[swtnate]

I'm sorry but which Samsung model we are talking about? I didn't realise Samsung offered something similar to the Sony Just ear. And the UE Fits use 10mm dynamic drivers only so they are not hybrid AFAIK. Just want to make sure we are on the same page here.

I'm thinking about building my first CIEM, 1DD+1BA hybrid, no crossover, pure acoustic tuning. Already got my ear impressions done, both open mouth and relaxed mouth. Though I need to get one of those 711 couplers.

The Sony Just ear project is helmed by chief engineer Tomohiro Matsuo, one of the top sound/headphone engineers in Japan (if not the world). So I don't expect to get anywhere close to what they've achieved. Matsuo-san was not a big fan of 3D printing tech but I do have access to 3D printers myself so I can fiddle with internal acoustic structures, just for the fun of it. I know what caps, resistors and dampers do but still a bit of a layman in tuning. It will be appreciated if someone can point me to a place where I can learn some more acoustic tuning techniques especially for IEMs.

Yeah…. My bad. I was reading poorly worded pros and cons from varies mainstream big name producers. Samsung, Sony, UE, and the like, all suffer from horrible bluetooth interference. One thing that always impressed about my defunct (RIP) AirPods was that they NEVER suffered from frop outs or interference.

 

[swtnate]

Yeah…. My bad. I was reading poorly worded pros and cons from varies mainstream big name producers. Samsung, Sony, UE, and the like, all suffer from horrible bluetooth interference. One thing that always impressed about my defunct (RIP) AirPods was that they NEVER suffered from frop outs or interfere

I'm sorry but which Samsung model we are talking about? I didn't realise Samsung offered something similar to the Sony Just ear. And the UE Fits use 10mm dynamic drivers only so they are not hybrid AFAIK. Just want to make sure we are on the same page here.

I'm thinking about building my first CIEM, 1DD+1BA hybrid, no crossover, pure acoustic tuning. Already got my ear impressions done, both open mouth and relaxed mouth. Though I need to get one of those 711 couplers.

The Sony Just ear project is helmed by chief engineer Tomohiro Matsuo, one of the top sound/headphone engineers in Japan (if not the world). So I don't expect to get anywhere close to what they've achieved. Matsuo-san was not a big fan of 3D printing tech but I do have access to 3D printers myself so I can fiddle with internal acoustic structures, just for the fun of it. I know what caps, resistors and dampers do but still a bit of a layman in tuning. It will be appreciated if someone can point me to a place where I can learn some more acoustic tuning techniques especially for IEMs.

Hey, up until Jerry Harvey put an FK and an ED into a custom hearing aid shell for the van halen drummer…. My point is, you dont have to be a genious audio technician or mathematician to create fantastic soundstages. You will ALWAYS need the math and ALWAYS need repetitive testing but the end product gets put into an ear. And THAT person (whether its you or someone else listenin go to your new audio Frankenstein , has to love it.

 

[dhruvmeena96]

Hey, up until Jerry Harvey put an FK and an ED into a custom hearing aid shell for the van halen drummer…. My point is, you dont have to be a genious audio technician or mathematician to create fantastic soundstages. You will ALWAYS need the math and ALWAYS need repetitive testing but the end product gets put into an ear. And THAT person (whether its you or someone else listenin go to your new audio Frankenstein , has to love it.

but JH iem dont really sound that good to begin with
and maths is important if you want to make a product which is really worth it
repetitive testing can be avoided if you take a reference iem, eq it till you like it, get the graph, and then make your own iem to the graph. but remember. that's your pinnae gain and your HRTF and may not match with other, that's why let a lot of people give you eq of a reference iem, you average and compensate overshoot
(you get harman)

one more way of looking at things


my suggestion is, start with tuning harman target to your liking, doesn't matter what driver you use...... tuning is far more important tbh

 

[arxyu]

Hello guys,

I'm new to this thread (and new to head-fi as well). I had been making IEMs in 2016-2018 but had stopped since. But recently one of my friend got into this hobby and I have been helping him a lot. Recently we started to have the idea of 3D printing custom shells since hand trimming ear impressions and pouring them is really time consuming. Our failure rate was also kind of high since I actually didn't make a lot of custom ones before so I don't have experience to share with him.

We found a local IEM retailer that offer ear impression scanning service, and I have tried to trim and smooth out impressions 3D models that I found online with meshmixer and Fusion 360 with pretty good result (see attached images) (Thanks to the guide at #13048!). We don't have a SLA or MSLA 3D printer so we have also found a company that is willing to print the shells for a reasonable price, I have worked with them to print universal shells with good results.

