[JoeDoe]

Sweet man. Looking forward to your thoughts!
 
PS. Nice job.

 

[fleasbaby]

  Has anyone tried the Kobitone 600 ohm drivers here:
http://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Kobitone/25CE500-RO/?qs=pO9a3qNHhpHhpCGAHh60Sw%3D%3D
 
I have an old HD580, that have been sitting tucked away in a drawer for a long time with a blown right side driver.
 
thanks

 
Not yet, but it might be worth a shot...600 ohms is a long way to go power-wise, but you never know...

 

[fleasbaby]

I didn't find any standard hardware store parts that fit my criteria. I may revisit this later, but I decided to put it all together for now. They sound great,but I only had about 15 minutes before having to run out the door for a business trip. I'll post some detailed impressions when I get back next week.

The specs are: cocobolo mushroom cups from yew audio, px100-ii drivers, mogami star quad, ear zonk g-cush, and a neutrik 1/4" jack.

 
Nicely done sir
 
I am still getting used to the sound of the G-Cush on my Magnum build. Actually rather liking what I am hearing. Need to tear myself away and focus on the closed cups I started working on and a SennGrado build though...

 

[wje]

  Has anyone tried the Kobitone 600 ohm drivers here:
http://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Kobitone/25CE500-RO/?qs=pO9a3qNHhpHhpCGAHh60Sw%3D%3D
 
I have an old HD580, that have been sitting tucked away in a drawer for a long time with a blown right side driver.
 
thanks

 
Thanks for the link.  They look very interesting, but the stock for Mouser shows that there are not any in stock.  I should see if another vendor might offer them.
 
In other news, I haven't posted in this thread for a bit.  But, have no fear, it doesn't mean that I haven't been huffing the fumes of solder.  I've been working a bit with some of the various drivers.  Here are a few highlights:
 

1. I opened my two additional pair of Sennheiser PX100 II headphones so I could use the drivers.  Somehow, the use of them wasn't as glorious this time around.  I had troubles tuning to a good sound signature that I remember from the first build I created with these.  Maybe, I was just dreaming with the last pair?  I'm using the same cup style with the same wood.  Just odd. I can't figure this one out, but I'll keep trying.

 

1. I located a hidden pair of 10+ year old Optimus headphones (made by Koss) which appears to be an older variety of their "KSC" style drivers.  The size is just about right for the wooden cups.  The sound is good, but just not wowing me completely yet.  I'll keep tweaking on them though.

 

1. I purchased two new pair of drivers from Parts Express that I should see early in the coming week.  I'm not sure if another member had noted these drivers or not, but they had the "new" designation on them at their Web site.  I've updated the maiden post for this thread to reflect the proper links.

 
It looks like many of you have been busy.  Some great looking projects - and even a closed variation is looking promising, too.  Keep up the great work!
 
Edit: I've figured out the issue with the Sennheiser PX100 II drivers.  The driver flange and grill (black plastic piece) was held into my wooden cups with hot glue.  I then was going to remove the Sennheiser drivers and go ahead and install the Koss drivers for some impressions. I used my heat gun to soften the glue for easier removal and cleanup.  Unfortunately, it looks like my heat gun was the culprit (and my own stupidity) as the heat had quickly hit the mylar on the drivers and deformed the cone.  They're not functional and will hit the trash bin.

 

[Rauliki]

Maybe you are used to px100 drivers so there is no Wow factor anymore. That's probably the problem with all headphones, at the end they sound like they used to. That's why ppl buy more expensive phones, for that slight improvement (or change).

 

[Levictus]

Those new Parts Express drivers look interesting. I'm anxious to hear your impressions. Still no AGK Chinese drivers! Been months so I put an email in for a status update.

 

[relevorance]

Sorry if this has been answered before.
but has anyone tried hd650 drivers? http://headphonespares.sennheiser.co.uk/hifi-tv-headphones/hd-650/dynamic-neodymium-capsule-300r.html

 

[squallkiercosa]

  Sorry if this has been answered before.
but has anyone tried hd650 drivers? http://headphonespares.sennheiser.co.uk/hifi-tv-headphones/hd-650/dynamic-neodymium-capsule-300r.html

The price for both drivers should be around 100$ + shipping, but you know what? the enclosure plays a critical role and you don't know how easy or hard will be taking them out of the plastic support. 

Following the same line: the sennheiser hd239 cost less than 50$ on amazon, but I presume they share the same px100ii driver.  

