DIY headphone 'kit' from Ali Express

DIY Audio DIY Headphones
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Been lurkin these forums for a few months, but this is my first post. Great community!

On a whim, I took a chance on buying headphone parts from AliExpress. Took about 3 weeks for everything to show up, but it all arrived well-packaged and in good condition. I took a few hours today to put one of the “kits” together.

Using these shells with these drivers

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Of course, they need some burn-in, but I’m damn impressed with how these sound! Definitely brighter than my Jubilees, but quite spacious, quick, and detailed. Bass is there - it’s clean, but I could use more. I’ll have to tinker with tuning them to take the edge off the highs and get more out of the lows.

The headband assembly is good quality - real wood cups, mostly metal band, and tapered faux-perforated leather & suede earpads. Pretty comfy - a bit tight, but that’s an easy fix with some bending. The gold-plated 2.5mm mono jacks come hot-glued to the cups, and they had thin wires already soldered. I replaced the thin wires with 20AWG wire, because, overkill. Ships with a decent cable too - cloth-covered, nice and flexible, labeled with R & L on the 2.5mm end. I’ll have to make a balanced cable & try 'em on the Geshelli.

I’ll update this thread if & when I land on a good tuning. I was bracing for disappointment, but I’m surprised to discover some space and details in my favorite tracks I hadn’t heard before!

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Interesting first post :+1: welcome to HFGF :smiley:

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Looks nice. What is the driver diameter?

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Those are 50mm. When you purchase the shells, you can specify the size of the driver baffle cutouts; 40mm, 50mm, or 53mm. (check the links in the main post.)
I replaced the Beryllium drivers with these 50mm Graphene drivers, which reduced the sibilance.

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Those wooden honeycomb cups are beautiful. Very interesting project. Not sure I’m up for self assembly of a headphone, but cool to know it’s out there.

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I would put the beryllium driver back in and use a thicker foam disc in front of the driver

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What would these compare to in the headphone world?
Contemplating building something similar for the fun of it.

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I don’t have many headphones to compare them to, but i’d say that the graphene drivers are similar to HiFiMan Ananda. Less spacious, but similar clarity. They have more at the top end than the Anandas.

The upper part of the assembly & headstrap is exactly the same as the Anandas, check it out:

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(i wrapped a bit of black silicone tape around there, because when I stretched them out, it came apart.)

Many of the drivers & parts on Ali must be from manufacturers of decent headphones.

Once I have some spare cash, I want to buy a couple more of these assemblies and install the beryllium drivers in one and planar drivers in another.

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Thanks! Yeah, they look the same.
Was thinking maybe a pair or the 40mm planars in something like your / that was my first idea.

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