But before actually spending our money on impressions taking, scanning and printing, I want to ask you guys if there is any tips or suggestions on smoothing out the shells. I know the with traditional hand pouring method, you apply wax or special resin to the trimmed impression and thus make it slightly bigger in size compared to the OG one. Do I also have to increase the size of the scanned and trimmed impression by 0.1-0.3mm? Or should I even reduce the size a little since we'll apply egger resin (L/P Lack or something I forgot) on it afterward? Or should I simply leave it at the original size?

Also, thank you guys for posting all your works here, I have learned a lot.

 

[swtnate]

Hello guys,

I'm new to this thread (and new to head-fi as well). I had been making IEMs in 2016-2018 but had stopped since. But recently one of my friend got into this hobby and I have been helping him a lot. Recently we started to have the idea of 3D printing custom shells since hand trimming ear impressions and pouring them is really time consuming. Our failure rate was also kind of high since I actually didn't make a lot of custom ones before so I don't have experience to share with him.

We found a local IEM retailer that offer ear impression scanning service, and I have tried to trim and smooth out impressions 3D models that I found online with meshmixer and Fusion 360 with pretty good result (see attached images) (Thanks to the guide at #13048!). We don't have a SLA or MSLA 3D printer so we have also found a company that is willing to print the shells for a reasonable price, I have worked with them to print universal shells with good results.

But before actually spending our money on impressions taking, scanning and printing, I want to ask you guys if there is any tips or suggestions on smoothing out the shells. I know the with traditional hand pouring method, you apply wax or special resin to the trimmed impression and thus make it slightly bigger in size compared to the OG one. Do I also have to increase the size of the scanned and trimmed impression by 0.1-0.3mm? Or should I even reduce the size a little since we'll apply egger resin (L/P Lack or something I forgot) on it afterward? Or should I simply leave it at the original size?

Also, thank you guys for posting all your works here, I have learned a lot.

you will enlarge the scanned impression. Industry standards vary. Deep ear shells (past the second bend) for profound hearing loss is different than filtering out for isolation (which is only to the first bend). Another variant is that everyones canals are different. Some have more flex and others are more rigid. Which is why you can make a shell for one and it works awesome. then do the same for another and its too tight or too loose. Here's some light reading. lol I normally expand shells .5-.75mm

 

[swtnate]

What 3d scanner are you guys using to get your 3D print files?

 

[arxyu]

you will enlarge the scanned impression. Industry standards vary. Deep ear shells (past the second bend) for profound hearing loss is different than filtering out for isolation (which is only to the first bend). Another variant is that everyones canals are different. Some have more flex and others are more rigid. Which is why you can make a shell for one and it works awesome. then do the same for another and its too tight or too loose. Here's some light reading. lol I normally expand shells .5-.75mm

Thanks for your input! I guess we'll start with 0.5mm and apply thicker egger lp/h lack if it's not enough.

What 3d scanner are you guys using to get your 3D print files?

We don't actually own one but the IEM retailer that provides the scanning service use smart optics duo scan. We wanted to set up a openscan mini but it's still somewhat expensive for 2 college students and it's been really hard to get a raspberry pi recently.

 

[tomekk]

These drivers from KZ are poor sound quality. While CI is still reasonably good, ED and WBFK are weak.

 

[swtnate]

These drivers from KZ are poor sound quality. While CI is still reasonably good, ED and WBFK are weak.

Where did you source them from? A KZ IEM or are they Bellsing drivers?

 

[swtnate]

I just took the splurge with the detax! I'm counting on swtnate's words, which I trust, to love this!

Wellllll, I need some answers and some pictures….

 

[tomekk]

Where did you source them from? A KZ IEM or are they Bellsing drivers?

They are marked "KZ" brand. For example ED/WBFK:
Knowles is 100%/100% sound quality
Bellsing is 70%/50%
KZ is 50%/30%

 

[wagyuA5]

Hey guys,

How would you guys repair a thin crack on a acrylic or resin shell?

 

[swtnate]

Hey guys,

How would you guys repair a thin crack on a acrylic or resin shell?

very much depends... if it's white or clear it would be different than if it were say black or dark grey....

 

[wagyuA5]

very much depends... if it's white or clear it would be different than if it were say black or dark grey....

Interesting. The methods I have seen so far are nail polish, acrylic paint and lacquer. How does color factor in?

 

[Aldo40]

Attention nail polish is semi-permanent and not permanant
I use bondic UV Pen for this and to stick the tubes to the drivers but there are other alternatives of course