I built these 3D-printed open-back headphones using a free design provided by Brian Capra of Capra Audio. The headband was courtesy of a guy who goes by CynderFox on Discord and Printables.
I'm new to DIY generally and 3d printing specifically, so these took me way longer to build than they should have. And I made a lot of beginner mistakes which affect the presentation and potentially long-term reliability. But it was a lot of fun and I can't wait to make them again for my friends and family! I used Polymaker ASA for the most part, with some TPU where appropriate and tri-color silk PLA for some bling on the driver cover.
Compared to my 6XX with worn pads, these have a brighter, airier, "easier" sound. The soundstage is considerably wider, which has its pros and cons (I'm a fan of the 6XX's intimate soundstage). But the width combined with more mid energy make them sound more detailed. At the same time, they *thump really well* on tracks like Gooral by Wojitek Pilichowski. They are my new favorite, though I still value the 6XX for its more intimate and integrated presentation. We'll see how things shake out in the following months or years. All else being equal though, home-made is going to win over something ordered off the Internet!
If I have a complaint it's that the mid-upper registers of Hiromi's piano on albums like Voice and Move can have a glare to them. The Satyrs are generally target-compliant, but they have extra energy between 1-1.5KHz:
I also noticed this glare when demoing the Focal Clear OG a year or two ago. Curious, I checked Amir's review, and we have something similar:
These are my first headphones using the rod design, and it's definitely a compromise with the cups flopping every which way. However, they are extremely comfortable on my large-ish head.
Lastly, these look a lot better in person than they do in photos. Cameras are not kind to 3D prints. And while the design is still somewhat "gamer-dork," it looks much classier to the naked eye.
Just for fun, here's a pic of the extremely janky coupler I designed for driver matching. I think it was good enough for its limited purpose:
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