3D Printed Hybrid In-Ear Monitors (you can buy them now!) |

[@jasontan7523]

Just subscribed to your channel! Super interesting video and I thoroughly enjoyed it :) looking forward to more stuff from you

[@OversteerEngineer]

Quality content, keep making videos!

[@GearheadCreations]

Thank you!

[@Dantheman3366]

these are sick. cool video man, kinda makes me want to get a 3D printer to see what kinda things i could build.

[@GearheadCreations]

Thanks man! Yes, you should absolutely get into 3D printing; it’s incredibly rewarding once you get the hang of it

[@pqr590]

Great video. Subscribed. Questions: Why did you go with 2 ba drivers for mids? it looks like your final mid range was a bit dipped, I just assumed you went with 2 for mids so you can bring out specific frequency ranges to highlight a warm sounding iem but idk, what was the reason? Did you design the dd resonance chamber in CAD? if so, how many iterations did it take until you were happy? The end result is beautiful, what resin did you use? I wish you would have nerded out a bit on the tuning part, that's the most interesting part of diy iem builds imo!

[@GearheadCreations]

Thank you! Glad you enjoyed the video. To answer your questions, I went with the dual midrange BA purely due to their frequency response. At the time, I determined that they would fit the overall response that I was going for the best; they were chosen over a single BA because of a better response. Yes, the small resonance chamber was designed in CAD, as was the shell and all internal structures so that each set I create is perfectly repeatable and accurate. I went through well over 100 revisions to get all the drivers to cooperate correctly. For resin, I don’t use any specialized resin because the skin-friendly property is instead found in the expensive Dreve Lack 3 lacquer that I apply for a polished surface finish. If you want to print your own shells, I would recommend Elegoo’s water washable resin due to its minimal odor and easy post-processing so long as you also apply a skin-safe lacquer. Hope this helps!!

[@pqr590]

​@@GearheadCreations what do you mean specifically when you say dual BA's had a better response? I'm not sure what you mean by that. 100 revisions! 😲oof! Personally I can see myself 3D printing an acoustic chamber sleeve for the DD and adjusting lengths of sound tube for the BA's and bundling them into a simple shell until I'm happy then transfering those measurements into a CAD model. (but it's never that simple right) How was your experience alligning the phase of the drivers? I understand that's a tedious task when creating hybrid iem's and I'm not sure I undestand yet how to adjust that beyong simply adjusting the length of the sound tubes? Is that all you had to do?

[@GearheadCreations]

@@pqr590 Yeah, when I talk about certain BAs having a "better response" I mean that the output of those BAs combined have a graph that, to my eyes, will best fit the overall tune for an IEM that I am trying to achieve. So for example, I might have to choose between a single BA whose graph has a quicker rolloff at 6khz versus a composite (dual) BA whose graph does not rolloff as severely at 6khz. However, this does not mean that every dual BA is better than a single BA; it is purely dependent on multiple IEM design factors such as the other drivers being used in a hybrid, the shell and tube design, resonators, and what kind of tuning the designer is aiming to achieve. And yep, most of the R&D process for me is literally just scrapping designs and making teeny tiny changes in CAD to see how it affects everything else. There are an unlimited number of variables that can be altered, so it is best to understand what makes a good IEM successful before beginning the design process of your own set. For phase alignment, since I do not have the technology or time to use any other process, I tend to eyeball driver position in CAD and make micro-adjustments from there. Most of the time proper phase alignment can be achieved by tube length, tube shape, tube diameter, and crossover design, but for the most part you'll just want to focus on one of those variables, namely tube length. It is quite a tedious process, yes, but once you figure out how it works the first time, it gets easier for later creations.

[@pqr590]

​@@GearheadCreations I see, so certain drivers perform best for different parts of the eq spectrum. Can you share what you learned/mean about what makes a good IEM successful? What do you mean by tube shape? I thought they just came in uh, 'round' haha.

[@GearheadCreations]

@@pqr590 Exactly. I find that a tucked bass shelf that stops around 200hz gives a nice, fast, powerful sound for the bass region, so that’s usually how I tune my DDs. In the BA region, I tend to look for BAs that have a smooth bump in the 3khz region as well as super tweeters that extend past 10khz easily and don’t have too many quick dips or peaks. In terms of tube shape, you’ll find that more oval-shaped tubes maximize high frequency output, but that depends also on what drivers you use. Everything just depends haha

[@skyraw974]

Soo much work !😲 As an IT/Elec student this is even more interesting to watch !😃 +1 sub thank you for this vidéo 🙌

[@GearheadCreations]

Thank you! It really has been quite the project haha. Really glad to hear that you enjoyed it though.

[@Rafa-Silva-Alt]

Awesome video, loved the process. It's so labor intensive. And the price is really reasonable! Great work, pal! I'll subscribe and I'll wish you the best for yout future ventures! 👍👍

[@GearheadCreations]

Thanks man!!

[@Jorsuta]

Great video man, new sub.

[@DEEREARInEarMonitoring]

good work

[@rikogaming4108]

sir,i love ur content.will also try to make it myself.

[@draglorde]

This is great work! How did you achieve that surface finish? a lot of manual sanding + polishing?

