Being in the market for a new headphone setup for the first time in over a decade, I've found myself auditioning many cans for dozens of hours, and both reading and watching tons of reviews and asking for suggestions from those who have stayed up-to-date with the latest offerings. I am leaning towards buying one of the Audeze or Mrspeakers headphones which I will pull the trigger on soon, but that's not what this thread is about.
I've noticed not only how expensive the upper echelon of headphones have become, but how it is becoming more commonplace to spend that much (which I am sure is correlated) even among those that aren't self-proclaimed audiophiles. Newer headphone technology definitely performs and sounds better in many ways, but headphones that aren't considered 'flagship' or near the top of the line can be well in the range of or over $1000-2000+ USD (ignoring more niche stuff like electrostatics etc), and I feel from my recent auditions that very few of them deserve to be priced as such. The Sennheiser 600-series were highly regarded headphones when they came out and still are to this day, and adjusted for inflation the HD650 would have cost about $700+ in 2020 which is interesting as I believe they still compete in many ways with headphones in that range, despite the fact that they can be had for a mere $200 from Sennheiser's partnership with Massdrop. In my search for an 'upgrade' of the HD650's that I've been using for almost 15 years, a lot of people have recommended to me a few cans from ZMF and more recently the Aurorus Borealis as dynamic headphones that have a somewhat similar sound yet perform better from a technical standpoint and have a more appealing FR, and I did like like their sound in the brief time I was able to hear them. I won't bother regurgitate the specs here, but they are easily found with a quick google search along with their praises and criticisms.
I was curious about the design of those cans and after doing some searching, it seems that in both cases they are a) using easily obtainable/mass produced drivers (Tymphany Peerless HPD-50N25PR00-32 in the case of the Borealis- I'm not 100% sure if some ZMF drivers are custom but I am fairly certain I've seen what looks like number of their models containing drivers that look like some of the better ones from Alibaba & other chinese sites) and b) they use a fairly minimalist baffle/dampening methods to tune these drivers to where they at least subjectively rival or surpass headphones like the HD600-series and HD800 with very little complexity in their design. Another $1000 headphone, the Kennerton Vali, uses the exact same driver as the Borealis. I have it under good authority from some of my connections there that there are a number of DIYers/'boutique'/handmade headphone makers that operate only in China are using these and similar drivers to make good sounding headphones that they sell for quite a bit. Interestingly some of these Chinese guys of which I speak also appear to sell some kind of planars modeled after Audeze/Hifiman (clones or factory extras?) and presumably sound good enough that they sell them for thousands. Honestly, I find things like hand-made wooden earcups, shipping, warranty, premium cables and water-proof carrying cases probably have given companies justification to charge double what they should for a pair of headphones.
Anyway, my conclusions from this are that I believe the Tymphany 50mm drivers and most likely some of the more premium aliexpress biocellulose/beryllium drivers can potentially be some DIY headphone 'gems' rivaling some nice headphones if given the right touch. Driver tuning is generally not an easy undertaking but I believe there's just something about these drivers that make them tune well and they could definitely be a key component in some kind of open source headphone baffle design. There's no need to reinvent the wheel with the remaining components, a hifiman or audeze headband/yoke assembly can cost $70-240 brand new or less if used, readily available earpads like those from Dekoni or ZMF cost $40-70 at most (and their number of options allow for further tuning), a high-quality cable/connectors can be made cheaply or bought new for $40-100 or even repurposed from another pair of headphones, and the drivers $20 a pair, although you may need a few to ensure a good matching. I definitely think it is in the realm of possibility to be able to make a comfortable headphone with premium parts and premium sound in the scope of a $200-500 DIY project, especially if the baffle design was 3d-printable or had easily machined components.
Thoughts? Opinions? Ideas?
I've noticed not only how expensive the upper echelon of headphones have become, but how it is becoming more commonplace to spend that much (which I am sure is correlated) even among those that aren't self-proclaimed audiophiles. Newer headphone technology definitely performs and sounds better in many ways, but headphones that aren't considered 'flagship' or near the top of the line can be well in the range of or over $1000-2000+ USD (ignoring more niche stuff like electrostatics etc), and I feel from my recent auditions that very few of them deserve to be priced as such. The Sennheiser 600-series were highly regarded headphones when they came out and still are to this day, and adjusted for inflation the HD650 would have cost about $700+ in 2020 which is interesting as I believe they still compete in many ways with headphones in that range, despite the fact that they can be had for a mere $200 from Sennheiser's partnership with Massdrop. In my search for an 'upgrade' of the HD650's that I've been using for almost 15 years, a lot of people have recommended to me a few cans from ZMF and more recently the Aurorus Borealis as dynamic headphones that have a somewhat similar sound yet perform better from a technical standpoint and have a more appealing FR, and I did like like their sound in the brief time I was able to hear them. I won't bother regurgitate the specs here, but they are easily found with a quick google search along with their praises and criticisms.
I was curious about the design of those cans and after doing some searching, it seems that in both cases they are a) using easily obtainable/mass produced drivers (Tymphany Peerless HPD-50N25PR00-32 in the case of the Borealis- I'm not 100% sure if some ZMF drivers are custom but I am fairly certain I've seen what looks like number of their models containing drivers that look like some of the better ones from Alibaba & other chinese sites) and b) they use a fairly minimalist baffle/dampening methods to tune these drivers to where they at least subjectively rival or surpass headphones like the HD600-series and HD800 with very little complexity in their design. Another $1000 headphone, the Kennerton Vali, uses the exact same driver as the Borealis. I have it under good authority from some of my connections there that there are a number of DIYers/'boutique'/handmade headphone makers that operate only in China are using these and similar drivers to make good sounding headphones that they sell for quite a bit. Interestingly some of these Chinese guys of which I speak also appear to sell some kind of planars modeled after Audeze/Hifiman (clones or factory extras?) and presumably sound good enough that they sell them for thousands. Honestly, I find things like hand-made wooden earcups, shipping, warranty, premium cables and water-proof carrying cases probably have given companies justification to charge double what they should for a pair of headphones.
Anyway, my conclusions from this are that I believe the Tymphany 50mm drivers and most likely some of the more premium aliexpress biocellulose/beryllium drivers can potentially be some DIY headphone 'gems' rivaling some nice headphones if given the right touch. Driver tuning is generally not an easy undertaking but I believe there's just something about these drivers that make them tune well and they could definitely be a key component in some kind of open source headphone baffle design. There's no need to reinvent the wheel with the remaining components, a hifiman or audeze headband/yoke assembly can cost $70-240 brand new or less if used, readily available earpads like those from Dekoni or ZMF cost $40-70 at most (and their number of options allow for further tuning), a high-quality cable/connectors can be made cheaply or bought new for $40-100 or even repurposed from another pair of headphones, and the drivers $20 a pair, although you may need a few to ensure a good matching. I definitely think it is in the realm of possibility to be able to make a comfortable headphone with premium parts and premium sound in the scope of a $200-500 DIY project, especially if the baffle design was 3d-printable or had easily machined components.
Thoughts? Opinions? Ideas?
