[sososerious]

In the spirit of giving back, I present to you the "Home-Made IEMs" forum Definitive DIY Guide:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jU37oWefx2dGS8dWw5TVkugEtwJh_bh3fuUBNe2HrQg/edit?usp=sharing

A few people have asked for a document that organized the vast amounts of information that this particular forum contains and here it is.

It's mostly finished and I'm loosing motivation to make it perfect as I've learned enough compiling and re-writing it that I want to now spend time actually working on my own custom IEMs instead of the document. There is so much more I wanted to add to it but it-is-what-it-is.

Enjoy!

 

[sososerious]

I believe that document also compares some branded universal iems and discusses their use of BA drivers, maybe cross reference reviews on those and pick a list of drivers to start with?

@ForceMajeure

I personally think a single CI with it's own sound bore in to the canal section is plenty, you may want a bit more but you can double up or use a TWFK in unison for its extra low section.

You can certainly get massive mass from BAs if you take the time, it won't be cheap mind you.

 

[ForceMajeure]

@sososerious
 
I have just read the entire thread including the Furco guide I might need to go over them again to refresh my memory.
I was hopping someone had experience with the Vsonic gr07be so it could be easier for me to match the bass,
I know I'm gonna loose a lot of money on this and I really want to make a good pair (or two) I will probably be buying a dozen BA and experimenting.
I have bought a microphone so I could do measurements and  compare sound signature and CSD to the Vsonic or others.
 
Also to whom is experienced, do you use lacquer to have a clear finish on the shell or do you polish  or both? I will probably use Dreve UV.

 

[Furco]

Hi all, most of us who have been experimenting and building with BA's have chosen the drivers based on a number of factors. Price is usually the major one when just getting started. All of us have burned up BAs during the soldering process, pulled out solder pads during excessive handling, clogged up drivers by accidently pushing acoustic materials inside of the driver, and there have been the occasion crushing of the metal housing of drivers trying to force them into impossibly small spaces. The more expensive the driver, the less forgiving they tend to be. There is a real need to develop skills with handling miniature components. As far as recommendations about BAs, the only true recommendations that can be made are to build IEMs using the same exact configurations that have proven to yield good/great sounding DIY IEMs in the past. I totally understand the DIY spirit of wanting to give birth to your own unique design and configuration but getting to this level of DIY is usually dependent on your skill as a builder, testing equipment, patience to acoustically tune them and most importantly, your willingness to accept failure. There are numerous pitfalls during the build process that make it challenging for us to help pinpoint what the problem might be if you're using BAs we're not familiar with.

I have no doubt that many of you newcomers have some pretty cool ideas and I look forward to seeing your progress. New ideas definitely spark old flames in some of the veterans on this forum.

I'm not sure I actually answered any of your questions but the best thing you can do is just get started and post regular updates on your progress. Be honest with the challenges you are facing and have the willingness to accept advice that may be counter productive to your design. Many of us have seen well intentioned DIYers join this forum with an excess of excitement only to go dark a few short weeks later. I would venture a guess and say there are probably a dozen of us over the years who have actually managed to produce custom IEMs that we found enjoyable to listen to.

Cheers!

 

[Furco]

You will spend more money DIY route.

That is an absolute fact.

However, with attempting a DIY build, you can spread out the cost over many months which helps swallowing that" financial" pill a bit easier for some.

 

[ForceMajeure]

Thank you for your advice,nice to see some veteran blood in here
Do you recommend using a breadboard for testing configuration?

 

[Furco]

Thank you for your advice,nice to see some veteran blood in here
Do you recommend using a breadboard for testing configuration?

Absolutely. I know veterans like tranhieu tend to just solder and test. You'll probably want to spend a few solid weeks learning how BA drivers react to various crossover circuits and using a breadboard can assist with rapid prototyping.

However, you don't always need to build your own crossover as many newer multi-BA drivers come with them already incorporated. It's still very interesting to learn about this part of tuning so it's time and money well spent in my opinion.

Here's the thing about this forum, there are lots of lurkers and we pop up from time to time and get invested in projects when they've reached a certain level of credibility. We're all curious about new ideas and configurations, as well as artwork. Heck! Who doesn't love a great looking set of IEMs? This forum got hot last fall when a few of us invested time and money and started posting the various stages of our builds. That brought back in the veterans who provided some awesome advice and support and some significant contributions were made to this forum.

I look forward to helping anyone who's actually making progress and was actually a little sad that this forum went cold. But I think these kinds of DIY forums tend to get hit during he winter months as this is a great project to fight the cabin fever some of experience during long cold winters.

--Cheers!

 

[tranhieu]

Lol I'm no veteran but it's true I often just solder the whole thing together and watch how it behaves inside the coupler to see if it's worth building an actual test set.

It's also true long time lurkers are still around but they don't post often if all new posts are questions that were already answered. The knowledge accumulated in this thread is enough for builders to comprehend hi-end designs in the market.

 

[JamesBr]

  Maybe, you guys should to have a look at TAOBAO, there have so many goods on line shopping. Just like BA drivers, cables, and so on...
 
https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?_u=6fvg283b2af&id=41074279827  you can try to click this link to reach it...

Tanks for the link!

 

[taiden]

I'd be wary of that price, $1.50 for a TWFK-30017. Qty pricing for this part is around $30@1000.
 
Edit: nevermind! That's Yuan not Yen.

 

[MuZo2]

¥ 190.00 ( 约USD 29.77)

 

[taiden]

That's correct!

 

[ForceMajeure]

Anyone knows what's the impedance of the Knowles-TWFK-23991 or any difference it have with the TWFK-30017 ?
Graphwise they suppose to have the same response.

 

[taiden]

I can't find it stocked anywhere or find the datasheet. Where did you hear about it?

 

[ForceMajeure]

Probably used in the k10 design...
I found it on aliexpress and tabao (heir sells it on ali, they also provide a datasheet but cut out the impedance).