shifted immediately. I could see a graphical representation of THD and at what frequencies the distortion either heightened or lessened. I can see when theres any sort of seal issue based on a complete lack of sub and low frequencies due to the custom IEM not being fully occluded (or not glued in correctly). Just recently I had a set I built sent back to me with my guy saying that one ear sound amazing while the other has started to only really put put mids. I had the graphs from when I originally built the set to use as my baseline for comparison. Come to find out, the one ear with all mids had a CI driver that was not adequately generating the proper FR. Without all the testing data and baseline graphs, I would have just been guessing. In this scenerio, I also isolated each driver and played a sine sweep 4 times for each driver, listening for audibly noticable “problems”. Each driver played in isolation “sounded“ like there was no issues. Without the graphs, I would have been TOTALLY guessing.

 

[swtnate]

Heres the microphone and calibrator set I use for Frequency Response. The fitting in top left is a rubber gasket that insures full occlusion for every custom shell. So much more reliable that the old “pack it down with blue tak and pray” approach.

 

[musmecca]

I echo these sentiments. I also understand where hes coming from with the “sound thief”. All this evaluation of sound-staging is gauged by the amount of scrutiny you desire. I built my first 10 sets, essentially, this way. They all sounded “passable”. When I found myself wanting more “juice from the orange”, so to speak, the sound thief method struggles. After I purchased my testing rig along with a calibrator, my WHOLE perspective shifted immediately. I could see a graphical representation of THD and at what frequencies the distortion either heightened or lessened. I can see when theres any sort of seal issue based on a complete lack of sub and low frequencies due to the custom IEM not being fully occluded (or not glued in correctly). Just recently I had a set I built sent back to me with my guy saying that one ear sound amazing while the other has started to only really put put mids. I had the graphs from when I originally built the set to use as my baseline for comparison. Come to find out, the one ear with all mids had a CI driver that was not adequately generating the proper FR. Without all the testing data and baseline graphs, I would have just been guessing. In this scenerio, I also isolated each driver and played a sine sweep 4 times for each driver, listening for audibly noticable “problems”. Each driver played in isolation “sounded“ like there was no issues. Without the graphs, I would have been TOTALLY gues

interestingly enough this is opposite of my experience. 11years in and I still think buying GRAS IEC711 set was one of the best investment I have made.
Your solution is simple and effective for sure (and cheap), but definitely graphs will tell you much better where the problem is and what the problem is. Especially when you run both FR and Imp for troubleshooting. There are sometimes problems you won't hear. There are problems you could account by hearing to a problem with speaker but would be a problem with capacitor which naturally is considerably lower cost when replacing parts.

I totally get where you and swtnate are saying...I still have my iec rig and use it on occasion for multiple BA constructs. What drove me this route was building multiple published designs that a very well known member on here said were very bass heavy.....I tried multiple builds and they ALL sounded thin to me with no bass...though the graphs looked "great" to everyone. Your "scary" sounded great to me......I even built your first version... which others said was too bass heavy, but I actually enjoyed it! So what was wrong with me? I was a semi-pro musician in my youth and I began to fear I may have damaged my hearing. I even went to the audiologist to have my hearing checked.....I posted my results and had a good conversation with another member who went down the same rabbit hole as me....a curve that looked "harmon" didn't translate into what my ear heard. We don't really account for those differences as builders now do we? I felt I was living proof that chasing a curve...or at least one not normalized to my hearing...was not working out well. That's why I put the mic down and started listening. My love for building far exceeds my technical ability I'll freely admit, and you guys are levels above me. For the average builder without a rig, I'm simply giving an alternative that focuses on what these constructs are meant to do...be heard.

 

[swtnate]

MAN! As a church pastor would say, “That’ll preach!!” I TOTALLY understand where you’re coming from and it totally makes sense. The one thing I will add is NEVER trust a graph. The engineers for major companies dont fully trust the graphs from the manufacturers. That is why I have my own graphs for each driver I choose to inventory and build with. I have seen some graphs in this thread that makes me raise a brow or two. Theres about 8 million things that can happen in a build prior to completion. additionally, all my graphs dont look to me like they actually sound. I view them simply as a visual depiction of auditory output. Example: the WBFK on a graph may look realllly wavy and wonky. Then you listen to it and it sounds pretty descent PLUS you can hear some presence in the 25k+ that the equipment didnt register. The listening experience is the ultimate judge. In that you are correct. Last thing, some folks that post as “audiophile reviewers” with extremely verbose prose using “$100 words” when a $5 dollar word works just fine, probably just want people to feel like THEY are a big deal. So, some of that stuff is hot air.

 

[Shadowelite]

Hi can anyone recommend a 3d printer for printing shells?

Im looking at the anycubic photon but im clueless about 3d printers

thanks

 

[tonybuild]

Hey guy i want to try single dynamic driver with good bass and highs . Which one you will recommend?

 

[mattmatt]

Hi can anyone recommend a 3d printer for printing shells?

Im looking at the anycubic photon but im clueless about 3d printers

thanks

That would do well.

 

[swtnate]

The photon s was OK. It takes incredibly long to get a print. You can get a 4k msla printer at a much lower price tag than before.

 

[Shadowelite]

The photon s was OK. It takes incredibly long to get a print. You can get a 4k msla printer at a much lower price tag than before.

ANYCUBIC Resin 3D Printer, Photon Mono 4K 3D Printer LCD UV Light Curing with 6.23" 4K Monochrome LCD, 5.19" x 3.14" x 6.49" Printing Size​

​

£190 new so that seems cheap?​

 

[swtnate]

That will most likely workout pretty good. Stick to MSLA/ LCD resins to start. The biocompatible resins will require a more indepth understanding of your machine along with more temperature controls.

 

[mattmatt]

ANYCUBIC Resin 3D Printer, Photon Mono 4K 3D Printer LCD UV Light Curing with 6.23" 4K Monochrome LCD, 5.19" x 3.14" x 6.49" Printing Size​

​

£190 new so that seems cheap?​

The original photon with 2k non mono screen, less powerful UV LED array used to cost around 400usd. With that price tag and better overall specs, that's gold.

 

[slakoth453]

ANYCUBIC Resin 3D Printer, Photon Mono 4K 3D Printer LCD UV Light Curing with 6.23" 4K Monochrome LCD, 5.19" x 3.14" x 6.49" Printing Size​

​

£190 new so that seems cheap?​

That's the one I use, price seems good.

 

[mattmatt]

That's the one I use, price seems good.

It's crazy how these machines are now so capable and cheap compared to 2-3 years ago.

 

[StephenJames]

I've also just picked up a Photon mono 4k for cheap too. I haven't used it yet, as I'm trying to read and learn as much about resin printing as I can before attempting anything.

It's good to know there's a few others here using the same machine, so maybe we can learn from each other.