DIY talk

Discussion in 'DIY' started by Cspirou, Jul 25, 2021.

  1. Pars

    Pars New

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    The TKD CP2500 is the larger of the two pots by TKD, and is approximately the same size as an Alps Blue, but much better. If an Alps Blue would fit, these should as well, though the footprint isn't the same. I have the gerbers for some mounting PCBs for these if you decide to go that route. The CP601 is the smaller pot, and these are good as well. The PCB I mentioned fits these as well. Add the number of channels onto the front of the part number (i.e., 2CP2500 is a stereo unit, etc.). I think these are available up to 6 channels?
     
  2. Armaegis

    Armaegis Friend

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    Today's tale of stupidity...

    So I got a new headphone recently that needed 2x3.5mm to the cups. No problem, I have a spare for that. The headphone arrives, I fetch the cable, oh wait it's a 2x2.5mm cable, crap! Oh well, not a big deal, I'm pretty sure I built this exact one years ago it's just in that box that's stowed away in my parent's basement. Go home for Friday dinner with the folks, spend an hour digging through the boxes, can't find it. Ok fine, I still have the DIY parts to make one. Spend another half hour digging through more boxes, find the bag with my TRS plugs, they're mostly 1/4" but oh wait there's two small ones left, great!

    Fire up the soldering iron, grab a random crappy 1/8 to RCA cable, snip off the rca ends, strip and tin the wires, no problemo. Try to tin the plugs, oh fudgesicles it's that stupid barrel contact instead of tabs, and why in blue blazes isn't the solder sticking even after fluxing the hell out of it? Argh fine get the exacto knife and scrape the bejezus out of it, ok now the solder sticks.

    Grab the mini arms and magnifier, clamp things up, connect the wires and feel mighty proud of myself how clean that looks. Pinch the wire clamps down. Look more closely, @#$&! and realize I forgot to put the barrels on before soldering. Clamp it back up, desolder the wires, slide on the barrels, reconnect, be angry now because it looks like crap, start to twist the barrels on, look in the bag and realize the plastic inner sleeve for the barrels are still in the bag. Screw it, I don't need those anyways.

    Grab multimeter, continuity checks out. Okie dokes! Grab headphone, go to plug wires into earcups... realize I have successfully created a new 2x2.5mm cable :(

    edit: so I don't actually have any 3.5mm plugs left, I think I'm just going to spend $25 on some random garbage cable from amazon, ugh.
     
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  3. Kernel Kurtz

    Kernel Kurtz Friend

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    Hey, no skin burns and no magic smoke? I'd consider that a mostly successful DIY :)
     
  4. Armaegis

    Armaegis Friend

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    I used pliers and tweezers, and only just barely melted the plastic around the barrels. Great success! Useless cable!
     
  5. Kernel Kurtz

    Kernel Kurtz Friend

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    Well that is the problem. Should have used vice grips. They fix everything!
     
  6. Armaegis

    Armaegis Friend

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    Real question: what's a good pair of vice grips to get? I've recently picked up some new tools (Irwin groovelocks and pliers set, Wera toolcheck plus), but don't have any vice grips in the kit yet.
     
  7. Kernel Kurtz

    Kernel Kurtz Friend

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    Mastercraft and Craftsman used to have a lifetime warranty, but that is no more. Obviously if you use hand tools for a living, Snap-On or Mac are what the pros use, but for my limited use I usually just go with whatever they sell at Princess Auto.
     
  8. fastfwd

    fastfwd Friend

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    Go back to Irwin for vise grips. Good, cheap, and they have a lifetime warranty.
     
  9. bobboxbody

    bobboxbody Friend

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    If you want to go deluxe, I really like Fujiya tools. Many are on amazon in the US, I don't know about Canada. Although some, like the locking pliers(vice-grips), you have to buy on ebay from Japan, and by then you're in the Snap-On price category.
    Irwin seems like a more practical choice, but the Fujiya will look cooler, and what really matters more in a tool? Style over substance obviously.
     
  10. fastfwd

    fastfwd Friend

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    Obviously.

    I like Malco. It's a different aesthetic then the Fujiya Kurokin -- maybe not quite so stylish -- but it's Deluxe with a capital D. They bought the former Vise-Grip plant in Nebraska (10 years after Vise-Grip production moved to China), hired some of the old crew, and made really nice versions of the tool. It's obvious from the photos on Snap-On's website that their locking pliers are private-labeled Malcos.

    Unfortunately, Malco had to exit the business this year. But if you hurry, you might still be able to find some for sale.

    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
     
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  11. TheRealAscii

    TheRealAscii MOT: Valphonics

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    Making baffles is incredibly unfun and painful when its needing done by hand.
    [​IMG]

    Still have yet to find an effective technique but using 400-500 silk and applying that with double sided thin tape is incredibly effective for ports, but full sized one? I do not enjoy that one bit.

    Used peerless 40mm for this one, and it sounds very good for my ears. Resin printed sls housing by me and made to fit sony mdr headbands like ETA. Due to the semi baffle design, its more V shaped and slams so well. Bass is punchy but not distorted, though a slight 5k peak i need to kill. Really enjoy these.
     
