Why don't you do what I did, buy 2 cheap large headphones , strip them and build small diaphragm, and use small neos, and 2.25 mm wide aluminium foil, fix it all together total weight 405 grams. They sound wonderful. Can listen to music all day, and watch tele with them on. No problem. Everything sounds so natural it is unbelievable. Am buying more cheap headphones to convert.!!
James: I'm very interested in what you did there. What is the aluminum foil for exactly? Would you be able to post pictures?
Rem: I've been experimenting with cup designs-- fitting the neos to my ears at the perfect angle-- by building up this stuff I bought at my hardware store called "sponge rubber weatherstrip." I've found with this stuff, (unlike the leather pads that came with the monoprice cans) that a certain balance can be achieved between placement and band extension which makes them acceptably wearable, even bordering on comfortable, despite their weight. When using the leather pads, I would often find sharp pains on the top of my head in the exact location the headband was resting... hmm...
Edit: Sponge rubber weatherstripping is identical to what some people use to seal speakers in boxes as apposed to that grey glue stuff. I bought some from PE. From what I can tell it is 100% identical, but can be had for less at a local hardware store.
Rem: I've been experimenting with cup designs-- fitting the neos to my ears at the perfect angle-- by building up this stuff I bought at my hardware store called "sponge rubber weatherstrip." I've found with this stuff, (unlike the leather pads that came with the monoprice cans) that a certain balance can be achieved between placement and band extension which makes them acceptably wearable, even bordering on comfortable, despite their weight. When using the leather pads, I would often find sharp pains on the top of my head in the exact location the headband was resting... hmm...
Edit: Sponge rubber weatherstripping is identical to what some people use to seal speakers in boxes as apposed to that grey glue stuff. I bought some from PE. From what I can tell it is 100% identical, but can be had for less at a local hardware store.
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Have started on next rebuild smaller than these, so maybe too difficult to finish we shall see he said more in hope than anger.! I think I have bigger ones coming we shall see, today or tomorrow? I don't do a double diaphragm at the moment, a single one is hard enough as the ease of the layout depends on what you receive in your cheap headphone carcass! I suppose I am very lucky in the amount of time I have being retired, still one must use ones time left!!
the 2.2 mm was cut by my hand, right down from 9 mm, it is self adhesive and is in one continuous piece. Not a good idea in separate strips!! To get more sensitivity I may cut the 3 mm tape in half and use that in the epsilon type layout. This increases the impedance and the sensitivity, killing 2 birds with one stone.
Impressive job James! I like your work. If I'm not mistaken, you are creating your own planer driver. What type of frequency response are you getting? At first look I thought you may had taken the Neo 3s apart. Lol. I was shocked. But building your own is even grander.
I'm still trying to create a cup for the Neo 3s I own, which proves to be more difficult than gutting existing headphones. The Neo 3s like a certain angle position not unlike the AKG 1000 headphones do. (But in this case they need to be "sealed" on the head to get adequate bass extension.)
I'm still trying to create a cup for the Neo 3s I own, which proves to be more difficult than gutting existing headphones. The Neo 3s like a certain angle position not unlike the AKG 1000 headphones do. (But in this case they need to be "sealed" on the head to get adequate bass extension.)
Thank you, I do design all my own diaphragms, I am rebuilding a smaller headphone carcass at the moment, not much room in this one for all the bits. May have to cut 3 mm tape in half and use my version of the epsilon layout, to get enough sensitivity and impedance. We shall see, fingers crossed. I have quite a bit of practice at cutting tape in half but not down to 1.5 mm, yet anyway. Should be alright, don't need much anyway, just a few inches. Will have to find a new way of fixing the diaphragm in position because of the extra bits inside the headphone. I didn't know this before I bought them. Have several rebuilds. Only hope they are easier.
Never was satisfied with any "ear cup" I created. Eventually I gave up on the cup approach and went with something similar to "open baffle" by extending the boarders of the Neo3s with various types of materials to create a longer path for sound waves to travel around. This, of course, looks silly when worn on the head. 
However, it did sound nicer than any cup technique and material combination I could come up with.
In the future I intend to try the "H frame" technique seen in subwoofer design. After than, I'll try a simi-open-back* cavity with various amounts and kinds of filler (or lack thereof).
The biggest development in recent history is acquiring a DSP. I own the MiniDSP Balanced 2x4, and I'll attempt using it to create an ideal HRTF curve.
My only obstacle is something in the way of an amplifier. I still don't have one with a low enough noise floor. The voltage from my sound card provides enough "volume" for the drivers, but hooking a 4ohm load to my sound card makes me nervous and I don't want to do that to my DSP.
This may be silly, but can I just put a transformer between the output of my DSP and the 4ohm Neo3 drivers? I don't need more SPL, just something to handle the 4ohm load. Unless I'm mistaken, that sounds like a job for a transformer, not necessarily requiring an amp. Is that correct? A simple transformer would not introduce noise, correct?
*Just an enclosure with holes punched in the back
However, it did sound nicer than any cup technique and material combination I could come up with.In the future I intend to try the "H frame" technique seen in subwoofer design. After than, I'll try a simi-open-back* cavity with various amounts and kinds of filler (or lack thereof).
The biggest development in recent history is acquiring a DSP. I own the MiniDSP Balanced 2x4, and I'll attempt using it to create an ideal HRTF curve.
My only obstacle is something in the way of an amplifier. I still don't have one with a low enough noise floor. The voltage from my sound card provides enough "volume" for the drivers, but hooking a 4ohm load to my sound card makes me nervous and I don't want to do that to my DSP.
This may be silly, but can I just put a transformer between the output of my DSP and the 4ohm Neo3 drivers? I don't need more SPL, just something to handle the 4ohm load. Unless I'm mistaken, that sounds like a job for a transformer, not necessarily requiring an amp. Is that correct? A simple transformer would not introduce noise, correct?
*Just an enclosure with holes punched in the back
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