[Lurkumaural]

Any size driver.  I'm currently in the market for something to house 40mm, but any size will do.
 
Finding and rehabilitating broken headphones is great fun, but all day yesterday I couldn't find something I wanted to work with.  So maybe a few people here know of something cheap that makes for a good housing.  Examples include:
 
1. From the Monoprice MHP-839 thread, the MHC-60.  Single-entry cable, open grills, begging for paint.  Cups don't seem to pivot.
2. Also from Monoprice, this thing.  Might be single entry, and there's a jack built into the cup where the TRS mic plug is supposed to go.
3. We've seen this before, the Kanen KM-880.  Dual entry, wood cups!  A little less $$ for the plastic version.
4. Sony MDR-V150.  If you own one, you should already be thinking you need to put a 40mm driver in it, since the one it came with is smaller but the cup will take a 40mm.  People who have transplanted into these have had to change the acoustics.  Also dual entry, and the hangers break.  Bad for daily use, good for parts harvesting.
 
What I'd like to see:
- single entry, or else a decent potential for over-the-head cabling
- less glue, more screws.  this is not so important.
- hopefully looks decent.  not much fun transplanting a driver into something laughable.  i realize this is asking too much.
 
I suppose I have enough loose items in my project drawer to start and complete a transplant if I found myself with enough late night hours to sit and play.  But I do want to see what other people have been seeing and doing for their orphaned drivers.  Surely at least some of you shop for cadaver headphones in your morbidly curious DIY lives.
 
 

 

[jageur272]

What I like to do is do an eBay search for vintage headphones.  They have some really great deals on headphones that would be great for DIY cans.  Obviously, you won't want to get some of the... older headphones, but there are plenty that make great candidates.

 

[Lurkumaural]

Yes, I do have a couple of vintages that are earmarked for overhaul/modernization.  I've also picked up some garbage along the way, mainly of the cavernous plastic housing variety that every low-end manufacturer seemed to want to use.  Some even stank.  I'm now low on rubbing alcohol as a result.
 
It would seem that at the moment, with what little time I have to work with my DIY tools, I'm just antsy and dreaming up work to do.  I'm probably also a little frustrated after daily searches for SFI/sawafuji bipoles.  Thinking they'd show up on ebay again was not very smart of me.
 
I've seen your work in the past while digging up old DIY threads.  Do you have any favorite project housings (hey now) or particularly memorable end results?

 

[jageur272]

Favorite for general use is the Kanen KM-880.  They look excellent and when coupled with decent pads and internal damping, they can sound pretty delightful.  My typical modification was using comfy leatherette KOSS pads (I can't remember what model headphone the pads were from... But I ordered them from the KOSS website.  UR10 maybe?   The pads are the same size as the pads on the Sony MDR-v150), sealing the edge of the wood cup (with the goop from Dynamat.  Took practice to not make it look ugly... Or at least make it look less ugly ), drilling a ventilation hole, implanting SFI's and using super flexible silicone wire to recable everything (so thick, so you'll need a decently sized plug).  The only issue with this is that the KM-880's have terrible quality control.  Many of the ones that I ordered were terribly manufactured, maybe around 40%, possibly even higher (can't remember).  Using a Beyer headband replacement cushion made it decently comfortable to wear.
 
The most memorable for me was using an old Pioneer SE-500 frame for an SFI implant.  These sounded excellent with some help, but it was incredibly time consuming to clean everything up and to get the cabling done properly.  I also recommend using Beyer headbands for this.
 
I might have a pair of SFI's lying around somewhere... I'll look for them and PM you if I can find them.
 
EDIT:
Oh, Hammacher Schlemmer had these Zebrawood Headphones for sale at one point.  I can't remember the OEM for them, but they were pretty fun to play with.

 

[Lurkumaural]

this?

 
Do you prefer the Koss pads to the Sony?  And what's your impression of the sound of silicone cable?  I was shopping for some the other day.  Most are described as pure copper, and I was going to contact a manufacturer to see what they had to say about the purity.
 
So you did away with the Pioneer piezos?  Were they bad?   I have a curiosity to try those old Pioneers.  I nabbed a SE-305 during my hunt, but quite obviously the cone driver is not in the same league.  More than a little off-topic, but very interesting stuff in any case.
 
Yes, please do PM if you have the drivers.  Needless to say, I don't expect to get them for nothing.  (That's okay to say here, right?)

