[Armored Soul]

The aim of this sliding folding design is to create something compact while still having a limited yoke movement so there aren't any floppy earcups, which means the yoke has to stand vertically upwards in what is basically the standard position on a normal headphone.

This is the goal:

Going from a standard pair of headphones (Static Oval):

To this configuration:

Mk1 design with a larger more round shaped arc.

While functional, the arc is a bit too big. So I went and designed a new arc that's smaller and more fit for this design.
One problem with this arc is that there needs to be some limits made into the arc so it doesn't just slide around, along with something to connect each arc so it works smoother. So that's what I did with a smaller improved arc.

While this design worked quite well and had not many issues, other than needing to shrink the size of the suspension pad's size to fit properly in the folded configuration, comfort was as good as my normal designs. But there's one issue. It's not as compact as I want it to be. There was still plenty of space near the top that could be removed.

So I went and designed an even smaller mechanism.

And well, it was a failure. Unlikely the previous folding design which while larger, was easy to use and smooth, this mechanism was just a pain to fold and unfold. Due to the different location at which the arc rotated and slid, it needed to rotate much more in order for the arcs to be released.


So I designed an entirely new folding mechanism for headphones. It's designed specifically to be both compact and also to solve the problem of floppy earcups on folding headphones similar to the DCA Aeons or the Ath-M50X. And also be compatible with my current designs without completely redesigning the entirety of the headphones. It is also made to not sacrifice in both comfort and sound quality.

The way it functions is by rotating the headband arc past the yoke and having them slide down.

But there's a few problems with this design:

• Floppy earcups aren't exactly a problem. And if it is, it's a very minor one that doesn't affect much.
• In order to be as compact as possible, the entire headphone would need to be designed around the folding mechanism.
• This is only compatible with suspension headbands.
• The exposed arc once folded has a higher chance of snapping or break than on conventional designs

In conclusion, while the mechanism is functional and does do the job, it requires the headphones to be built around this folding mechanism. Which I will not do because I don't have the time to do it and I feel that the problem its solving is too minor to solve for it to be worth going through with this design.

Also I guess there's a reason why this design isn't a thing in any headphone.