DIY Ribbon Headphones

The headphones are not ready yet. And they have some disadvantages: They are only for home use (afraid of the wind). They are afraid of very large levels of loudness (of course this limit is high, you can lose hearing at such loudness). Made by hand.
Advantages: The drivers used in the headphones are unique and have no analogues, they are a hybrid of a tape driver and an eddy current driver, they have tremendous accuracy, micro and macro dynamics, smooth sound from infra-low to ultra-high frequencies, fantastic detailing. Ideal for any genre of music. I can say that they have no flaws in the sound. And they also have the feature of completely involving the listener in the audio program. Sound is not localized only in the head, it is everywhere. As if you are transported into a picture painted by a sound engineer, that is, if you listen to the sounds of nature you seem to become present there, and so for any genres. You can say you are in virtual reality. Sometimes when I listen to music that stirs me, I have a feeling of euphoria.
With the price I have not decided yet. And how much would you agree to pay for such headphones?
 
Hello,

I know this build for mikes using for example a Lundahl 2912 transformer, but never have make one for a speaker...

Thus, I have some questions about this prototype. Thank you in advance for your precisions.

Do you have an idea of the impedance of your small ribbon ?
Can you detail the build of the primary and secondary of your "transformer" ? (AWG of the wire, turns and values of the 2 winding, etc...).
At least, will the Lundahl 2912 used for mikes do the job here ?
You say that the transformer can be substituted by a resistor, do you think a 8-10 ohms/10-20 watts resistor will do the job ?

My Very best,
 
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Hello! I do not know the parameters of the Lundahl 2912 transformer so I can not say how it will work. My transformer is wound on a ferrite ring core measuring 20 * 12 * 6. It has a primary winding of 800 turns of wire 0.12. The winding is wound with sectioning, it has 8 sections of 100 turns. The DC resistance is 32 ohms. The secondary winding is wound with a stranded wire consisting of many thin wires to obtain a cross section of about 2 square millimeters. It is possible to use a wire as on the primary winding, all wiring is soldered together at the ends. The secondary winding has 8 turns.

The transformer can be replaced with a 4-10 Ohm resistor. I listened to these drivers from the power amp from the speakers (at least 5 watts), but I prefer the sound with the transformer. It resembles an analog tube sound. Probably a little enriches the spectrum with harmonics, but it only makes it better, adds some zest to the sound.
 
Thank you for your input.

What are these properties or at least what will be the specs of the aluminum foil ? Is the current "kitchen" aluminum foil 6µ in thickness is adapted here or is it necessary to use thiner foils like those for mikes ?

I'll be interested in having the frequency response of this driver as soon you measure it.

The data of the Lundahl are here :

http://www.lundahl.se/wp-content/uploads/datasheets/2912.pdf
 
In my drivers, I used foil from old Soviet capacitors KBG, its thickness is 10 microns. Kitchen foil will not work.

I will measure the characteristics of the drivers as soon as I can. And I said before that there is no special need for this. My drivers have a fantastic sound, they have the ability to 100 percent involve the listener. Their sound is very voluminous as if you were listening to the speakers or in general you were inside the sound program. I've never felt this pleasure before listening to headphones like now. I realized that this type of driver has advantages over all available types of drivers in headphones. You will also understand this if you decided to make such drivers.
You can try this microphone transformer. But if I had a permalloy annular core of a thin tape of 0.05 mm of suitable size, I would try to make a transformer on it.
 
Yes, you will have to work hard to find a suitable foil. But you will be satisfied with the result, and most likely having such headphones you will not want to have any others. I'm already convinced of this. You can try foil from other metals or alloys, for example from titanium, but it is more likely to find it even harder, especially since aluminum is the lightest metal.
Good luck
 
OK I found 20 µ aluminum foils. I'll make a try with this.

The issue is that a thicker membrane or diaphragm will impact the frequency response of the driver. Anyway, it's worth to try.

For example for mike designs the aluminum foil is a fraction of a µ or less than 2 µ...

The main issue with this design is the fragility...