[BucketInABucket]

Finished my second DiY project. Taobao drivers into the Pickering OA-7 shell + my custom cable. I call it the Bucket-Rin OA-7. I'm not sure if this is supposed to go here or the DiY discussions forum and I posted it in both places so if a mod sees this and it turns out that it is in the wrong place, feel free to delete it.

Spoiler: Deconstruction of the shell.

The beginning.

Pads glued on.

Ripped them off! Disintegrating foam pads, yay!

Also, nasty old glue covering everything.

The baffles are supposed to twist off but they're glued together so I had to pry them out.

Driver glued on too.

Typical flat driver used in many a vintage headphone released from the baffle.

Taped them just in case.

Used glue solvent to clean the pads and baffles.
 

 

Spoiler: Construction.

Cut out the metal part in the middle of the baffles. How? Well...

I cut along the circles right to the edge.

Cut out and separated each section and bent it back and forth until it snapped off.

There!

There's a small raised circle in the middle of the housings.


Got some sandpaper and sanded it off completely.


Stuck a donut of dynamat over a protective layer of metal mesh on top of the baffle.

The cable that will be used for these headphones, braided and put together myself.

Pair of Taobao drivers, bought for RMB128 or US$20.60.

Aligned them on top of the metal mesh on the underside of the baffles.

Threaded the cables through the holes in the cups, hot-glued the drivers on to the baffles, soldered the cable ends on and used the existing cable holders to hold the wires in place. 

Stuck a ring of dynamat onto the back of the cups to help control cup resonance that I heard when I tested them out.

Twisted the baffles back onto the cups. 

The completed Bucket-Rin OA-7! Now I just need a pair of nice pads to complete the thing.

 

[DJScope]

Looks good! How do they sound? Did you run into any hickups during the operation?

 

[BucketInABucket]

  Looks good! How do they sound? Did you run into any hickups during the operation?

Warm tonality, tight bass, slightly relaxed treble. However, not the last word in detail retrieval, but this might improve as the drivers burn in.
 
At one point I thought the drivers were damaged as one of them was distorting like mad while the other had no sound coming out, but turned out the soundless driver was shorted 

 

[DJScope]

  Warm tonality, tight bass, slightly relaxed treble. However, not the last word in detail retrieval, but this might improve as the drivers burn in.
 
At one point I thought the drivers were damaged as one of them was distorting like mad while the other had no sound coming out, but turned out the soundless driver was shorted 

 
Keep us posted on the burn in. Did you get any pads for it, or using any temporary pads?
 
It's good you didn't fry the drivers. It's not an easy task soldering the driver terminals because if the iron temperature is too high, you'll burn out the drivers. 

I'm curious, what was your first DIY project you were referring to?

 

[BucketInABucket]

   
Keep us posted on the burn in. Did you get any pads for it, or using any temporary pads?
 
It's good you didn't fry the drivers. It's not an easy task soldering the driver terminals because if the iron temperature is too high, you'll burn out the drivers. 

I'm curious, what was your first DIY project you were referring to?

Just crappy temporary pads as my local Jaben ran out of stock.
 
Yea, that's exactly what I was worried that I'd done and was so relieved when I discovered the short 

 
This was my first DiY project. 

 

[DJScope]

  Just crappy temporary pads as my local Jaben ran out of stock.
 
Yea, that's exactly what I was worried that I'd done and was so relieved when I discovered the short 

 
This was my first DiY project. 

 
HAHA! OK. Your opening sentence is "Finished my second DiY project." That's why I asked.
 
Scratch that, didn't see the link

 

[BucketInABucket]

   
HAHA! OK. Your opening sentence is "Finished my second DiY project." That's why I asked.
 
Scratch that, didn't see the link

Ninja link is ninja, he be ninja-hiding from the ninja-hunting gaze of everyone non-ninja 

 

 

[DJScope]

  Ninja link is ninja, he be ninja-hiding from the ninja-hunting gaze of everyone non-ninja 

 

 
Haha. I've lost my glasses so I can't see very well at the moment. 
 
I'm going to be doing a DIY mod myself tomorrow on my Takstar Pro 80. I'm doing a removable cable mod and making my own straight cable for it. If there are 2 things that i hate the most, they are, spring and non-removable cables on a headphone. So it absolutely must be done. 
 
I've receive my last item today from HK (eBay), ie. 10FT of black paracord. I've already got 2x Neutrik 3.5mm jacks, a 3.5mm Pro Signal chassis socket and heat shrink ready to go. And a metric truck load of CAT5 cables at my disposal. 
 
Will be posting it up as soon as it's all done.

 

[BucketInABucket]

   
Haha. I've lost my glasses so I can't see very well at the moment. 
 
I'm going to be doing a DIY mod myself tomorrow on my Takstar Pro 80. I'm doing a removable cable mod and making my own straight cable for it. If there are 2 things that i hate the most, they are, spring and non-removable cables on a headphone. So it absolutely must be done. 
 
I've receive my last item today from HK (eBay), ie. 10FT of black paracord. I've already got 2x Neutrik 3.5mm jacks, a 3.5mm Pro Signal chassis socket and heat shrink ready to go. And a metric truck load of CAT5 cables at my disposal. 
 
Will be posting it up as soon as it's all done.

Fair enough!
 
I had to make this cable non-removable as the cups were so thin and small that I wouldn't have been able to fit a plug into either of them. You should post it in the DiY cable thread, not here 

 

[DJScope]

  Fair enough!
 
I had to make this cable non-removable as the cups were so thin and small that I wouldn't have been able to fit a plug into either of them. You should post it in the DiY cable thread, not here 

Thank's for the tip. Will do.

 

[NLNH]

So.... turns out it sounds better or worse than original?

 

[BucketInABucket]

  So.... turns out it sounds better or worse than original?

I'd say better but I haven't listened to the original in a very long time.

 

[maximuslt]