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I did search but I couldn't find a dedicated thread about DIY electrostatics so in the spirit of getting the discussion started, here is something I've been working on. Well over a decade ago I bought up all the spare Sennheiser HE60 parts to assemble new headphones. The first thing to go out of stock was the main housing so to assemble the last pair, I had to adept a HD650 housing to take the HE60 drivers. Ever since then it has stuck in my head to make my own drivers for those housings and well... here is version 2.0: I bought a ratty old HD650 and completely stripped it apart. Headpad, earpads and cable went into the trash while the rest went for a long bath. First step is to make the baffle flat so a lot of cutting with nice, sharp, flush cutters. I naturally forgot to take a picture of that step... Next step was to fully measure what area I had to work with and design PCB's to match that, while maximizing the open area. The end result is three different PCB's, as they are all setup to be dual sided. One for the stators, one which holds the diaphragm and finally the simple outline which holds the dust covers and can act as a spacer. Some pics of them assembled in the housing: Four nylon screws hold the sandwich together, fixed with PEEK nuts to get extra gripping power as the assembly had to be as flat as is possible. Dust covers placed away from the stators so they don't cause any issues. Earpad side: Due to the screws, some earpad mountings have to be cut up to get the pads to fit but yeah, they are just cheap crap from China so who cares. I could cut a slot in them to try and make it fit but maintaining as much pressure on the drivers as I can is far more important. Final assembly with a King Sound cable as I have a couple of those sitting around. For the diaphragm I used my usual stock of 1.4um film and the earpads are just the cheapest leather pads I found on ebay. I have a couple of nicer ones but these are the thickest and that helps make them more balanced sounding. The diaphragms were stretched by hand on a mirror (which is my preferred way) and glued with wood glue (thanks for the tip Aumkar!) which is just perfect for this. Coating is anti-static spray which means they energize in five seconds or so which I can live with. Now for the sound... pretty damn good for something so simple and literally being the second set I assemble. Well that and zero effort has been put into sealing the baffle or just any sealing at all. I just stuck the PCB's onto the baffle and built up the stack. Overall sound signature is similar to the HE60 but not as diffused and with far more bass output. Maybe a tad too much at times as there are some oscillations that I can pickup at very high volume levels and under high excursion. I tend to go with slightly less tension on the diaphragm so that might be it. Treble is very pronounced with the thinner pads but with the ones pictured, it is just perfect. These are not forward at all and the soundstage is excellent for this size of a driver and non-angled earpads. Sensitivity is slightly lower than the regular Stax sets but still only marginally so. All in I'm very happy with the roughly 150$ outlay for these. Now this is version 2.0 but the first version used a HD58X from Drop, brand new in the box that I cut up. Same driver profile but thicker stators so the efficiency was really bad plus the stators had full solder mask on them. Now I'm out of the spacer PCB's for the dust covers so next time I order PCB's, I'll make another set. I also have some diaphragm spacers which would work well for normal bias as I've always wanted to mess more with that.

Thanks folks! Low key day today but Claire is making a Guinness chocolate cake tonight, so that will be exciting enough for this old fart.

I take a large piece of mylar and do it all by hand. I can get good repeatability but I often stretch 10 diaphragms at a time this way so it's easy to match them into pairs.

Just remember to wear a sweater. There's a draft in that house.

Happy Birthday Al! I hope you have a great one!

Trying to decide if I go all walnut for the bottom ship lap shelf or incorporate the Jatoba, maple and walnut from the top. Also got the final glue-ups of the top done so now only one more time wrestling them through the planer.

Agreed with ^^ My favorite comment on FB by a friend: "Next year, U2 should come out with Songs Of Retirement"

U2 - Songs of Surrender U2 unplugged... or at least Bono and Edge unplugged because the other two didn't really participate. Some of it is decent, some of it is quite bad, all of it feels unnecessary. I still love these guys but everything they've released for the last 20 years has left me feeling disappointed. I still want to see them live in Vegas later this year though.

"I got something to say! I ate a gummy today and it doesnt matter much to me, as long as its red!"

Big news. DPReview.com to close. The only hobby site I had a longer relationship with than ones on headphones. https://www.dpreview.com/news/5901145460/dpreview-com-to-close

Hope you had a great one Al!

