Submitted by Ziffded t3_122czqm in headphones
I'm researching to build completely custom headphones, but I'm not sure where to find good drivers (electrostatic, dynamic, I don't really care). Can anybody point me in the right direction of drivers that can give me the detail of high end monitors without the high end price?
I'll check them out. The only thing I'm worried about is that once I buy them, I'm done. I'm not buying another pair probably, so if they suck I'm stuck with them and I won't know how they will sound until I'm done with the build, so I want to be really confident in what drivers I buy
I went through a phase where I was buying all sort of drivers and putting them into whatever. The 2 biggest suggestions I can make are from Aliexpress.
52mm Denon Edge Free $70ish - They have a black plastic or brass housing versions. The 300 Ohm brass is amazing on tubes. A nice sightly V-shape depending what you put it in.
But I think the one you are looking for is the K100 50mm $80ish. It's a white/chrome cone with a blue housing. It is the MOST detailed thing I've ever heard. Almost like listening to a set of Makie monitors... almost. You will have to "tune" the cans to get it close to what you are looking for.
qigom k100? (32/60/300/500/700/900 ohm?) in these offers buy the 500, I hope you surprise me
i've been testing some less expensive qigom models and the n90q is fabulous and the others have their own charm as well (hd800, hd650, 777)
I had the 60 Ohm version. Unfortunately, I had a magnet mishap. I had them in the Monoprice Retro frame with Brainwavz hybrid pads and was very surprised. I was going to put them into my Philips Fidelio frame and as I placed the driver on the table, the screwdriver magically shot across the table (really only couple of inches) and impaled the cone. I was super pissed and will buy them again sometime.
I share the misfortune, in my case it was an accident between the two drivers... and also a naughty nephew who almost made the n90q's useless... in both cases it was almost completely solved, but it is never the same
I'm looking forward to the k100 500 ohm, the 60 ohm was the second option
Yeah, a 500 Ohm driver. I bet tubes will love it!
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The Peerless by Tymphany 50mm drivers are pretty popular (and can be tuned to be good, like in the Aurorus Borealis). They’re also quite affordable (at around 10 bucks). Parts number is HPD-50N25PR00-32.
Cool, I've seen those and looked into them I've just been put off by how good their price is. The Aurorus Borealis is an $800 headphone but you're saying the drivers are only $20! There has to be a downside somewhere for that price.
Not really a downside. It’s a pretty standard dynamic driver, and Tymphany is one of the largest driver producers in the world: those things get made by the thousands. I’d bet the production costs of HD 600 drivers are similarly low. Probably true for most dynamic headphones.
The hard part is not making a driver, but bringing its full potential out (by designing an enclosure, by dampening etc). A lot of headphones use the Peerless 50mm, but a lot of them don’t sound all that great.
I'll look into them more. I seen a couple custom builds that turned out pretty good so I might end up with these. Right now I'm bouncing in between customs with tymphanys or highly modded mrspeakers alpha dogs (Fostex T50RP)
They’re cheap enough that it’s worth trying out. Do both! I’m working on the MrSpeakers OpenAlpha build myself (once all parts arrive within the next weeks).
Sounds good to me! Would you recommend I make open alpha first or a full custom? I feel like open alpha would be better to start with.
I think I’d go for the OpenAlpha first. It’s a known design that is known to sound pretty good, and it’s easy to modify it a bit and experiment around. If you start with something custom, it may take a long time to see something that actually works well, so that may be worthwhile as a longer-term project.
Every week we get a post like like this. It doesn't matter what kind of driver you put in a headphone if you don't have the proper housing, autistic material, pad thickness and shape.
Making your own headphone isn't as easy as it sounds. Million dollar companies try and fail.
Better off looking for an open headphone and modding from there.
> autistic material
🤫
If this is what matters the most, can you explain to me what different foams and materials do to the sound?
No because I'm not a sound or materials engineer. You're gonna have to do your own research.
Housing shape and how it reflects sound and affects the driver is should be first area of research.
No_Analysis6187 t1_jdpxjtq wrote
A lot of boutique companies like Swan Song Audio and Spirit Torino use drivers made by Nhoord Audio iirc, definitely worth a look. They seems to be popular with DIYer too.