Custom wound speakers?

[eeka chu]

I'd like to get a set of headphone speakers custom wound. I am getting beyond tired of having to constantly worry about noise levels when I'm playing my guitar.

I have heard guitarists getting noise complaints running 1/2W amps from 9V batteries. Guitars are right in the sensitive frequency range of human hearing, so even small power levels are very easy to hear.

I want to put together a 1/2W valve amp and run it out through a set of headphones, so I can play whatever the time is.

The valve distortion is part of the sound of a guitar, but the speakers also contribute quite a lot. A lot of speaker cabinets are rated very close to the actual output of the amplifier, so the speakers begin to distort as the amplifier is turned up.

As such, I don't want to just run the amplifier out through an off the shelf set of headphones, because I expect it probably won't sound so good.

I have an SPL against frequency graph, a magnet type, a rough size and a rough wattage I would like the headphones to operate around.



Is there any company out there I could submit this to who would be able to use the information to produce something similar to what I'm after?

I found one company yesterday that wound a very wide range of custom speakers, they had a lot of drop down options on their site, but the electrician cut the power off because the guys we have in are plastering around the wiring.

I really hope I can get hold of something suitable. Cranking a 50W guitar amplifier at home is just unreal, even with a power brake. There are few things that have hurt my ears more than sitting in the amp room with my amplifier turned up, they actually feel warm and sore. Not a good thing at all.

My amp is rated for 100 watts, four EL34's. I pulled two of the valves out and it's still not enough.

There are very few modelling or solid state amps available that compete with valves for their distortion.

[Bill Fitzpatrick]

You can't get the speaker sound and distortion into the headphones without playing the speakers.

You could get everything else though by installing a switch which connects the output of the amp to either the speaker OR a dummy load resistor by just flipping the switch. You could then drive the headphone amp through a voltage divider connected to the dummy load.

[eeka chu]

Bill,

I think our wires may have become crossed. I am talking about having a set of speakers, for headphones, custom wound to produce a similar output to the original 12" speakers.

That way, there wouldn't be any mics or boxes involved. Even wrapped up in insulating foam, 50W from a guitar amp is far too loud to play at night. As an experiment, I pulled one of my speakers out and burried it under every piece of removable fabric I could find; a duvet, clothing, pillows, towels and so on. I ended up with a pile about two foot high in the middle of the room. Before I ever reached 10 on the volume the amp was whistling away and making things vibrate around the room.

I need an amp where the only thing vibrating is the speakers in my headphones.

[Bill Fitzpatrick]

I understand.

The problem is, with a custom headphone speaker, one of the characteristics would be the duplication of the frequency response of the guitar speaker. That does not involve the magnet material or the coil, but the diaphragm and suspension. That would be expensive to manipulate on a one off basis.

One thing that comes to mind is to use a parametric equalizer before the headphone amp in order to duplicate the response curve of the guitar speaker. That would get part of what you're after.

Another thought is to make a pair of headphones yourself using some 2" speakers many of which have a very non-flat response with curves similar to a guitar speaker.

If you had some funds to research and prototype a pair of headphones and the amp to drive them so it duplicated the sound of a guitar amp and speakers, you could turn them into a product and make a tidy piece of change. It's such a good idea that I'm surprised that someone hasn't done it yet. Are you sure that such a system is not already available?

[johninCR]

If you go the homemade headphones route, be sure to get a pic of yourself with them on, so we can all see the contraption you come up with. I saw something like that done with ESL panels that was quite funny, but as long as it works, who cares.

[adason]

looking at the frequency response guitar speakers are high efficiency high power high spl midranges

what you want is low efficiency low spl midrange earspeaker with similar fr. response which you would drive by divider from your amp driving dummy load

i bet there is plenty small speakers with similar fr. response, most small computer speakers are basicaly midranges (failed fullranges)

be carefull with high spl to your ears
tinitus and deafness is ireversible

[jdybnis]

If you go the small speaker route look at the AKG-1000 headphones for design inspiration. They are less like headphones and more like speakers hanging off your head. They don't make you look compleately goofy and I haven't heard anyone complaining about a sore neck after wearing them.

[eeka chu]

Thanks for the replies guys, sorry for misunderstanding you Bill.

I'll have to have a think and see what I can come up with!

Are there any sites that have information on putting together a pair of speakers?