Making some Orthodynamic Headphones

Inspired by this post, I decided to give it a “quick and dirty” try myself:)

From Deal Extreme I ordered a “Stylish On-Ear Headset”, and from eBay I ordered theribbon tweeters. Total cost around $50.

These headphones use drivers that are Orthodynamic. To sum it up, they are very similar to electrostatic and ribbon drivers in that they are planar. However, one major difference between electrostatic and orthdynamic is that Orthodynamic can be driven from simple headphone sockets whereas ‘Stats need several hundred volts for bias. This makes them the best possible candidates for HiFi drivers in most headphones with some costing more than $550 a set. Unlike most headphone or normal drivers/woofers, this type actually has the voice coil printed onto the thin mylar diaphragm instead of attached to the back. This mylar piece is actually then suspended between two strong magnets with holes in them. When a signal is applied, the diaphragm will be charged to go back and forth with the sine wave. Since the diaphragm is flat, there is not peakiness and almost no delay due to “return”. Please see th diagram below for a better understanding.

Orthodynamic design
Orthodynamic design

Pictures from the process:

The fake headphones
The fake headphones
Original headphones
Original headphones
Disassembling
Disassembling
Opening up
Opening up
Making hole for the tweeter
Making hole for the tweeter
Drilling holes
Drilling holes
Tweeters attached
Tweeters attached
Rubber foot and driver
Rubber foot and driver
Black cloth
Black cloth
Inserting damping
Inserting damping
Almost finished
Almost finished
Finished headphones
Finished headphones

Thoughts

I have not replaced the bundled cable yet. But still:

The sound from the tweeters are surprisingly good when driven from an hifi amplifier!

The bass extends quite deep, however the impact is lacking. And the midrange are beautiful, sparkly and breathtakingly transparent, but a bit too dominant. They work fantastic for classical music, but not so good for rock and heavier genres. But with some EQing I think they can be comparable to headphones in the $300+ range.

For a total cost of less than $50 I am really pleased with the result!

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