[Dan Jarros]

I was concerned with using super glue. The vapors are strong and I felt it could be possible that the vapor could seize the armature. Overall though I felt it was a pretty clean surgery for both drivers. I did do an interesting experiment though. I had the drivers playing when I cut the excess tubing out of the ear hole. I cut the tubing in small increments and you could REALLY hear the EQ changing out of the hole. A lot of the comments here say that tube length and diameter have more to do with the sound than the dampening and after hearing that I'd say that's probably true.

 

[Mython]

  Quote:

  I was concerned with using super glue. The vapors are strong and I felt it could be possible that the vapor could seize the armature.

 
Interesting point. I don't know if that would happen, but I understand your concern. The vapour is certainly strong enough to fix fingerprints.
 
 
 
 
Quote:

  I had the drivers playing when I cut the excess tubing out of the ear hole. I cut the tubing in small increments and you could REALLY hear the EQ changing out of the hole. A lot of the comments here say that tube length and diameter have more to do with the sound than the dampening and after hearing that I'd say that's probably true.

 

 
 
Did you happen to see the fun and games Peter had with his Miracle re-work? Just look at that sound tube! (I'm full of admiration for this particular job, Peter)
 
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.471825356271624.1073741835.223884597732369&type=3
 
 
 
.

 

[Dan Jarros]

Is that new shells with 3 sound tubes? Yikes.

 

[Moz-Art]

Hi,

I've been reading this thread with much interest, and it's been a lot to read so I decided to post my question due to a lot of different opinions and options but did not exactly found what I'm looking for.

I got my clear hollow molds ready and I'm now trying to finalize my speaker setup. I have decided to build a three way system with a passive crossover. My goal is to have a reference speaker sound. I'm going to buy speakers from knowles, didn't find many other companies.

If you want to build a three way system, you want to have the best speaker for each frequency band with the best response, so a flat line and not too many peaks. So that brings me to my first question. What speakers to use from the Knowles product range and at what frequency should I split? What are your experiences with the Knowles product range? Is there another supplier (better)?

I also didn't find a supplier for the resistors to create the crossover. Does Knowles sell these too? Help is welcome.

One thing I don't understand is the phase shift between speakers, can someone explain this in English? And what about ohm! What is the effect of it on the speakers, is it something to worry about?

Then there is the issue of the dampers. I want a reference speaker sound and so I'm a little scared that the use of dampers will color and shape the sound too much. Is this true?

Where to buy the cable and female connector?

Looking forward to your replies.

 

[Nyanman]

Luna shops has a pretty good selection of cable related bits including the male and female connectors for a reasonable price,however,shipping takes weeks.

 

[ThatOneGuy37]

So i've just spent a while reading through this post and couldn't seem to find any budget ideas for the drivers. I've already spent over $100 in supplies and don't really want to spend over $60 more on drivers since I was originally looking to keep it cheap. And does anyone know of any places that I can readily them buy in small quantities of 1 or 2 drivers? The only places i've found so far are mousers knowles audio section, and everything that actually got a review and/ or is in stock costs $40+ each. If anything, could someone just sell me their extra drivers? I'm only looking for a bass/mid and a tweeter for each ear, or if that would cost too much, just a nice Mid that reaches high and low (just something that would sound nicer than my current klipsch s4).

 

[MuZo2]

Buying new drivers will be expensive than buying decent new iem eg Astrotec AX30/35A. Diy  is not about cost saving. If  you  want to go with DIY you can try buying old IEMs 3 drivers will be hard to implement . Go with TWFK or ED29689.

 

[ThatOneGuy37]

Thanks, i've come to realize that after a lot of searching around. Should I just get 1 TWFK receiver for each ear and have it directly connect to the headphone line or should I be using a resistor or capacitor of some kind(please state any recommendations, and the source is just an iphone)? Sorry if i seem to asking a lot of questions, but I never got into this electronic DIY stuff until recently and just wanted to challenge myself rather than going an easy route.

 

[Moz-Art]

On the technical sheet of the TWFK you van see that a capacitor used To make a low pass. You only have To decide at what frequency you want to cut it and order the right capacitor.

http://www.knowles.com/eng/content/download/4382/60341/version/2/file/TWFK-30017-000.pdf

I made a new thread about crossover networks where you can find documents about all knowles speakers with impedance chart. Enter the ohm into a crossover calculator to find out what capacitor to get.

http://www.head-fi.org/t/709859/multiple-balanced-armature-speaker-systems-with-crossover-networks

 

[ThatOneGuy37]

Sorry, I only understood some of that. I'm pretty sure that low pass means that it cuts out the highs a little bit and makes the lower pitches more prominent, which is cool, I might go for a small one just to make it sound well rounded and not as sharp as some other people have suggested. However, i'm not very good at reading the TWFK technical specs, so I don't know what frequency to cut it off at, or which capacitor to use for that frequency. Also it has 2 ohm numbers, and i'm not quite sure which one to use to get the right resistor. I'm just using this as a stand alone driver, so if anyone has some specific examples of resistor/ capacitor combinations to get the warmest, fullest range out of this driver, that would be a huge help. I don't really need an explanation b/c this is just a test pair, i'm going for all of this crossover stuff next time around, but for right now, I just need some capacitor and resistor names thrown at me.

 

[Dan Jarros]

OKAY....In response to guy37 and others that say DIY is not about saving $ I present my new cans. As some of you know I've been trying to come up with a cost effective way to repair/ produce CIEMs for my band. I did a set wit Knowles dual drivers and it didn't cost a lot. These will surely tip the cost effective scale of CIEMs. These are Sennheieser IE4s we've kept for years as spares in the band. You can get them for around $40. These shells were created with UV acrylic nail hardener from Ebay for $4.99!!! In my opinion this has been the missing link for many DIYers not making their own shells.
 
http://www.ebay.com/itm/130869084966?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649
 
There is one piece of shrink wrap tubing over the sound hole of the drivers and shrunk to 2mm-4mm for the sound tube. They are transparent blue because I had some concrete dye left over from a project in the house. It only took a couple of granules to give them that color. 
 
Basically if you follow my procedure for casting shells with gelatin and glycerin and use the cheap UV stuff you can produce CIEMS for almost NOTHING over the cost of whatever drivers you want to use. These units sound nearly as good as the Knowles duals I made and have tons more bass. They sound better than they ever did as non-customs. 

 

[ThatOneGuy37]

I wish I had known about some of this stuff beforehand. I ended up purchasing all of my materials before i researched it enough. Now my materials are coming in and i'm about to do the old fashioned way of  making the shell with polyester resin and dremeling out the unneeded resin to make room for the driver and its wiring and tubing.

 

[MuZo2]

 
OKAY....In response to guy37 and others that say DIY is not about saving $ I present my new cans. As some of you know I've been trying to come up with a cost effective way to repair/ produce CIEMs for my band. I did a set wit Knowles dual drivers and it didn't cost a lot. These will surely tip the cost effective scale of CIEMs. These are Sennheieser IE4s we've kept for years as spares in the band. You can get them for around $40. These shells were created with UV acrylic nail hardener from Ebay for $4.99!!! In my opinion this has been the missing link for many DIYers not making their own shells.
 
http://www.ebay.com/itm/130869084966?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649
 
 

Is it safe for ears ?

 

[Q Mass]

That's great man, well done.

You'd think that something intended for use on the human body would be safe, but I too would want to be sure, I think I'd skip the concrete dye myself, but I think I'll give your nail hardener a try!

 

[Q Mass]

Oh, and:
More pic's!