 

[barleyguy]

I put a pair of ortho drivers into a Sennheiser HD485.  IMO it makes a great headphone for that type of project.
 
- All screws, no glue
- Lots of space.  Great for doing your own damping.
- Single entry cable, though I put a hole in the other side rather than use the existing wire over the top.
- Super comfortable.
 
The only minus is price.  They are typically in the $100 range unless you can find some on ebay.  The HD465 is the same exact frame with a crappy driver, so sometimes those are available cheap if you can find them.
 

 

[jageur272]

Quote:

this?

 
Do you prefer the Koss pads to the Sony?  And what's your impression of the sound of silicone cable?  I was shopping for some the other day.  Most are described as pure copper, and I was going to contact a manufacturer to see what they had to say about the purity.
 
So you did away with the Pioneer piezos?  Were they bad?   I have a curiosity to try those old Pioneers.  I nabbed a SE-305 during my hunt, but quite obviously the cone driver is not in the same league.  More than a little off-topic, but very interesting stuff in any case.
 
Yes, please do PM if you have the drivers.  Needless to say, I don't expect to get them for nothing.  (That's okay to say here, right?)

 
That's the right headphone.  Maybe you can find them used?  The Koss pads were more comfortable and sturdy than the Sony pads.  Honestly...  Such a small length of cable makes an incredibly little difference in sound.  The variations in the resistors of a headamp make an infinitely larger difference, but you don't see people taking apart their amps and hand matching every single resistor pair between the left and right channels.  If you can't hear the channel mismatches, what difference does the cable make?  Regardless, generally with silicone wire, you should be expecting may 99.97% copper or tinned copper.  The main advantage is that silicone wire is incredibly flexible and easy to use.  Or you can use a PVC based insulator (http://www.daburn.com/2671UltraFlexibleSub-MiniatureWire-U/LSTYLE15681692.aspx)
 
The piezos were an interesting concept and with current technology, maybe they can be made to actually have sound below ~60hz, but the SE-500's were not that great sounding.  But they did look pretty slick, so with some coaxing, I got the SFI's mounted properly and they were really slick.  I had this old headphone with some 55 inch drivers that sounded great once they were in a different housing (a gigantic SounDesign frame).  Sometimes, those vintages actually have promise .

 

[Lurkumaural]

Quote:

I put a pair of ortho drivers into a Sennheiser HD485.  IMO it makes a great headphone for that type of project.
 
- All screws, no glue
- Lots of space.  Great for doing your own damping.
- Single entry cable, though I put a hole in the other side rather than use the existing wire over the top.
- Super comfortable.
 
The only minus is price.  They are typically in the $100 range unless you can find some on ebay.  The HD465 is the same exact frame with a crappy driver, so sometimes those are available cheap if you can find them.
 

Now there's an idea.
 
I saw the HD 215 (are they similar on one's head?) the other day and wanted to mug it for its pads.  I want try out the fit on the 485 too now.
 
 
Quote:

I had this old headphone with some 55 inch drivers that sounded great once they were in a different housing (a gigantic SounDesign frame).  Sometimes, those vintages actually have promise .

Hopefully they were 55mm.  I'd hate to wear a 55" driver on my head.  Maybe my ears are just that delicate. 

  Those old Soundesigns are heavenly to dream up transplants.
 
I should check out those Koss pads since I am currently doing a V150 mod. 
 
[For those who are interested, I've got my KSC75 clipped into the V150 shell.  No other mods to either unit.  Koss stock wiring, untouched.  I tried to listen to Virtual Haircut (awesome on my 701) and it sounded like it was in mono.  Soundstage didn't even make it out to the cups.  Dang.  Pretty sure stock V150 would have performed better.]
 
With regards to cables, I'm not convinced about cable science/magic, but I'm very interested in experiencing what the other folks are hearing.  I've done cable jobs that have been both successful and unsuccessful, for reasons that I wouldn't pin on the conductor.  I own some SPC that I haven't purposed yet, but I will.  Like I said, I wanna see what the fuss is.
 
For sure I want something more flexible than your average audiophile recable.  You see people photograph their newly cabled headphones, and the bend radius is funny to me.  Might be the greatest sound though, I don't know.  I like what silicone has to offer, and I should see what's up with the PVC you linked.  If I end up liking my 19-strand SPC (probably in Teflon), I'll probably look for quotes for SPC enrobed in silicone.