[DannyBouwhuis]

Word of caution: when buying capacitors and resistors for MASM, remember to get through-hole resistors and capacitors! I got some surface-mounted ones thinking they were the same but had trouble soldering them to the drivers and wires!
May be common sense, but I did not know what I was doing in terms of electricals

Also, my ear canals were too small for two 3mm OD tubes. I've gone and purchased two 2mm OD tubes since, and sadly it will affect the sound quality I presume. Just a heads up! [This is for the MASM build btw]

My preference goes to surface mount, through hole resistors take up so much space ! Soldering surface mount resistors may be a pain in the ass but it's worth it.. Just put some flux on the smd's and some solder on your iron and touch the smd with the solder, then tin your litz and hold it against the smd (with some more flux) when touched with the soldering iron it should stick, that's what I do, don't have any problems

 

[eunice]

You really should go surface mount. SMD comes in different sizes, 0603 is hard to solder, but 0805 or even 1206 is doable.

 

[Kulgrinda]

Since I have done single driver and triple driver, I was thinking of doing dual driver now.

Inspired by Noble Savant, but I think its way better extended and tuned than savant

DDD(Dual driver design)

FED30048
2 ohm resistor
No dampers
7.5mm length tube
(the tube used in savant)


ED30761
2200Ω damper
1.5mm/damper/5.5mm tubing length
(the tube used in savant)




Note : resistor has to be the lowest tolerance wirewound

https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Vishay-Dale/RS1\22R000BB12?qs=/BTaoQrn/PnbZ0Qx%2Bsu7mA==


I have noticed something, if driver doesnt have damper in front of it, it pushes a lot more details, even if it can get sibilant. Damper may tube sibilance down, but it also lowers the speed of which the air is moving through. Like veil. So I remove the damper from the one driver in multi driver setup and then tune around it

Here FED is damper less and main driver
ED30761 is here for bass boost and tone

Do you connect these drivers in series or parallel? I'm about to make Savant copy.

 

[dhruvmeena96]

Word of caution: when buying capacitors and resistors for MASM, remember to get through-hole resistors and capacitors! I got some surface-mounted ones thinking they were the same but had trouble soldering them to the drivers and wires!
May be common sense, but I did not know what I was doing in terms of electricals

Also, my ear canals were too small for two 3mm OD tubes
. I've gone and purchased two 2mm OD tubes since, and sadly it will affect the sound quality I presume. Just a heads up! [This is for the MASM build btw]

You can press the end of tube to be oval, just a little pinch and you are done.

Something like noble does with universal iem

 

[dhruvmeena96]

Do you connect these drivers in series or parallel? I'm about to make Savant copy.

The drivers are in parallel.
(FED30048 series 2ohms)parallel(ED30761)
DCR is 12ohms

Resistor can be through hole or SMD
Condition is high precision wirewound and extremely low tolerance.

This has name update "project 2".

Well, why did I chose wirewound and low tolerance was because wirewound heat dissipation is good, conductivity is higher for given resistance, somewhat clean sounding extremely slight inductive property actually helps driver signal from RF invasion too...which makes the sound somewhat even more clear. 2ohm value is for impedance matching

Why did I chose not to go for damper in FED is because its peak dB is same to ED29689 after 20ohms and green damper. Plus it extends higher and has less 4kHz energy which makes the treble more metallic and less brittle(some complaints about savant treble). Plus FED extends way higher and ferrofluid sounds amazing. So putting a damper would be sin.


All new iem is named under project banner from my side except for RAB-P and MASM triple driver series. I will remove banner once the idea and design is completed and give it new name

 

[ChrisJensen]

My preference goes to surface mount, through hole resistors take up so much space ! Soldering surface mount resistors may be a pain in the ass but it's worth it.. Just put some flux on the smd's and some solder on your iron and touch the smd with the solder, then tin your litz and hold it against the smd (with some more flux) when touched with the soldering iron it should stick, that's what I do, don't have any problems

I'll try all your advice, thanks so much! Another question I have though:
Since I need to do a Zobel circuit, and my litz wires are 10cm, how do I wire the capacitor and resistor in series? Do I cut the litz wires and remove the insulation layers?

 

[ChrisJensen]

You can press the end of tube to be oval, just a little pinch and you are done.

Something like noble does with universal iem

I will try this and report back. Thanks for your advice!

Btw, can the two hole drilled in the shell for the tubes be connected (top circles)? Or do they have to be distinct circles and separated (bottom circles)?

 

[DannyBouwhuis]

I'll try all your advice, thanks so much! Another question I have though:
Since I need to do a Zobel circuit, and my litz wires are 10cm, how do I wire the capacitor and resistor in series? Do I cut the litz wires and remove the insulation layers?

You can cut them as short as you need, just dip the ends in flux, put some solder on your iron and dip em in the solder, that should tin the ends.. Just practice a lot, you'll figure out what works best for you

 

[eunice]

Do I cut the litz wires and remove the insulation layers?

Another tip: set the temperature of your soldering iron quite high and just apply some tin as normal. The insulation layer will burn away quickly.

 

[Xymordos]

Another tip: set the temperature of your soldering iron quite high and just apply some tin as normal. The insulation layer will burn away quickly.

Ye, I do this too, really convenient.

 

[dhruvmeena96]

I will try this and report back. Thanks for your advice!

Btw, can the two hole drilled in the shell for the tubes be connected (top circles)? Or do they have to be distinct circles and separated (bottom circles)?

Zoom the image
You will see slight oval tube termination.

Make it slightly more ovalish
And make sure that the tubes touch each other rather than the spacing noble did....
You will have it perfect

 

[Julienstanford]

Another tip: set the temperature of your soldering iron quite high and just apply some tin as normal. The insulation layer will burn away quickly.

Some wire manufactures add coatings to the wire. With Cardas each individual strand of wire has a thin coating on it. Even if it doesn’t have a coating from the manufacture, just melting the shield would leave residue. I found distortion at higher volumes and lack of detail all over if the wire hasn’t been cleaned and tinned properly before soldering.

 

[Kulgrinda]

Another tip: set the temperature of your soldering iron quite high and just apply some tin as normal. The insulation layer will burn away quickly.

Or use solder bath. Really convenient and you get consistently good results. They go for 12-15 usd on aliexpress.

PS I found that regular thin litz wire from local electronics store works much better than those ultra thin ones from Soundlink store (don't remember their name). They would snap even though I would twist 3 wires into one and then tin them again solder bath. Really disappointed with them. On the good side - local litz is much cheaper and easier to source.

 

[eunice]

Some wire manufactures add coatings to the wire. With Cardas each individual strand of wire has a thin coating on it. Even if it doesn’t have a coating from the manufacture, just melting the shield would leave residue. I found distortion at higher volumes and lack of detail all over if the wire hasn’t been cleaned and tinned properly before soldering.

I noticed that too, but I tin the wire first and you can see the black residue. But cleaning the soldering iron with the sponge and reapplying heat removes the residue.
I use estron wire and it works quite well.

 

[eunice]

Btw, can the two hole drilled in the shell for the tubes be connected (top circles)? Or do they have to be distinct circles and separated (bottom circles)?

Absolutely. If you can fit the tubes through, everything will be fine. If you have two distinct holes it is a bit easier to get a nice looking finish, but functionality wise you can use one oval bore and fit both tubes. You will fill up the ear canal with resin anyways.

See my pics above on how to cover the outside with resin, that way you will also cover any remaining gaps. Sometimes when filling up the ear canal the resin does not fill all gaps between the tubes.