Headphone Driver Pictures Thread

[Feilong4]

There was a similar sort of thread on Head-Fi and I thought, hey, why not make a similar thread here?

Please do feel free to post yours! Just don’t destroy your headphones to take some sweet shots . I guess it’s not limited to your own pictures but I think it’d be neat to see pictures that you have taken yourself.

I took a whole bunch of various headphone drivers so I think I’ll drop a few pics here everyday.

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Fostex T50(v0) - Kapton diaphragm (1970s model)

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Fostex T30

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Aiwa HP-500 - Mylar diaphragm (1970s Fostex T50 variant)

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Beyerdynamic DT990

[Lyer25]

Klipsch HP-3 (basically a Fostex unit IIRC)

2014[L] and 2019[R] Sennheiser HD600 drivers

HiFiMAN HE-4XX rear and front view.

Technically a driver+baffle for the Klipsch, but I’ve never taken them apart thoroughly enough to take the actual driver unit out, haha. The HE-4XX, I taped things in place because the pads were wearing out and I’m too broke/lazy to buy a new set

The DT990 diaphragm looks cool! Don’t think I’ve ever taken my old DT880 apart, wonder if the new owner’s amenable to dissecting them for pics…

[duke.briscoe]

I happened to be in the midst of replacing the foam on my Sennheiser HD650, so here is a picture I just now took.

[frkasper]

Where did you get the new insert foam? Just curious.

[duke.briscoe]

Direct from Sennheiser US via their website. I got a pair of the earpads along with the acoustically transparent foam inserts.

[Feilong4]

Sennheiser HD565

I believe the HD565 were right behind the HD580. It’s basically a less refined HD580 with a bit more upper midrange and a sharp treble peak. I think the headphones themselves look pretty snazzy.

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Beyerdynamic ET1000

Beyerdynamic’s only electrostatic headphone. In the first picture, I’m not quite sure what that plastic(?) film piece is. It might be a sort of dust cover, but I doubt it’s the diaphragm. If anyone knows, please let me know!

[SmoothDistortion]

These pictures made me crave pancakes

[Resolve]

Figured I’d post this one. This is the ADX5K ‘tungsten coated’ dynamic driver. They’ve definitely done some interesting stuff with this one.

[Feilong4]

There seems to be bumps near the outer edges of the diaphragm. I wonder what purpose those bumps serve. I think it’s the first time I’ve seen that sort of thing.

Edit: I meant the little “pimples” along the outer edges of the diaphragms.

[Feilong4]

Some Sony lovin’

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Sony MDR-V7

A fairly rare model. It’s got quite a good bass response; my favorite bass response of the Sony headphone monitors. The diaphragms of the drivers are made of what Sony calls “amorphous titanium” which I believe just means coated with titanium. Just a bit too lifted in the upper midrange and peaky up top. Honestly, they’re very reminiscent of the MDR-7506.

Measured on a MiniDSP EARS. HPN compensation.

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Sony MDR CD900ST

Only sold in Japan though can be imported. My favorite tuning from the Sony headphone monitors. Quite a nice sounding midrange response.

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Sony DR-S100 "Boodo Khan"

I believe these are supposed to replicate the acoustics of the infamous “Budokan” arena in Japan - whether or not it accomplishes that, I’m not sure. I’d say these are in “unobtainium” status due to its rarity and crazy sellers wanting crazy prices for them. They sound a lot like the MDR-V7 in FR. Though the driver even looks the same and I suspect that it is the same driver, without knowing the specs on these and if there’s any coating, there’s no real way of knowing if it’s the same driver. The front baffle is ever-so-slightly angled and the housing is much more roomier than on the V7. Though the FR is similar to that of the V7, the sound here seems to be a lot more “grand” and “bombastic” - whatever that means. I say that though when I got this pair, one driver was dead. I was hoping that it’s just because of corrosion in the cable but nope. I want to try to get a working pair someday and try some mods on them.

