Ulfar4
Head-Fier
Hi All,
I have been working on this headphones for some time and I want to share some results.
I want to clear from start that I won't give away everything that I learned, mainly not revealing the process of the membrane creating. Although it can be guessed from photos. It just cost me too much money and time to get usable results. So for now I want to keep it but I don't rule out that I won't reveal it later.
So why I choose to try build this type of headphones? I already built an electrostatic ones and I was always curious about planar magnetic drivers after I saw the thread about Verum One headphones and many others.
It was good to set some goals which I wanted to achieve.
- Verify that I can build membrane with usable range of impedance. Without this step, it would have no sense to continue with the project.
- Get at least some sound from the driver as I did not expect any high quality sound.
- Then maybe tune design to get some usable sound that will match planars in lowest price range.
- In the end final goal was to have fun during building those headphones and get some new knowledges about headphones.
1) First membrane
This was actually the biggest challenge to create first usable membrane. It took me almost three months to do this since it was time consuming and one have also other duties than only to diy something. So when I achieved first good result, I bought then some magnets, printed some housing and used some old headband. I was actually surprised that it worked but the sound was not usable at all. Those headphones was bass heavy. I did some measurement on my DIY headphone rig, which was in no way accurate but it helps a lot.
2) Improving the design to get more balanced sound
Now it was all about to do better design since the first was only for verification. I did membrane with new shape and new housing. Then it started to look so much better. And indeed the sound was much better after sime tinkering with membrane tension. It was definitely the signal to continue with this project more.
After some othe iterations and experimenting with damping I was really satisfied with the results. Sound was good with lot of bass extension. It had dark signature, so it was totally opposite of my electrostatic headphones.
Since I was satisfied with headphones, I decided to manufacture better mechanical package. Membrane was glued to FR4 spacer and housing was created in way that it was comfortable to wear it. Impedance was 11Ω, weight without cable 470g and magnetic structure single sided. It was comfortable even for long session despite higher weight.
To this moment I was using my DIY measurement rig for tunning the sound but since it was impossible to rely on results I ordered MiniDSP Ears. I know it is not as precise as some other rigs, but it is affordable and consistent at least in some ways.
3) Measuring with MiniDSP Ears rig
I think it will be good if I shortly explain the compensation curve I am using for Ears so there will not be any misunderstanding.
Ears offer three types of compensations, RAW which is essenitaly only level calibration of mics. Then HEQ (Headphone EQ Compensation), this will point you to equalizing the headphones for neutral sound. Last is HPN (Headphone Measurement Compensation), this will give you results that is most simmilar from other measurements rigs. I did not like either of them, so I did my own compensation, which combine HEQ and HPN, it is distantly simmilar with SBAF compenstaions.
I named it MPN and to around 1kHz it is using HPN curve. After this frequency it is using HEQ curve. This is what suits me best when tunning and measuring headphones. So any further measurements will have this compensation curve. It is not accurate or best way how to measure the headphones, but I just can't afford measurement rig that costs ten times more than EARS since this is mainly for fun project. Measured headphones above are some Beyerdynamics for clarification.
Finally there is measurement from the silver(gray) headphones. As you can see, it is still relatively dark signature headphones.
4) Tweaking current design
I ordered multiple earpads and damping materials and I try to improve the sound even more. I also did minor redesign of the housing (pictures are with sheepskin earpads)
I actualy ended up with using velur earpads and two layer damping under protection grill. The sound was more even while still maintaining dark signature. I always imagined that LCD2 from Audeze have simmilar sound to this. So naturally I had to borrow ones. I have luck that we have one audio shop that is offering this service so I got LCD2 for 5 days to listening.
The sound was actually similar which pleased me. My headphones were slightly harder to drive and much more comfortable than Audeze, but I must say this new revision with thinner earpads is not actually bad. Audeze has better detail in sound, for some tracks I prefered Audeze and for other my headphones. I am actually not good in describing the sound so I can not comment it more. And also there is one other thing. Maybe the feel of that this my creation is clouding my judgement of how they sound.
Anyway, there is comparison of LCD 2 and my headphones from EARS.
There is one more comparsion with LCD2 and my headphones with velur and sheepskin earpads.
5) What next
From comparison with LCD2 I have some new ideas. I will try design with double sided magnetic structure to see if there will be any improvements. The headphones should be then easier to drive and have reduced distortion due to symmetrical design. I also hope that level of detail will be close to LCD2.
I did some first drafts of new version. It will be double sided but the cups will be smaller than before. First design with single sided structure had 110mm diameter cup. New one has 103mm diameter.
New parts are on the way so when I have updates I'll add them to next posts to keep you updated.
I hope that you enjoyed reading this post.
