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DIY Planar/orthodynamic/isodynamic drivers

Good and bad news...but mostly good :)

The custom material arrived!

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It is better in a lot of ways but is more difficult to work with, for instance, V3 of my traces is near impossible to produce consistently, the good news is that V2 now measures as 30.2 ohms since the aluminium is a lot thinner which also reduces the overall diaphragm weight and since the material is laminated instead of being glued it ensures I don't get any delamination which would cause rattling. Very happy with the sound of the drivers and have ordered a couple of sets of my magnet baffles to be made out of laser-sintered nylon so I can make a couple of productions pairs which I will make a website for soon. If all goes well and I see that there is interest in this kind of product I will be able to make more! Cannot wait for others to hear my final design :)
 
Gold might be a suitable material for the conductors. gold wire can be made very thin and it does not need any protective coating
 
A friend has been working along the same lines but on a larger scale....panels 600x300mm and they sound amazing. The key (once you've sorted the materials) is the tension across the film and damping. This does alter the response quite a lot and needs to be accurate on each panel to maintain 'repeatability' so that each panel measures (has the same frequency response) on each and every one.

Great work....
 
laverda said:
A friend has been working along the same lines but on a larger scale....panels 600x300mm and they sound amazing. The key (once you've sorted the materials) is the tension across the film and damping. This does alter the response quite a lot and needs to be accurate on each panel to maintain 'repeatability' so that each panel measures (has the same frequency response) on each and every one.

Great work....
Click to expand...

For tension I simply put water on a piece of glass and put the diaphragm on top, making sure to press all the bubbles out from underneath, this seems to get a nice repeatable tension. As for damping my original intention was for the the buyer to decide on their own material to tune it to their taste however I have decided to have a piece of Thermolam over the back by default as that makes the frequency response very flat and should be pleasing for those who don't want to mess with the driver much. :)
 
Small update. I have found a better method for etching which produces better more reliable results.
Here is a V2 I etched today:
YbvkqOt.jpg

...and here is a V3!
eHqMEzu.jpg

Not the cleanest etch I admit but there were a few points that took longer than others causing most of it to be over etched but still, it works :) Sort of...it measures somewhere in the kilohms and when trying to play music through it is was very quiet on my amplifiers max volume.
 
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Fewer and wider turns then. You don't want to have to use a modified high voltage swing Stax driver.
Makes the etching easier too.
 
davidsrsb said:
Fewer and wider turns then. You don't want to have to use a modified high voltage swing Stax driver.
Makes the etching easier too.
Click to expand...
Yea don't worry, just an experiment. My normal V2 measures at 30.2ohms which I think is appropriate. :)
 
Maybe these would sell better if you bought in some cups and headbands so that folk know they work with them. It might be worth speaking with Custom cans, this might be right up thier street.
 
orangeart said:
Maybe these would sell better if you bought in some cups and headbands so that folk know they work with them. It might be worth speaking with Custom cans, this might be right up thier street.
Click to expand...
That's a good suggestion, just for clarification the headband I linked above is one I own and personally use with some adaptor plates I printed which I can upload if anyone would find that useful. :)
 
I agree, this will make a lot more sense to most people. A full kit, with the cables, headband, cups etc will really open the market up.
 
Just a small update. Just run out of magnets so I'm going to put in an order for about 300 more :)

Going to start working on making a kit for the current driver in the meantime and I'm thinking about designing another driver...was thinking I could design a larger upgrade driver for the classic T50rp headphone as I feel that might be interesting, especially as many already have that headphone for modding purposes.

Thought I would also share a picture of my personal set of headphones using my driver's and the headband I talked about before.
Zy7WrJi.jpg
 
Just a small update, still waiting on magnet production, should start around 6/1/20.

Just had first feedback from some of my first customers. Apparently they measure very close to an Audeze Lcd-3 both in frequency response and in their sonic ability which I am very pleased with. Hopefully soon I might be able publish their measurements as they have a much better measuring rig than me.

I am thinking about designing a full headphone that utilizes my current driver with perhaps slightly different damping/tuning to pull even more out of this driver but we will see. If I were to go through with this my biggest goal, apart from the sound quality, is comfort as I have been put off by so many headphones in the market due to their excessive weight and weight distribution.
 
Been designing a headphone that utilises my drivers. I'm nearly finished with constructing a prototype pair I'm thinking of bringing to a Hi-Fi show soonish in Bristol, to compare to other well-known brands. Here are some pictures of what I have so far printed and test fit. Only 3D printed for now but I know what materials I would like to eventually use once I'm happy with this version.
LBcS7Pml.jpg

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