 

[wje]

Those new Parts Express drivers look interesting. I'm anxious to hear your impressions. Still no AGK Chinese drivers! Been months so I put an email in for a status update.

 
Oh ... thanks for the update.  I do know that during the holidays, items take a bit longer to ship.  However, we are just a few days away from the Chinese new year and when that happens, things pretty much grind to a halt during this period for China.  Then it takes a bit of time for them to get ramped back up and into full operation.  Hopefully, your drivers are headed your way.  I do know that to get items from China and into the U.S. would take me about 2 to 3 weeks when using the ePacket delivery through the USPS.  The customs end where I am tends to go pretty quick.  Though, this could be quite a bit different in other countries.
 
I have two more pair of drivers that I ordered within the past 24 hours.  Both of them were on Ebay, so I won't apply a link to the auction.  However, when I get them by the end of this coming week, I'll share model numbers that are associated with the drivers.   For these last two pair, I was careful to select drivers that were in stock by the Ebay seller within the U.S. I couldn't see myself waiting upwards of 3 weeks to get those next few drivers.  I'll see how this next round goes with the 4 new pair of drivers.  Then,I could see myself heading towards others and that should be after the Chinese new year concludes so the order should be far enough away from the holiday period to minimize shipping delays.
 
Good stuff!  Thanks again for the update on your drivers.  I had been thinking about them and can't believe the delay for you.

 

[relevorance]

  The price for both drivers should be around 100$ + shipping, but you know what, the enclosure plays a critical role and you don't know how easy or hard could be taking them out of the plastic support. 

Following the same line: the sennheiser hd239 cost less than 50$ on amazon, but I presume they share the same px100ii driver.  

I've already bought a pair to use with my hd580s and i was wondering if I could use these (or my now useless! 580 drivers) with my SR225i.
The difficult part of using these drivers may be finding a way to solder the extremely thin wires that come out of the voice coil to grado's cable. and i hoped that maybe someone with more experience could help me with that.
http://oi31.tinypic.com/2re432h.jpg

 

[wje]

More information on the additional drivers that I placed orders on.  Both were purchased from separate vendors on Ebay - that were U.S. based.  Both were 40mm drivers.  As follows ...
 
1 Pair DAIN 40mm drivers.  64 Ohm, etc.  This were priced at $7.50 for the pair plus about $2.00 for shipping.  The auction lists them as headphone drivers, but I'm not sure which vendor might have used them.  Time will tell.
 

 
 
1 Pair Sony replacement drivers for many of their MDR models:  I'm not sure of the impedence on this pair.  They were $9.99 each driver plus a few bucks for shipping.  The vendor sold two variations of the driver.  One was more distinct for the Sony models, while the other was a bit more generic, but still listed for the MDR series.  These were about $10 each , plus shipping.
 


 
Also, I found a used pair of PX 100 headphones (the original) that had some cable issues so they were for sale.  All of these should be arriving tomorrow or the following day so I can get ramped up and start testing these out to share the results.

 

[wje]

First up.  The Sony MDR replacement drivers as noted by the last two pictures in the above post I applied. ^^^ (see above). 

 
My guess is that these drivers obviously perform better in the MDR series (including the 7506) or just doesn't do as well in the open headphone or woody headphone category.  I paid $23.00 for this pair of drivers and my recommendation is to seriously consider a pair of the SR-60 Grado drivers instead.  Even at $30 (used) for a pair of SR-60 / SR-60i drivers is a bargain compared to how these drivers perform in wooden cups.  The highs and mids are not too bad.  The highs are not piercing, but I'd prefer a notch or two of a lift in that area to allow the percussion in music to bloom a bit more.  The lower mids and bass are another story.  I don't think in this situation or configuration that allowing time to break the drivers in will improve the bass any, if at all.
 
My rating for the Sony MDR driver: 
 
 
Based upon the criteria that I'll follow for sharing impressions on the various drivers.  While I theoretically can't give a rating lower than a one, this one would still fall a bit below at .5.
 
 
*** I will use a speaker rating scale of 1 to 4 with four being the highest and one being the lowest.
 
 One Driver Score
 Two Driver Score
  Three Driver Score
  Four Driver Score

 

[wje]

I have some information to share on a 2nd driver.  This one is the Dain 64 Ohm driver that I had purchased off of Ebay.  The Dain web site in china shows about 3 40mm drivers that they make.  It looks like the one I had purchased could potentially be an older model, or possibly drivers that a manufacturer didn't need.  I felt this one might be one of the more-promising of the bunch as here was a company willing to stamp their name on a driver. 
 
