[Armored Soul]

Static Vanish

It's entirely 3D printed. Only the electronics inside are not made by me.

Build and Assembly​

Designing this thing was just extremely difficult. For just one reason only. Getting a cable from one earcup to another. You have to make it so it doesn't break easily, doesn't affect the comfort or movement of the earcups and make it not stand out much. All of that was just much more difficult than expected. Not to mention the wiring, though it wasn't too bad once you get it right.

I started designing this at the start of the year and well, even now I'm not 100% satisfied with it, well mainly just the assembly process. Just assembling the headband itself takes around an hour due to the wiring. I will be making a mk2 version of the headband to where the wiring goes through from the earcup, through the yoke, and though the headband. Should look less obvious and hopefully less likely to be damaged, though I'll have to make sure that rotating the yoke won't have a chance of damaging the wiring. The current design takes around 1.5-2 hours to fully assemble along with soldering, stripping wires and just general assembly.

No glue is used, just screws and nuts. it's relatively easy to disassemble.

The parts used for the headband. Too many causing it to take nearly an hour just to assemble.

The assembled headband.

Earcups.

The mic uses two pieces, a 3D printed piece and the mic itself. The printed piece basically makes the mic not rotate as much leading to less wear on the socket. This also the option of swapping out microphones if you wish to upgrade or if it becomes damage. The protrusion is there actually for better compatibility with other microphones. Just like the one above having a piece preventing it from rotating too much, it's there so that different shaped mics also don't start rotating or anything due to socket wear.

Example of a mic swap. This mic is from a HyperX Cloud.

Sound Quality​

It uses a 50mm dynamic driver. The headphones itself did require some minor tuning to make it sound good in a closed back chassis. It's detailed and has a decently wide soundstage. You can check the frequency response graph in the last picture. The super flat line is the Hifiman Arya V2, which is used as a reference. It's definitely not a bassy headphone, but it is designed to be modded, which I will explain later.

The microphone isn't going to be special, but it is detachable, so if you want to upgrade to something else, just take it off. It uses your standard 3.5mm socket.

Comfort​

One of my biggest focuses when designing a headphone is comfort. My startup started because most headphones are just straight up extremely uncomfortable. It's as if the designers never even bothered using the headphones for more than five minutes. So these headphones are specifically designed for comfort. The clamp isn't skull crushing, but is enough to give a good seal and of course a suspension strap for more cushioning. It uses thick soft pleather pads too so your ears aren't just jammed against the housing.

Modding and Repairability​

Due to the fact that I don't like using glue and just use screws and nuts, you will actually be able to easily swap out the drivers for something of your choosing. Perhaps you want to upgrade your drivers. Files and instructions for a driver swap and driver clamps will be provided once this is listed on my website. Though it will take some time to appear after it's started selling as it takes time to make instructions along with testing parts.

As for modding the headphones as is, the driver clamp used can be modded easily to increase bass if you find it lacking for any reason. To put simply, the holes in the back of the driver which help tune the amount of bass coming out will be partially covered, instructions on specifically how to decrease the amount of holes being covered to increase the amount of bass will also be on my website in how mod it.

Earpads are just your standard HM5 earpads so if you want to do pad swaps and whatnot, they're extremely commonplace and inexpensive.

Both the microphone and cable are detachable, so you can easily just get replacement cables if something breaks or you want to upgrade. Just your standard 3.5mm sockets for both.

A teardown of the headset will also be on my website just like for all the other headphones I make.

Some modding potential designed into the headphones itself. By snapping off this thinner peg (shown via red arrow), you can get a significant increase in bass. This is from exposing more of the bass ports (purple). And of course, due to the drivers being clamped down using screws, it can easily be removed and swapped out for anything else you want.

Other​

I'll only be selling 10 of these Mk1 units due to difficulty in assembling it. Though durability is not a problem. If you're interested, feel free to message me. It'll also be on my website once the cables come in. Should all be available next week. (3/5) Depending on the interest of these headsets, Mk2 will or will not be made. And if they are made, it will take some time to be tested and made.

My website: variablestaticaudio.com

Upcoming stuff:​

Fully DIY headphones. Super easy to mod, uses only 2 types of 3D printed materials, TPU and PETG, uses only a single type of nut and screw for the entire headphone. Of which only 10 of each will be used. It'll also be heavily modular being able to use most 40-52mm drivers. Comfort will NOT be sacrificed. The headband and earcups can be swapped between my other headphones and this DIY headphone in case warranty is gone or something. All files, both STL, F3D and STEP files will be available for free upon release.
Currently WIP as it still needs go through testing but it's very close to finishing. Just gotta wait on reviews of the assembly and whatnot.