Ploopy Open-source Headphones w built-in DAC, amp, and EQ

[carlcamper]

Interesting concept. It can be 3D-printed by yourself, assembled as a kit, or bought as fully assembled. It comes with it's own built-in DAC, amp, and EQ. I hope someone sends this to @amirm for evaluation!

Website:

Headphones – Ploopy

ploopy.co

Documentation:

https://github.com/ploopyco/headphones/wiki

 

[markanini]

So I guess since they based it on hyped planar tech and included a DAC they must have wanted to make a splash.

 

[staticV3]

That graph spells trouble...

 

[_thelaughingman]

That graph looks like a dumpster fire

 

[kipman725]

Making your own drivers is pretty impressive! https://github.com/ploopyco/headphones/wiki/Part-2:-Drivers

 

[fpitas]

That graph spells trouble...

It sure looks like ploop.

 

[somebodyelse]

Making your own drivers is pretty impressive! https://github.com/ploopyco/headphones/wiki/Part-2:-Drivers

Sort of. But how consistent are they? Especially if you're sourcing your own foam, magnets etc. given that all they say about the foam diaphragm is it needs to be 1/8" thick and "Strongest possible magnet you can get" in those dimensions (see https://github.com/ploopyco/headphones/wiki/Appendix-D:-Hardware) I'm expecting substantial variability and a need to custom EQ every one. It's an interesting exercise, similar to the 3d printed speaker drivers shown elsewhere, but not likely to offer groundbreaking performance.

 

[markanini]

Making your own drivers is pretty impressive! https://github.com/ploopyco/headphones/wiki/Part-2:-Drivers

Maybe it was out of necessity they chose planar tech, then, since the driver can be a simpler, cheaper part, ordered from a flex cable manufacturer.

 

[FrantzM]

Hi

Those examples look like toddler toys...
This said the idea is .. sound . The technology exists, we could make our own, better headphones. Hopefully someone will take the idea further, perhaps an open source , 3-D Printable, Harman Curve compliant headphones...
...
Peace.

 

[mhardy6647]

ploopy.

I don't know what to say.
Well -- OK. At least I know (or think I know) how to pronounce it.
Which is more than I can say for the myriad (mostly) Asian brand names that have become more or less commonplace in the west over the past decade or so...

EDIT: I just searched DACs on the review database to come up with some examples (not necessarily all Asian) of brand names that flummox me.
I know that I am being very American about this, but, still... pronounceable is a good property for a word to manifest.

Audio-gd
Aune
Hidiz
Loxjie (at least in theory, I should be able to suss this one out)
FiiO (to make matters worse, I actually have a cheap little FiiO media player! I just cannot talk about it)
xDuoo (this is one of the most abstruse of all to me)
Khadas
KEiiD
Cyxchen

honorable mention:
iFi Is that "eye-Fi" (rhymes with hifi), or iffy?

 

[Robbo99999]

That graph spells trouble...

It's also strange that the y-axis is showing the headphones having been measured at 40dB which is strange considering that's basically whisper quiet almost - so it seems like a bit of a joke rather than anything real (although I've not clicked on any of the links to see if it's not just a joke).

I guess there's nothing wrong with making your own headphone with 3D printer, etc, especially if you can make it sound good and maybe follow a standard like Harman to some degree, probably not much hope for this headphone though based on the graph (which I still think is an actual joke rather anything real by the way, lol).

 

[staticV3]

It's also strange that the y-axis is showing the headphones having been measured at 40dB which is strange considering that's basically whisper quiet almost - so it seems like a bit of a joke rather than anything real

it says "dB", not "dB SPL". Most likely, the scale is just relative and doesn't represent actual sound pressure.

 

[MCH]

EEVBLOG just received a sample and made a "trust me bro" review, i am not sure if he actually liked them though...

anyways, what i find interesting about this project is that it includes an open source dongle with parametric EQ that runs on a raspberry pico microcontroller. And everything is available. I wonder what it is capable of.

GitHub - george-norton/headphones-toolbox: A UI for configuring Ploopy Headphones

A UI for configuring Ploopy Headphones. Contribute to george-norton/headphones-toolbox development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

 

[somebodyelse]

So based on https://github.com/george-norton/headphones/blob/headphones-toolbox/firmware/code/bqf.h that's 8 biquads at 16 bit fixed point, with a cautionary note that there isn't really enough CPU available to run all 8. Probably not a bad compromise given the other limitations.

 

[carlcamper]

Techpowerup's review is up! https://www.techpowerup.com/review/ploopy-planar-magnetic-headphones/

 

[thewas]

From above review:

Nice DIY open source project for a very fair price, hope it will be successful.

 

[Svend P]

Why? Good headphones and DAC cost nothing these days, so there is no savings making these.

Next up: 3D print your own spaceship.