When I first started to prep the driver for use, I was admiring the larger than normal magnet on the back of the driver.  But then, I pushed a small tool through the back where the magnet sits.  It turns out the inside of the magnet on this particular driver happens to be open and the label covers that opening.  I didn't to work with any materials initially to cover that hole.  I'm sure the paper might not have been  much to help the sound as one would think that the air behind the cone would like to move a bit and bouncing off the paper might not be the best scenario - as opposed to air bouncing off a better or denser material.
 
Impressions.  Once I had installed the driver, I was quite curious how the driver would sound. To my ears, it wasn't really much different than the Sony MDR driver where I had shared my impressions.  The highs were not piercing in any way and were pleasant actually.  The mids, the same result.  Present and worthy at that moment.  The lows?  Basically really light and I suspect a few things as I go through these drivers and perform my observations and share impressions on them.
 
1) These drivers so far have been very neutral drivers.  The experience kind of reminds me of when I initially placed a stock pair of the Fostex T50RP headphones on my head.  In the studio or mixing situations, these drivers might be OK due to their neutral aspects.  But, when one would like to go through some casual listening sessions, I suspect a listener would like a bit more punch and excitement during these listening sessions.  In this regard, this isn't the driver for such a listener.
 
2) I'm also speculating, but think that these drivers are designed to work best in a closed headphone cup and using them in the Grado wooden cups just pulls the driver out of their known element.
 
When I am running through the various impressions that I'm trying to capture on the particular driver, I apply a series of songs where I recall the passages within them and tend to focus on those areas to see how the driver really performs in these known areas.  Also, once I've had a chance to listen to the said passages, I then temporarily remove the driver and open a few of the holes that are covered with the mesh or paper on the back of the driver.  This is a very similar posture when using the Grado standard drivers and one desires a bit more bass.  This driver was basically unresponsive to opening two of the vent holes.  The sound did not change, or I couldn't detect a change.  I would then apply a bit of Dynamat to the back of the driver magnet just to see how things would far.  Again, not much change, if at all.
 
My Rating for this Driver: One speaker for the rating.  
 
Again though, in this situation with an open headphone cup, the driver may not be in the best element that it was designed to perform in.  Additionally, I didn't take any time to burn these drivers in for those who might suspect that a situation like that could be a limitation for the driver.  Even the vendor on Ebay listed some tips for driver burn in.  After I've made a pass with all four drivers, I may get these drivers onto some cables and push some sound through them to see if a change occurs.  I may even get this going by connecting the drivers and running sound or some tone noise that's recommended for driver break in just to see how these might react.
 
I also want to caution a member who plans on trying some of these raw drivers on their own.  Since the face of the driver is not protected like a Grado or Magnum driver, you have to be quite careful so that your fingers don't smash the cone.  I'm actually applying a few dabs of hot glue to mate the driver to some of the plastic grill protectors from the Sennheiser PX100 headphones.  This ensures I won't smash the cone on the driver.
 
Next up: One of the two drivers I had purchased from Parts Express.

 

[7keys]

   
 
I'm temped to experiment with alternate housings all together, since the black plastic grill does not provide much contact area with the cups.  I would definitely rather use something that was as deep as the rest of the driver for mounting.  I'm going to hit the hardware store tomorrow and see if I can find some sort of rubber washer that's the right size.

I'm looking for something like this also as I don't like the way the plastic housing fits. If you find something let me know.

 

[wje]

Out of 4 drivers, I had a chance to collect some impressions on two of them and to me, both resulted in a "1" out of "4" score.  Again, suspicion reflects that the drivers might be better when utilized in an enclosed headphone cup.  The third one that I had intended to share some impressions with wasn't really any greater, nor any worse than the previous two drivers that I had completed a small write up on.  Since it pretty much didn't impress me, I'll spare the forum here from having to read about a driver that just doesn't make a great impression.
 
However, I had a chance to get the fourth one mounted and am trying it out at this moment.  It does show some hope.  I don't think I'd give it a full "3" but possibly quite close.  I'm going to keep this driver in the wooden cups for a few days to see if there might be some noted sound changes or improvements. This driver runs only $3.19 from Parts Express.  It is an 8 Ohm driver.  I'm currently pushing some Wynton Marsalis through it and think that the driver is doing an excellent job with the trumpet and some of the vocals.  I still will work to try additional genres to see how versatile this driver is.   I can't really call it a bass monster - because it certainly isn't.  It's working to supply an adequate amount of bass and time with other genres will then provide some additional perspective on how that rounds out.