Just this last week I was fortunate enough to be building some fully 3D printed DIY headphones live on Youtube. This short article is my initial thoughts and feedback on the process and final product. I should let you know in advance that the live stream was sponsored by Ploopy. They provided the full kit for free so feel free to take everything I say with a pinch of salt. Thanks to the Ploopy team for sending the kit over.
Ploopy Packaging
Packaging. Not the most exciting topic, nevertheless important if you want your stuff to arrive in one piece. What I received was functional, but not exactly beautiful. Essentially scrunched up newspapers and magazines with all the parts in a couple of plastic food Ziplock bags. Everything arrived in one piece but I’d hope to see something more ‘built for purpose’ in the future. All cardboard and paper if possible. Perhaps some labelling and the screws in a small bag instead of rattling around at the bottom of a large one.
Assembly
For the assembly, as mentioned above, this was done on a live stream and took me around 2 hours to complete with an additional 25 minutes watching a tutorial video before starting. The process is quite enjoyable to be honest, the instructions are well thought out and deliberate although they are a little verbose which makes the whole process sound much more difficult and complex than it really is. Some greater reliance on images and less on text might be helpful here. Ikea style. Creating a PDF document rather than using github might also allow for some greater formatting flexibility which could also improve quality so we have less time reading instructions, and more time focused on building.
Its worth considering here that I’m working on these from the perspective of someone that 3D prints and assembles fairly complex things, like 3D printers, on a pretty regular basis. Perhaps the additional detail in the instructions might help those with less building experience, but I suspect its more likely to be intimidating.
Listening
Setup
For my listening testing I have them plugged in to my DIY Objective 2 Amp and ODAC and even with the additional gain switch active I have to pump everything up to near maximum volume to get a reasonable volume out of them. I’ll swap over to the Ploopy AMP and DAC too but from my short experience on stream, that device is quite quiet too. Unfortunately my audio source is Spotify MP3 so definitely not an ideal audiophile setup, but perhaps more in line with how ‘normal’ people would use them?
Audio quality
We know the sound is important, but also really difficult for me to convey and compare. I think the closest thing to compare to is the head(amame) that i’ve already mentioned. These are also 3D printed headphones, but with standard drivers and foam cups, they’re also closed back. I think I can hear more details with the Ploopy and they certainly have more bass too but its not as tight as on the closed back head(amame). I think there is a bit of distortion on the Ploopy which may well be from some slight assembly issue since the drivers are built during assembly from a flex PCB and any slight overhang or misplaced sticky tape could impact final quality.
Comfort
I’ve been wearing them for about 40 minutes so far while writing this post and they are still comfortable so I think they’re well designed from that perspective. It’s worth bearing in mind too that, along side the normal sliding adjustment you get with any decent headphones, the headband can be swapped out for one with a totally different stiffness and shape that might suit your head a little better. Unlike the Head(amame) the noise from the cable doesn’t travel up into your ears, I’m sure there’s a fancy word for this, but its nice it doesn’t happen.
Conclusion
Overall, I think that if you’re after headphones and you want something open source, repairable and 3D printed, these would be a great choice. If you’re really into audiophile kit then i’m not sure i’m qualified to help you much, but they do sound great, and if you don’t like assembly you can always get the pre-assembled set.
As was mentioned by at least one viewer on the live stream, it’s a bit disappointing for the 3D printing communities perspective that you can’t just buy the hardware and print the parts yourself. Hopefully that’s an option we can get soon.
Thanks again to Ploopy for sending me the Ploopy DIY Headphones kit to do a live stream on.
Let me know in the comments below what you think.
Edit 21/1/24: Today I’ve been using the Ploopy headphones with the provided All-in-one DAC and Amp and I have to say its a big improvement. I didn’t realise that age of the O2 and ODAC would have let it down so significantly. This new electronics hardware from Ploopy really makes a big difference, especially when handling the low frequency. I don’t know if there is an EQ pre-loaded but I have not made any modifications myself, its just as it comes out the box. The volume still doesn’t go that loud, i mean its plenty loud enough for listening in the quiet at home I suppose, but if you like it loud, I’m not sure you’ll quite get there.