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  12. Pancakes

    Pancakes Friend

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    Are you actually calculating the ports in any way? Ie, taking driver and enclosure parameters to tune appropriately.
     
  13. TheRealAscii

    TheRealAscii MOT: Valphonics

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    Yup, been messing with an iec711 clone rig and my headphones setup to see how these work. Ill be posting graphs eventually once I have something much more built and something I can be proud of! At the very moment they're a little scuffed.
     
  14. E_Schaaf

    E_Schaaf MOT: E.T.A Headphones

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    Those are some exceptional performers as far as off the shelf 40mm drivers go. If you want to elevate the lower to middle midrange, you could consider peeling back some of the paper covering the vents on the rear of the driver. With a careful hand, it could be reversible if the effect is not favorable to you. I also had some success smoothing the transition into the 5khz area by filter damping the mag vent after making the adjustments to the edge damper. Otherwise, you will find it difficult to reduce the 5khz peak with adjustments behind the diaphragm. Sometimes adding volume around the peak to mask it a bit is a better option than trying to reduce the peak.
     
    Last edited: Apr 5, 2023
  15. Philimon

    Philimon Friend

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    Particularly when the peak is (seemingly) attached to some sort of resonance. I found it difficult choosing whether to try and boost surrounding areas to mask HE6se v2 resonance or try my best to crater that specific frequency with the least amount of collateral damage. Both routes were equally semi-effective but neither were totally satisfying for my preferences which is why Im still holding on to old HE500 even though its technically inferior (aside from resonance issue).

    @TheRealAscii I have an old pair of Yamaha YH-1 drivers in parts bin. Do you mind sharing your 3DP file? No worries if you dont want to share your labor, Ive been meaning to try creating my own eventually… I have a bunch of Sony studio series sized pads left over from last Yamaha transplant mod so your 3DP enclosure made to fit Sony studio headband might possibly fit them.
     
  16. TheRealAscii

    TheRealAscii MOT: Valphonics

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    Thank you!! Ill try and do something about that, as I am not too experienced in the headphone DIY world. Still figuring things out but I am having a lot of fun doing it.

    Go crazy :D
    https://www.printables.com/model/444350-hp1/files

    It has a slight open baffle which I was messing with, I lost the original files so feel free to close that part over if needed, or edit to your hearts content.
     
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  17. Philimon

    Philimon Friend

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    Awesome.

    The open baffle Ill convert / reduce to vented baffle (multiple little ports) that way it can be easily tuned to taste afterwards by sealing x vents with tape or whatever. I might also add a pad lip on front-side and in that include some more venting options which is something I wouldve liked with my last Yamaha transplant (KH-100 aka YH-100 drivers into a Sony frame, the KH is for @khbaur330162’s idea ).

    [​IMG]
     
  18. Armaegis

    Armaegis Friend

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    Requested by @Thad E Ginathom in reference to this: https://www.superbestaudiofriends.org/index.php?threads/speaker-porn.3298/page-53#post-407502
    and posted here because it's too long to put in my profile.

    So back in grad school, a lot of my work required working with molten metals. In this particular instance, I had to fabricate a crucible to very specific dimensions to fit within a custom made tubular furnace. The "easiest" way to do this rather than trying to cast something out of ceramics was to machine one out of large graphite blocks down to the appropriate shape. Also, ceramics have a tendency to go boom when exposed to rapid temperature changes, such as when I go around pouring molten metal on stuff. So graphite it is.

    Anyhow, I've got this big square block of solid graphite and a lathe. I need to turn it into essentially a cup. As I started trimming it down and sending chunks of graphite everywhere, I realize cleanup would be an awful mess because I had to stop and clean off the machine every few minutes. Then I had my metaphorical lightbulb moment where I figured that duct taping a shop vac next to the cutting tool would solve a lot of my problems all at once.

    Thus I continued with my cutting and forming of the graphite block on the lathe, probably trimming out over 90% of the block to make my relatively thinwalled container, praying that I wouldn't accidentally shatter the whole thing. Probably two hours or so pass by when someone walks into the machine shop and asks if there was a fire. My glasses are an awful smudge of graphite so I really didn't notice, and since it happened over such a long time no one else in the room had noticed that the air was definitely grey until it started reaching London fog conditions.

    It turns out that the shop vac didn't have any filter on it, so I was essentially kicking out fine graphite dust into the air... Into a room filled with motors and other equipment that could potentially spark. Whoopsie doodle. Shut down the machine shop, kill the lights, wait a half day for the dust to settle out and for the ventilation to filter out what it can, spend the other half wiping down every surface in the shop.
     
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    Last edited: Apr 19, 2023
  19. Thad E Ginathom

    Thad E Ginathom Friend

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    Great! Thank you very much. :D

    I'm aware that duct-taped "dust extraction" is a regular thing for certain machining processes. It's just a shame about that filter.
     
  20. Cspirou

    Cspirou They call me Sparky

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