[Torac]

Finished them, however I'm quite upset as no audio is coming from the right channel and I believe I might have broken the driver, will confirm later and if so am going to have to order a new one.

Edit: Turns out I glued the hirose connector in the wrong way round on the right side, checked using my multimeter, re-soldered and now it works

 

[dumapuma]

Hey all. I am planning on building these myself shortly. Do these sound good with the MK3? I know the alpha dog was originally designed for the mk2 and I do not want to modify the drivers to much. Does anyone also have any recommendations on ear pads? The mrspeakers alpha pads are relatively expensive (or are they that worth it)? Finally I also plan on soldering a objective 2 headphone amp. Would that be powerful enough to drive these headphones? Thanks.

 

[musicfan145]

Finished them, however I'm quite upset as no audio is coming from the right channel and I believe I might have broken the driver, will confirm later and if so am going to have to order a new one.

Edit: Turns out I glued the hirose connector in the wrong way round on the right side, checked using my multimeter, re-soldered and now it works

They look great! Those SLA parts seem well worth the cost. Now welcome to the (genuinely) fun stage of tuning them!

 

[musicfan145]

Hey all. I am planning on building these myself shortly. Do these sound good with the MK3? I know the alpha dog was originally designed for the mk2 and I do not want to modify the drivers to much. Does anyone also have any recommendations on ear pads? The mrspeakers alpha pads are relatively expensive (or are they that worth it)? Finally I also plan on soldering a objective 2 headphone amp. Would that be powerful enough to drive these headphones? Thanks.

Yes, they sound great with the Mk3 drivers. There’s always some tuning to be done with the ports, fill, earpads, etc., but beyond the initial soldering, no driver modification is necessary.

The mrSpeakers pads are absolutely worth it. Super comfortable and one less variable in replicating the alpha dog performance. (And it’s a nice way to pay a little back to him for sharing these plans.) If I had it to do over, I would buy the pads, connectors, and cables from him!

 

[Torac]

They look great! Those SLA parts seem well worth the cost. Now welcome to the (genuinely) fun stage of tuning them!

Before I followed the guide I tried the stock headphone with the alpha pads and I actually quite liked how deep the bass was able to go, the only issue was it had a lot of reflections. Now there are no reflections with just foam inside the cups but most of the sub bass has been lost and only mid bass and up remains, any suggestions for tuning other than cotton for more detail?

 

[musicfan145]

Before I followed the guide I tried the stock headphone with the alpha pads and I actually quite liked how deep the bass was able to go, the only issue was it had a lot of reflections. Now there are no reflections with just foam inside the cups but most of the sub bass has been lost and only mid bass and up remains, any suggestions for tuning other than cotton for more detail?

It's been a while since I got mine dialed in, but here's my recollection: The midbass was the one band that I couldn't figure out how to dampen, so I loosened things up in other bands:

• Upper 2 bass ports covered, and the lowest one drilled out slightly. (Not sure why this worked, but it did.) Definitely make sure the others aren't blocked with paint.
• One layer of thin (~1mm) felt on the ear side of the baffle plate* (Filling the bottom of the oval well, but not blocking the driver. I made a template to use for cutting this to fit exactly. There should be a link for it somewhere above.)
• Much less polyfill stuffing in the cup than I was using at first. (I wish there were a better way to quantify this.)

This is probably a more bass-y sound than some people prefer, but it's heavy on sub-bass, not mid-bass.

*One fun little experiment: Remove the felt entirely from the ear side of the baffle plate and give it a listen. For me, this was like nearly overdosing on planar magnetic goodness. It was thrilling and reckless sounding, but too loose for long term listening. I just added felt back gradually until it balanced refinement with excitement.

 

[musicfan145]

Finally I also plan on soldering a objective 2 headphone amp. Would that be powerful enough to drive these headphones?

I'm curious about what others have experienced here. Power-wise, the Objective 2 is about halfway between what I've tried: These sound poor plugged directly to mobile devices and other low powered amps, and they sound magnificent with my Vali 2, which has nearly twice the power of the Objective 2. How much power is enough to make them really sing? At what point do we start to see diminishing returns?