[@GearheadCreations]

Thanks! I first sand down the resin shells, then apply a special lacquer which is pretty much magic haha

[@draglorde]

@@GearheadCreations I would love to hear more about this lacquer. I tried a few but had bad results. would you happen to have the name of that lacquer? (not asking for it, but I would watch a video on that whole process ;) )

[@GearheadCreations]

Absolutely! I might dedicate an entire video showing the build process in the future. I use a lacquer called Fotoplast Lack 3, which can be found on Aliexpress from the Soundlink store. Since this stuff isn’t cheap, I’d also recommend trying a nail lacquer by Mia Secret on Amazon if you just wanna get started.

[@draglorde]

@@GearheadCreations thank you!

[@trailfuchs]

you've made me very curios about your IEMs. so sad that i live in germany

[@GearheadCreations]

Hey man, if you’d like a set I’m sure we could work something out for you

[@trailfuchs]

@@GearheadCreations thanks alot, IEMs is a tough topic. ive testet 6 pairs of IEMs last time ive ordered new ones. hard to test them before deciding to buy

[@hed420]

Great job! Is this open source? I want to make them.

[@GearheadCreations]

Thank you! No, unfortunately this is not open source. I am selling it as a complete product on my website with a cable, case, and tips on symphonyears.com though!

[@fridolineckerd6135]

​@@GearheadCreations you do realize that "gift" doesn't mean product you have to buy ...

[@GearheadCreations]

No, but it does mean that I spent countless hours and threw away a bunch of my time in order to present y’all with some really solid IEMs for a reasonable price :)

[@theredstormer8078]

Yk moondrop sells resin printed ones right? They don't market as such but my moondrop Mays are very clearly resin 3d printed.

[@GearheadCreations]

Yup, same with Blessing 2, Blessing 3, Dusk, Darksaber, and Variations. All 3D printed :)

[@theredstormer8078]

@@GearheadCreations very nice. I never knew they did that until I bought these and noticed the subtle voxel pattern and texture that matches my resin prints. I just hope they used high quality resin that's not brittle but I've dropped them many times and every time they break it's just the glue that fails. Last time I repaired them I used epoxy and I'm hoping that holds up better than CA glue.

[@GearheadCreations]

If they break again, I’d highly recommend trying some UV nail polish lacquer; I use that stuff for securing drivers in place :)

[@theredstormer8078]

@@GearheadCreations alright thanks I'll try that next time! I've thought about getting that stuff but I wasn't sure how durable it'd be.

[@GearheadCreations]

Absolutely, and if/when you go that route, try this brand: a.co/d/cxdNsuC

[@chancemackey7100]

I'm in portland and want a pair.. you in the area?

[@GearheadCreations]

I am! I’ve never hand-delivered any of my products, but shipping should be very quick

[@jamesmelemede5610]

whats the input? cable?

[@GearheadCreations]

It uses a standard 0.78 2-pin wired connection, but can be made wireless with an adapter

[@jamesmelemede5610]

@@GearheadCreations cheers

[@bkrc123]

FR for hexad?

[@GearheadCreations]

Haha that’s great that you ask! I currently don’t have any public FR graph for Hexad, as I’m still working on its tune. That set should be ready around mid-summer

[@joetkeshub]

interesting but so déjà-vu...

[@GearheadCreations]

Oh?

[@KaliKavala]

First time here. Nice vid, nice idea but..... First 5 minutes are really waste of time and useless (except for sponsors or such?) Plus no result is shared (as audio) which on it's own is useless but if u do a comparison (before/after, DIY vs bought, etc) would be interesting to see. Sharing screenshot of charts is not really interesting

[@GearheadCreations]

Thanks for watching! I’ll keep those things in mind for next video

[@KaliKavala]

@@GearheadCreations thank you for taking your time and reading my BS :)

[@GearheadCreations]

Hey, criticism is vital to improving future videos, so thanks for the input

[@brionlund2467]

I’m not going to sit through this video in order to find out what your solution to this is, but standard UV resin is toxic. Don’t put it in your ears.

[@GearheadCreations]

Yeah, see if you watched the video, you would see that I use a skin-safe lacquer used by every IEM company out there

[@brionlund2467]

@@GearheadCreations Okay, cool. Wasn't interested in the topic, but when I saw the title I thought I'd drop in just to make sure you knew thats all.

[@GearheadCreations]

Gotcha

[@asddsa-dy4ne]

Pretty cool stuff but for the love of god stop using audiophile words. You sound like a sommelier that only ever tasted the button shelf stuff.

[@fallingwater]

You, on the other hand, sound exactly as pretentious as every other so-called audiophile I've ever seen.

[@asddsa-dy4ne]

@@fallingwater I'm terribly sorry my good Sir that my reply didn't elevate to your exquisite exelence. If I am allowed, I shall offer a crisp withy reply or would a smooth apology satisfy thy tastes more.

[@castffx1728]

@@asddsa-dy4ne agree with fallingwater, you're the reason audiophile community gets hate. do better.

[@asddsa-dy4ne]

@@castffx1728 I'm not part of the audiophile community. I just don't like the word diarrhea they spew out. did you even read the original comment?