Don’t buy the 2023 crops of North America Sony DAPs given that Sony has given in to the volume restriction laws similar to EU volume capped laws. I believe this applies to the 2023 NA ZX707 and A306 models and newer. The 4.4 mm balanced output drops from 230 mW on the ZX707 down to just under 3 mw. I imported a non-volume capped ZX707 version from Amazon.JP for about $150 in saving including a 4 days DHL express shipping fees for a total of $750. Their current flagship, NW-WM1AM2 and 1ZM2 released back in 2021, are not affected however. There is nothing wrong about releasing a successive models as long as it is an improvements from the old generations and Sony doesn’t do this on a yearly basis. The ZX507 was released in 2018-19 and the ZX707 was released late of last year. Their signature DAPs are updated every five years or so. The first generation Signature DAPs came out around 2015-16 and the 1A/1Z MKII came out in 2021. Please be open minded and give some of these new DAPS a try. I think you guys will really enjoy them. The sound quality is starting to approach a mid-end desktop equipment but in a portable form and that is great. I really like my newly acquired ZX707 and I think it is the best one yet intern of price and performance ratio. I do recommend if u have the budget. If you don’t want to spend that much on a portable DAPs, check out used previous generation models. A used ZX300s, and ZX507s are around $250 and $350 respectively. I am not too concerned about the battery since I can DIY. Also, Sony often uses high quality Li-ion cell battery. My 2004-ish Sony X1060 still hold a full charge. Of course, the cassette display screen below on my WMA1M2 and ZX707 does looks pretty cool to me.

Happy birthday, Al!

Happy Birthday!

I came here today to start this thread three times but stupid work. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, AL!!! I hope that today is a great one and that you find an appropriately awesome way to celebrate another trip around the sun. I will drink to your good health later tonight.

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday!

Very Happy Birthday Al!!

Happy Birthday, Al!!! I wish it's a wonderful one.

Happy Birthday Al! Cheers

Happy (Vernal Equinox) Birthday, Al! "A bearded, jazz loving, woodworking, defender of the universe, who lives in mayberry on acid, birthday celebration, digital art" https://creator.nightcafe.studio/creation/ohApqrS0E4J1D46dubIp EDIT . also Via https://www.midjourney.com/app/jobs/48a140e3-3da3-4fa1-8543-f797bb5eb0cd/

Happy Birthday, Al!

Happy Birthday Al! Your advanced age is helping you win at joker. Had to find something positive to say. 😝

Happy Birthday Al!

Happy Birthday Al -- All the Many Cheers...

Happy Birthday!

Happy birth!

happy birthday!

Hope it's an exciting/relaxing day.

Happy birthday, DOTU! Hope you have a special beer picked out!

Just a couple Irish lads trying to break into the business. I wish them well.

Sorry for reviving the thread but don't know anywhere else in the site I can post this, got something curious. A Napolex NSA-3

Output transistors are MJE15032G/15033G, extra insulation is needed. Size of the heatsink is 200x62x40mm, ~50°C with 120ma bias. It could handle more heat but I need larger heatsink for GRLV. The nichicon kz cap (Ø:12mm) is too big so one has to lying down. Edit: one more pic added

Got another car control class on the books (with the BMW club, hopefully they accept my car 🙃) and I'm going to try my first road rally with the Porsche club. When I thought rally I thought of sliding cars around on dirt rally stages but this isn't like that at all. It is more like a scavenger hunt that you do from your car and that rewards precision, not speed. I like it! Trying to nail down a co-driver/co-navigator (@Grahame ?). I think maybe I'll do my first auto cross in April. This car hobby is quite the rabbit-hole of stuff to do. It is helpful that a large portion of hobbyist motorsport seems to be organized on a single website, https://www.motorsportreg.com, making it easy to find out a good amount of what is going on nearby.

Went to my first Porsche club cars and coffee this morning. An unbelievable number of GT3s showed up. The wealth in the Bay Area is ridiculous. Some highlights: Loud and proud GT3 RS: Yellow Bird! GT3s don’t get old Purple? Sure Still dig the turbo body style with the rear air intakes Um, yes please! Any my favorite, the Boxter Spyder. I’m in love.

does anyone not use $2k iems?