 

[Balazar]

I'm curious about what others have experienced here. Power-wise, the Objective 2 is about halfway between what I've tried: These sound poor plugged directly to mobile devices and other low powered amps, and they sound magnificent with my Vali 2, which has nearly twice the power of the Objective 2. How much power is enough to make them really sing? At what point do we start to see diminishing returns?

I have a Magni 3 and it's specs say 1.3W at 50 ohms. This is definitely enough power to propel them way beyond comfortable/safe volumes. The upper end makes them really sing, but it's not listenable for very long. I have a FiiO e18k. It is listed for 300mW at 32 ohms. It can get good volumes on stock mkIII's. My molded mkIII's and the Open Alpha's can get loud and sound ok with it. But the Magni pushes them to a whole new level. I wish had gotten it sooner. I have been playing with the idea of adding more wool roving to increase dampening and then see how they sound cranked up. If I can turn the Magni up to 8 or 9 and listen to my Open Alphas without hearing damage I think I will be happy with that.

 

[navydragon]

Work in progress, printed mine in wood pla, used 0.4mm pure silver wire on the drivers. Initial impressions sounds promising, will be tuning it to my taste for a few days. to other users, does placing newplast clay on the baffles have beneficial effect? Curtently have my bass port fully open.

 

[dnalekaw]

Finished them, however I'm quite upset as no audio is coming from the right channel and I believe I might have broken the driver, will confirm later and if so am going to have to order a new one.

Edit: Turns out I glued the hirose connector in the wrong way round on the right side, checked using my multimeter, re-soldered and now it works

Wow, they look really good! Is the material ABS like resin?

Did you have to pay import fees?

 

[Torac]

Wow, they look really good! Is the material ABS like resin?

Did you have to pay import fees?

Not sure what type of resin was used other than it being the generic resin option, they have a very wide variety of material types when you do a manuel quote and it only takes a day for them to get back to you (because of the time difference). I didn't have to pay any import fees either so either they include them prepaid in the cost or it wasn't something customs valued high enough

 

[dnalekaw]

Not sure what type of resin was used other than it being the generic resin option, they have a very wide variety of material types when you do a manuel quote and it only takes a day for them to get back to you (because of the time difference). I didn't have to pay any import fees either so either they include them prepaid in the cost or it wasn't something customs valued high enough

Damn, was going to order from 3dhubs but it looks like i'll be ordering from facfox then. One more question if you wouldn't mind, are they 100% solid regarding infill settings? Thanks!

 

[Torac]

Damn, was going to order from 3dhubs but it looks like i'll be ordering from facfox then. One more question if you wouldn't mind, are they 100% solid regarding infill settings? Thanks!

When you customise the quote you can choose whether or not to allow them to hollow the model out, I chose not to as the model isn't that thick and although it added a little bit of weight it made the cups very strong. By default it doesn't hollow it out.

I too had a look at 3Dhubs as I had used them in the past for fdm but after seeing their price for sla I thought I would try to find a cheaper alternative. Definitely going to use these guys again, maybe even for injection molding in the future.

 

[dnalekaw]

When you customise the quote you can choose whether or not to allow them to hollow the model out, I chose not to as the model isn't that thick and although it added a little bit of weight it made the cups very strong. By default it doesn't hollow it out.

I too had a look at 3Dhubs as I had used them in the past for fdm but after seeing their price for sla I thought I would try to find a cheaper alternative. Definitely going to use these guys again, maybe even for injection molding in the future.

Thanks again, injection molding would be very interesting.

 

[Balazar]

Work in progress, printed mine in wood pla, used 0.4mm pure silver wire on the drivers. Initial impressions sounds promising, will be tuning it to my taste for a few days. to other users, does placing newplast clay on the baffles have beneficial effect? Curtently have my bass port fully open.

Wow those came out very nice! It's really cool to see so many people have adopted the infinite adjustment STL. I have newplast on my baffles and I like it. You can scrape it off if you don't like it. That is what is so great about these project cans. You can do whatever you like. It isn't possible to A/B the changes so easily. I have a track list that I know very well. I make a change and then take notes as I listen. Notes like on X song the ride cymbal sounds like a certain way or vocals or whatever. Then I do a mod and do the same. Decided if it's better/worse. Is it all positive or better this and worse that. Then decided weather to keep it or not.