[Rockmol]

Hi guys, I am planning to make my first pair of iems from a 3D printer. From what I have learned, the print will never come out as good as the hand-poured ones, so I came up with the idea of printing transparent ones and dyeing them. I see 2 ways:
1. painting with only alcohol pigment
2. dipping printed shell in previously mixed resin

I want to obtain the most accurate result possible compared to the manual method. Unfortunately, as I thought, dipping printed shell in resin causes large streaks and thinning, not to mention an increase in the thickness of the shell. Currently, I am building a device by hand that will slowly rotate the shell in the air so that the resin does not thin out, I hope it will help.

I really wonder how companies make 3D iems that look like they're hand-cast. I would like to achieve this effect

I'd love to read your advice, maybe I'm missing something and don't realize it

 

[Aldo40]

Hi guys, I am planning to make my first pair of iems from a 3D printer. From what I have learned, the print will never come out as good as the hand-poured ones, so I came up with the idea of printing transparent ones and dyeing them. I see 2 ways:
1. painting with only alcohol pigment
2. dipping printed shell in previously mixed resin

I want to obtain the most accurate result possible compared to the manual method. Unfortunately, as I thought, dipping printed shell in resin causes large streaks and thinning, not to mention an increase in the thickness of the shell. Currently, I am building a device by hand that will slowly rotate the shell in the air so that the resin does not thin out, I hope it will help.

I really wonder how companies make 3D iems that look like they're hand-cast. I would like to achieve this effect

I'd love to read your advice, maybe I'm missing something and don't realize it

Whether you print in 3D or with the manual method it must be sanded and varnished anyway so do not be afraid of the streaks that can cause the layers of a 3D printing, I give you an example of the last that I made to the 3D printing

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[Rockmol]

Whether you print in 3D or with the manual method it must be sanded and varnished anyway so do not be afraid of the streaks that can cause the layers of a 3D printing, I give you an example of the last that I made to the 3D printing

[

Yea I keep that in mind, but I want to make colorful shells and I have been brainstorming for a week how to do it. As I said higher I think about dipping printed shells in another resin to get a nice gradient color but I don’t know is it proper. And how it increase it thickness. In such a case, I might reduce the 3D model by the thickness of the additional resin layer. Let me know what you think and if you have done such things.

 

[tomekk]

Fauna bluetooth audio glasses, UT-P2018 mems, sonion 38D2XJ. Works, doesn't sound great, not sure how to measure it. Just slapped it together to see. I might zobel the 38D2XJ and add a series resistor to match the resistance of the original woofer and see if it clears up, bass is choppy, tried in/out if phase to the mems and not much change.

Is it a bent copper tube? Nice steampunk vibe

 

[Aldo40]

Yea I keep that in mind, but I want to make colorful shells and I have been brainstorming for a week how to do it. As I said higher I think about dipping printed shells in another resin to get a nice gradient color but I don’t know is it proper. And how it increase it thickness. In such a case, I might reduce the 3D model by the thickness of the additional resin layer. Let me know what you think and if you have done such things.

it will be complicated, it depends if you make opaque or transparent

 

[Rockmol]

it will be complicated, it depends if you make opaque or transparent

I am making transparent ones, and dipping them in colored resin. But it is really hard to achieve same color even with my rotor. For 3d ones I am using anyqubic high clear resin. I know that it is not for medical use, but it was cheap and I bought it only for tests. (I am dropping a few pictures of what I have done yet and my rotor).

I'll add it before someone writes a comment. These printouts are only models on which I test dyeing methods. I don't focus on the mechanical aspect

 

[Aldo40]

I have a hard time understanding, you make your transparent shells and you put black resin on top, but why don’t you print directly with black resin?

 

[Rockmol]

I have a hard time understanding, you make your transparent shells and you put black resin on top, but why don’t you print directly with black resin?

I don’t put black layer. This color effect I am making with blue Atlantis powder, blue alcohol pigment and red glitter

 

[Wgibson]

Is it a bent copper tube? Nice steampunk vibe

Brass tube, yes. Normal vinyl tubing was too springy. It is an M0.9x3 brass rivet inside the larger clear tube.

Heat the tube to red hot with a flame and let it air cool, then it can be bent easily. You can repeat after partial bending, it will work harden.

Cut by rolling a razor blade on the tube.

 

[mattmatt]

Brass tube, yes. Normal vinyl tubing was too springy. It is an M0.9x3 brass rivet inside the larger clear tube.

Heat the tube to red hot with a flame and let it air cool, then it can be bent easily. You can repeat after partial bending, it will work harden.

Cut by rolling a razor blade on the tube.

Does the MEMs speakers need other components or just need to be connected like an ordinary speaker/driver?

 

[piotrus-g]

Does the MEMs speakers need other components or just need to be connected like an ordinary speaker/driver?

They need bias voltage, which typically means an integrated amplifier

 

[mattmatt]

They need bias voltage, which typically means an integrated amplifier

Oh okay. So the iem should have a battery? I think I saw a brand who uses dual mems. I wonder how they manage to do it since iirc, they only use standard 2 pin.

 

[piotrus-g]

Oh okay. So the iem should have a battery? I think I saw a brand who uses dual mems. I wonder how they manage to do it since iirc, they only use standard 2 pin.

Either battery, USB-C cable or Energizer, Soranik's IEM is supposed to be paired with iFi Diablo. You'd mostly need an amp with DSP to further tune the IEM, as bare memes are not really ideal in terms of response, they only sound good when the heavy eq is applied

 

[Wgibson]

The rectangular usound MEMS absolutely need the special amplifier. The round Conamara UA-C0601-2T looks good on the graph above 10K with a regular audio signal but it is not very loud, similar to sonion EST but I don't have a side by side yet.

Any guesses on how much db increase to expect with 2, 3, 4 of the UA-C0601-2T wired in parallel?


Taken with IEC60318-4 using 6mm DD adapter for the UA-C0601-2T. The UT-P2018 was just tacked into a larger DD adapter, more volume, lower coupler peak. That one is not usable anyway, without the amplifier. Planar is a full IEM, measured with the eartip adapter.

I do not know how to implement any crossover for the mems, the only electrical spec given for the driver is 22nf capacitance... Did not seem responsive to basic high pass capacitor/resistor crossover attempts but I only tried 1st order, then gave up for now.

Edit: almost 4% distortion with the rectangular mems in regular audio signal, absolutely no-go there considering low volume also. The round mems is usable, around 1% thd but I don't know what I'm doing yet. Fun stuff.

 

[Xymordos]

The rectangular usound MEMS absolutely need the special amplifier. The round Conamara UA-C0601-2T looks good on the graph above 10K with a regular audio signal but it is not very loud, similar to sonion EST but I don't have a side by side yet.

Any guesses on how much db increase to expect with 2, 3, 4 of the UA-C0601-2T wired in parallel?


Taken with IEC60318-4 using 6mm DD adapter for the UA-C0601-2T. The UT-P2018 was just tacked into a larger DD adapter, more volume, lower coupler peak. That one is not usable anyway, without the amplifier. Planar is a full IEM, measured with the eartip adapter.

I do not know how to implement any crossover for the mems, the only electrical spec given for the driver is 22nf capacitance... Did not seem responsive to basic high pass capacitor/resistor crossover attempts but I only tried 1st order, then gave up for now.

Edit: almost 4% distortion with the rectangular mems in regular audio signal, absolutely no-go there considering low volume also. The round mems is usable, around 1% thd but I don't know what I'm doing yet. Fun stuff.

Ooh that is very interesting. Where did you buy the round ones?