Measured on a MiniDSP EARS. HPN compensation.

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Sony MDR-1AM2

Surprisingly very well-tuned, albeit, a bit boomy in the bass. Not the most resolving or detailed but is tonally very good. The driver is Aluminum-Coated LCP.

Measured on a MiniDSP EARS. HPN compensation.

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Sony MDR CD1700

I thought I took better pictures of the front of the driver but I didn’t. The first picture is a timestamp of around when I sold the headphones. The treble response is surprisingly very smooth - I had expected a very bright treble response with the velour pads and all. The bass is surprisingly terrible… The front baffle has a rather large gap all around where it attaches onto the back housing (not like a bass port) which I imagine all of the energy in the bass escapes. Very upper-mid-centric sounding, and has what I think to be terrible acoustic design choices. I wish I had a 3D printer and try my hand at designing a new front baffle for the drivers.

Measured on a MiniDSP EARS. HPN compensation.

[Lyer25]

If you mean the spiral pattern… isn’t that just how loads of diaphragms are designed? Something about allowing for better pistonic motion or excursion. If you mean the protector disc though, then that’s maybe just a trick of the light.

Taken off audio technica’s site, it’s just a perforated disc thing to keep the driver from getting damaged I think. I got to try an ADX5000 for a while in store settings (great pair of headphones! But unfortunately a bit too sizzly off solid state gear, needs tubes and maybe EQ) and it looked like just another disc.

P.S.
Forgot I had this pic.

An Ultrasone Pro900 I was taking apart to try and mess with.

[Feilong4]

If you mean the spiral pattern… isn’t that just how loads of diaphragms are designed? Something about allowing for better pistonic motion or excursion. If you mean the protector disc though, then that’s maybe just a trick of the light.

No, I meant these tiny bumps:

Too lazy to mark all of them but they’re like little pimples on the diaphragm.

[Lyer25]

Never noticed them! Odd, wonder what function those could serve— agreed that they don’t feature often in dynamic drivers, at least ones that I’ve seen.

EDIT: wait a friggin second the cheapo Ultrasone drivers I shared just above have those dimples too I just remembered! Photo is from months back and I’ve not used them at all, so had forgotten. Perhaps it’s an artefact of the manufacturing/pleating/distressing process, or maybe even designed to help… dispersion(?) somehow? Not an engineer, just throwing guesses out there.

Of course I’m a noob to the hobby so for all I know it’s not that atypical haha. Thanks for the clarification!

[MazeFrame]

@Lyer25

P.S.
Forgot I had this pic.

An Ultrasone Pro900 I was taking apart to try and mess with.

Reminds me of the RP-HD10 a bit:

[Feilong4]

Some headphone driver gore. A little collection of dead headphone drivers I’ve kept over the years.

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AKG K180 - One driver arrived dead. Not sure why. Long story short, I got a full refund and got to keep the headphones.

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Audio Technica ATH-AD700X - Not quite sure why one of the drivers is dead.

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Beyerdynamic DT990/DT770 - I fried the little wires from leaving the soldering iron on too long. I’ve accidentally destroyed more Beyerdynamic drivers than I’d like to admit… I believe the driver all the way to the right is from a DT770 whereas the two on the left are from 2 different DT990’s.

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Fostex T20(v1, 1970s model) - Not quite sure why it’s not working. Maybe the corrosion that can be seen or a rip somewhere in the traces.

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Hifiman HE-560 - Bought the headphones as parts thinking it just needed a quick resoldering. Seems like the previous owner had the same idea but botched the soldering job. It looks like too much solder was used, and the solder balled up and dripped right through one of the diaphragms.

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JVC HA-D990 - Accidentally punctured the diaphragm while extracting the drivers. Oops. From a vintage headphone that is thankfully not too valuable or hard to find. You can see the tiny puncture in the 3rd picture near the bottom left of the driver.

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Yamaha YH-1 - Not sure why it stopped working.