I have been working on this headphones for some time and I want to share some results.
I want to clear from start that I won't give away everything that I learned, mainly not revealing the process of the membrane creating. Although it can be guessed from photos. It just cost me too much money and time to get usable results. So for now I want to keep it but I don't rule out that I won't reveal it later.
So why I choose to try build this type of headphones? I already built an electrostatic ones and I was always curious about planar magnetic drivers after I saw the thread about Verum One headphones and many others.
It was good to set some goals which I wanted to achieve.
- Verify that I can build membrane with usable range of impedance. Without this step, it would have no sense to continue with the project.
- Get at least some sound from the driver as I did not expect any high quality sound.
- Then maybe tune design to get some usable sound that will match planars in lowest price range.
- In the end final goal was to have fun during building those headphones and get some new knowledges about headphones.
1) First membrane
This was actually the biggest challenge to create first usable membrane. It took me almost three months to do this since it was time consuming and one have also other duties than only to diy something. So when I achieved first good result, I bought then some magnets, printed some housing and used some old headband. I was actually surprised that it worked but the sound was not usable at all. Those headphones was bass heavy. I did some measurement on my DIY headphone rig, which was in no way accurate but it helps a lot.
2) Improving the design to get more balanced sound
Now it was all about to do better design since the first was only for verification. I did membrane with new shape and new housing. Then it started to look so much better. And indeed the sound was much better after sime tinkering with membrane tension. It was definitely the signal to continue with this project more.
After some othe iterations and experimenting with damping I was really satisfied with the results. Sound was good with lot of bass extension. It had dark signature, so it was totally opposite of my electrostatic headphones.
Since I was satisfied with headphones, I decided to manufacture better mechanical package. Membrane was glued to FR4 spacer and housing was created in way that it was comfortable to wear it. Impedance was 11Ω, weight without cable 470g and magnetic structure single sided. It was comfortable even for long session despite higher weight.
To this moment I was using my DIY measurement rig for tunning the sound but since it was impossible to rely on results I ordered MiniDSP Ears. I know it is not as precise as some other rigs, but it is affordable and consistent at least in some ways.
3) Measuring with MiniDSP Ears rig
I think it will be good if I shortly explain the compensation curve I am using for Ears so there will not be any misunderstanding.
Ears offer three types of compensations, RAW which is essenitaly only level calibration of mics. Then HEQ (Headphone EQ Compensation), this will point you to equalizing the headphones for neutral sound. Last is HPN (Headphone Measurement Compensation), this will give you results that is most simmilar from other measurements rigs. I did not like either of them, so I did my own compensation, which combine HEQ and HPN, it is distantly simmilar with SBAF compenstaions.
I named it MPN and to around 1kHz it is using HPN curve. After this frequency it is using HEQ curve. This is what suits me best when tunning and measuring headphones. So any further measurements will have this compensation curve. It is not accurate or best way how to measure the headphones, but I just can't afford measurement rig that costs ten times more than EARS since this is mainly for fun project. Measured headphones above are some Beyerdynamics for clarification.
Finally there is measurement from the silver(gray) headphones. As you can see, it is still relatively dark signature headphones.
4) Tweaking current design
I ordered multiple earpads and damping materials and I try to improve the sound even more. I also did minor redesign of the housing (pictures are with sheepskin earpads)
I actualy ended up with using velur earpads and two layer damping under protection grill. The sound was more even while still maintaining dark signature. I always imagined that LCD2 from Audeze have simmilar sound to this. So naturally I had to borrow ones. I have luck that we have one audio shop that is offering this service so I got LCD2 for 5 days to listening.
The sound was actually similar which pleased me. My headphones were slightly harder to drive and much more comfortable than Audeze, but I must say this new revision with thinner earpads is not actually bad. Audeze has better detail in sound, for some tracks I prefered Audeze and for other my headphones. I am actually not good in describing the sound so I can not comment it more. And also there is one other thing. Maybe the feel of that this my creation is clouding my judgement of how they sound.
Anyway, there is comparison of LCD 2 and my headphones from EARS.
There is one more comparsion with LCD2 and my headphones with velur and sheepskin earpads.
5) What next
From comparison with LCD2 I have some new ideas. I will try design with double sided magnetic structure to see if there will be any improvements. The headphones should be then easier to drive and have reduced distortion due to symmetrical design. I also hope that level of detail will be close to LCD2.
I did some first drafts of new version. It will be double sided but the cups will be smaller than before. First design with single sided structure had 110mm diameter cup. New one has 103mm diameter.
New parts are on the way so when I have updates I'll add them to next posts to keep you updated.
I hope that you enjoyed reading this post.
Last edited:
