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Author Topic: Hack-a-CIEM: Pirate's story  (Read 13802 times)

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AstralStorm

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Re: Hack-a-CIEM: Pirate's story
« Reply #20 on: July 10, 2013, 07:23:59 AM »

I'm not entirely sure, GR07's driver is no slouch, it's the shell that is problematic - and the recommended very deep fit.
Hifiman drivers are better, but it seems to be impossible to remove them from their shell without damage - I don't know how to do that, I've tried numerous times.
Those are glued in by the annoying chinese hotglue, without any protective metal casing.

MTPG/MTPC is probably not really better, it doesn't have the detailing, but might be there's something to be done about it. They are only improved matching versions of Turbines.
Sennheiser IE8 driver is better, Hifiman RE-272 driver is too. IE800 driver might be a bit better as well. Same might go for RE600, which I haven't heard yet.

See, 50% of the work at a dynamic driver IEM is in shell and tuning via filters and venting. This is where GR07 fails, not at the excellent driver. It's easy to check - just remove back of the shell and hear a major improvement already. It's possible that newer VCO2 can be improved considerably too by modding the shell.

The ringing at 6.3k is nicely reduced with the eq as well, but not completely eliminated. Bass still sounds bit choked (too short decay at lowest parts) despite correct volume - the driver is struggling in a too small shell or the lack of perfect fit causes this issue.
Note the difference between shallower but good fit and deeper but "clutch" almost fit. The seal means the bass sounds much better (still slightly choked due to limited chamber size) and no need of bass adjustment means I can use the spare parametric at the highest end. Plus the deeper eq cut at 6.3k means ringing is yet more reduced, still bit audible though. W/o eq the shallower fit sounds atrocious though due to that peak.

These are way better driven by the Leckerton than FP10 for some reason, perhaps smoother treble.
« Last Edit: July 10, 2013, 07:51:45 AM by AstralStorm »
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Re: Hack-a-CIEM: Pirate's story
« Reply #21 on: July 10, 2013, 02:50:34 PM »

Very interesting, thanks!

Too bad about the hifiman drivers. I wonder if the re-400 is put together the same way?

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AstralStorm

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Re: Hack-a-CIEM: Pirate's story
« Reply #22 on: July 10, 2013, 06:47:58 PM »

Unfortunately it is. I need to figure out some gentle way to unbond this kind of glue without ungluing the membrane from the driver, some time later.
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MuZo2

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Re: Hack-a-CIEM: Pirate's story
« Reply #23 on: July 11, 2013, 04:08:31 AM »

Yeah its nearly impossible to remove such drivers without damage. I have tried a few without any success. Drivers like IE8 , Monster are much easier to work with as they have metal shell and also mesh on front to protect the membrane.   
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AstralStorm

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Re: Hack-a-CIEM: Pirate's story
« Reply #24 on: July 11, 2013, 05:53:29 AM »

The good news is though that this doesn't preclude the use of RE-400 in a custom shell, just making the ear canal part and nozzle smaller than ~4mm. Nor does this preclude the making of custom tips.
One can open the back easily, unlike RE0/RE-ZERO, unsolder the wires (carefully at lowest temperature possible!, I've ruined enough drivers this way by unsoldering driver coil accidentally), remove the back and strain relief and solder a cable back in. I will do such a trick for RE-600 once that's available - it uses the same small shell.
Such an approach works for all small IEMs.

It does not work for RE-252/262/272 with its large "ergonomic" shell - and those IEMs benefit from deeper insertion too, much like RE-400 and presumably RE-600, unlike RE-ZERO/RE0.
« Last Edit: July 11, 2013, 06:02:45 AM by AstralStorm »
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AstralStorm

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Re: Hack-a-CIEM: Pirate's story
« Reply #25 on: July 14, 2013, 04:03:51 AM »

A fine day of hacking.



It seems that Sugru is not suitable for impressions without an audiological syringe - the material is too stiff.
The result is in the attachment. I've used cotton "ghetto" otoblocks put in and removed manually using a microchip flat small tweezers.

Also made the cinch/jack "balanced" cables. Technically the cable topology is wrong, as the "ground" goes as screen and is not a twisted pair, but that's not a true prerequisite, just nice to have. That black thing near the jacks is Sugru as well - used it instead of electric tape and shrink wrap isolation. Much, much nicer to work with.

The molding silicone, polyurethane and acrylic materials are also pictured. I'll use them as soon as I'm able to make real impressions of decent depth.
« Last Edit: July 14, 2013, 04:16:13 AM by AstralStorm »
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AstralStorm

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Re: Hack-a-CIEM: Pirate's story
« Reply #26 on: July 15, 2013, 07:28:55 PM »

The measurement microphone has arrived, Dayton Audio EMM-6. Pretty swanky for cheap $50 stuff. Its main drawbacks are somewhat low sensitivity and low SNR.
This means it's not really suitable for recording convolution reverbs or measuring jitter, THD and IMD.
For other intents and purposes, like CSDs and FR, it's very workable.
It is calibrated with the data available on their website after typing in the serial number.
This microphone will be crucial in evaluating the IEMs and headphones.
Also included a sturdy PET case for carrying the mike. Not that you'd really want to - it needs a beefy amplifier with phantom power.

Also got an extra lapel ATH ATR3350 battery biased electret omni for chatting.
Now I own 3 microphones: one measurement electret omni, one lapel electret omni with phantom power, one dynamic vocal Shure PG48.

Have a sample using the measurement omni in my echoey room, mike was also pretty far, so I had to amplify quite a bit and denoise.
-36 dB noise floor, but those modern denoising algorithms are great.
The other one is recorded using the lapel mike, pretty decently sensitive, still omni. It's actually stereo even. Some denoise never hurts though, getting -60 dB SNR or so.

Please fix the board to allow more filetypes, zipping everything gets old...

Note to self: build a rig that will seal headphones - unsealed measurements mean 0 damping.
Note 2: The measurement microphone is actually low impedance, unlike the lapel one - it goes into a low Z socket and then is extremely clean, as in the cleanest of the bunch, especially if the wind shield is put on, as it attenuates high frequency noise. The microphone is within +/-2.5 dB of flat without correction. Attached the downloaded calibration data.
« Last Edit: July 15, 2013, 10:33:16 PM by AstralStorm »
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Re: Hack-a-CIEM: Pirate's story
« Reply #27 on: August 10, 2013, 09:20:20 AM »

Good luck with your project Astral.

Yes I mean it. =]

Finally an interesting thread to read on this site.

Do you have any pictures of the GR07 driver?  I was thinking about breaking mine as well to put in a CIEM with ED-29689.

I like the bass tone and speed of the GR07 driver, much more than for instance 2x DTEC.

I may also consider GR07 bass + DTEC mids + TWFK highs?  Lol. =D
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Re: Hack-a-CIEM: Pirate's story
« Reply #28 on: August 10, 2013, 08:18:57 PM »



Finally an interesting thread to read on this site.



Glad you're enjoying your time here...  :-Z
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Yeah, well, you know, that's just, like, your opinion, man.

AstralStorm

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Re: Hack-a-CIEM: Pirate's story
« Reply #29 on: August 11, 2013, 09:26:03 AM »

I will take it apart and show the easy to handle construction.
Again, it's the shell that is subpar due to back reflection and too small Vas.
The vents help, but are not enough.

If making a hybrid, I'd use the Sonion 23xx tweeter (mentioned earlier) and slightly overdampen the dynamic to reduce the 6k edge and its slightly grainy highs. Toss in a cap parallel to the tweeter to reroute bass. 5k 1st order crossover.
TWFK shares the peak, so is not a good match, while that ED doesn't have enough extension to help.

I'm looking for a good source for Sonion armatures. However, GR07 will be a dynamic only custom at first.
Still waiting on the shipment of impression material.
« Last Edit: August 11, 2013, 09:33:29 AM by AstralStorm »
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