Bionic Ear Plans

HeadBanger Headphone Amp Construction Kit
Making Your Own HeadBanger

Rev. 2, February 18, 2001
The Sound Professionals offer a commercial version of this headphone amplifier.

You can build a high-quality portable amplifier to boost the output of Sony's MiniDisc portables. All parts are available at Radio Shack. By Stephen H. Lafferty <steve@tesoft.com>;
http://www.minidisc.org/headbanger.html (1 of 25) [1/12/02 11:14:34 PM]
After the euphoria over receiving my new Sony Minidisc bundle had partially subsided, I noticed that the portable unit, the MZ-E40, has a rather weak output. Measurements showed that it can only manage 80mV rms output and only about 74dB SPL output from the phones. This is when recording at average level with 8dB of headroom. In contrast, an orchestra can deliver more than 95dB SPL and they aren't considered headbangers. I tried all sorts of solutions, but in the end realized that the only solution yielding the headroom and quality worthy of the marvelous minidisc is to build a headphone amp from scratch. The end result is the "HeadBanger" which I will tell you how to build in this article. It completely solves the level problem with plenty of room to spare. It delivers up to 100-times the power that the E40 alone does. Noise is well below the noise of the E40. Other specs are pretty good (see below). Sounds wonderful. Runs on an internal NiCd battery or external charger. Estimated running time is about 6-hours, depending on output level. The HeadBanger is not for sale, but all parts are available at Radio Shack. Cost of the parts is about $20 depending on what you can scrounge. The NiCd battery and charger add $23. Caveats: Since it's not a kit, you have to be pretty handy at constructing electronic projects to build it. Took me about six evenings, but I had to do some development work on it. The attachments to this article include:
q q q q q q q
Front and back pictures Schematic Parts-list - at the end of this article Drill drawing Bottom view of the amp board Final assembly Top view of amp board and overall
This article offers construction details and debug tips. Sorry, I can't offer to help you debug it, but I would appreciate comments (especially compliments :-) .
Disclaimer
Protecting your hearing is your responsibility. Author is not responsible for misuse or hearing damage. Do not use at extremely loud levels for extended periods. Never listen at levels that leave your ears ringing or leave your hearing temporarily depressed.
Specifications
The HeadBanger has adjustable gain up to 21dB, so it can deliver 95dB SPL into headphones from the E40 at "average" record level. "Average" record level is 8dB below digital max level. Output level with 80mV in is .95V. Size: Weight: Distortion: 1 x 2 x 4 inches more-or-less 5 ounces (includes NiCd battery) 0.2%
Freq Response: Max Output level: Noise: Output Power: Input Impedance: Running Time: Circuit Desc: Controls: I/O's:
5Hz to >110kHz (-1dB) 1.7Vrms (loaded with RS Pro 25 phones) Inaudible in quiet room 375mW into 8-ohms 33Kohms, minimum 6-hours, est, high-cap NiCd, depending on audio level Uses two LM386 power amp chips, 10-caps, 5-resistors. Volume, On/Off switch Input pigtail, mini-phone out. DC power in.
Testimonial
Was out blowing leaves for hours today. Strapped on the E40, NoiseBuster (active noise cancellation) and HeadBanger. [Three boxes on the belt-- RoboHomeowner. And they called me a nerd in high school for wearing a slide rule on my belt. Har!] It was sweet. Grooving to the classic rock. Solid bass. Silky highs. Supersmooth. Not a trace of distortion. It doesn't get much better than this. This, is what the hoopla is about. At last I am at peace with my minidisc bundle. Life is good.
Circuit Description
Audio-taper pot, R1, adjusts input level into two LM386 amplifier chips. The LM386 is a low-voltage audio power amplifier, designed to operate on 4V to 12V. It has an internal 15K feedback resistor between pins 1 and 5 which would set the gain at 20 (26dB). At this gain, the output noise is slightly audible, so R2/R4 is added, effectively in parallel, to reduce the gain to 11 (21dB). Since the extra feedback is taken after the output coupling cap, C3/C7, it also flattens the low end response. Distortion is reduced as well. The feedback resistor must be AC coupled to avoid disturbing internal biasing. C1/C5 decouple internal bias networks to improve power supply rejection. Since audio-induced ripple on the supply is nonlinear, this improves distortion performance as well as reducing hum in AC operation. Output loading network C4/C8, R3/R5 stabilizes load impedance at high frequencies to prevent oscillation. The NiCd battery is charged through R6, which sets the charging current. Since the HeadBanger only draws 10mA idle (25mA typical), the 12V AC adaptor voltage is actually about 14.7V. The battery voltage during charging is about 8.4V. The 120mAH high-capacity NiCd needs about 196mAH of charging. [This is projected from the 60mAH low-cap NiCd which is speced to charge in 14-hours at 7mA.] With the HeadBanger off, 20 to 25mA is supplied, so the high-cap battery will charge in about 10-hours. It might take twice that long with the unit turned-on. The low-cap battery would charge in about 5-hours. C10 reduces audio-induced ripple on the power supply. C9 bypasses the supply at high frequencies, preventing oscillation. Note: Not shown on the schematic is the separation of the input and output grounds. The ground wires from P1 and R1 are connected separately from other grounds to a point on the amp board close to pin 2 of IC1 and IC2. Design note: Due to low bias voltage at pin 1 of IC1 and IC2, the amount of feedback voltage allowed there is
limited. Although the amp could operate at lower gain (lower R2/R4), this would increase feedback voltage. At low power supply voltages this has the effect of causing a snap-back on large negative half-cycles of the output signal. We chose the feedback value to just eliminate the snap. Yet, it may be a contributing factor determining when the battery is depleted. A higher value of R2/R4 (say 22K) might extend operating time slightly and increase gain slightly. This would be at the expense of making the noise slightly audible (but still well below the MZ-E40 noise).
Overview
The front.jpg and back.jpg pictures give you the gist of the HeadBanger. It has a pigtail input. [That's jargon for a plug on a hard-wired cable which hangs out of the unit.] Make the cable long enough to go around your back in case you want to wear the HeadBanger on the other side from the player. I needed this because I will be using a NoiseBuster as well. Since the project boxes that are generally available don't have a battery compartment, I included a NiCd to avoid having to open the unit to change the battery. The belt clip is a standard part at Radio Shack (amazing!). The complete parts list appears at the end of the article.
Precharging the Battery

If you have a 9V battery charger, charge the NiCd battery before construction, since it will probably be discharged when you buy it. If you do not have a battery charger, you can use the HeadBanger to do it after construction.
Left and Right Reference

The left channel is on the tip of the miniplug (and socket). It may be color- coded white in the inner conductor of a shielded stereo pair. I used yellow wire for left. The rear volume control section is used for left (like "tip"). The right channel is on the ring of the miniplug (and socket). It may be color-coded red in the inner conductor of a shielded stereo pair. I used green wire for right. The forward volume control section is used for right.
Drilling the Case

(Why does the unpleasant part always come at the beginning?) Well, in this... er... case it's not all that bad. The only thing is, this is a miniature project, so accuracy matters. Fortunately, plastic is easy to drill. The Radio Shack project case is plastic with a metal cover. The positions and sizes of the holes are shown in holes.gif. This drawing is shown as if you are looking into the box with the metal cover removed. All holes are 0.55" down from the open top. The locations of the holes are chosen to maximize clearances inside. The front panel holes also center the controls. In retrospect, I find the volume and switch a little too close together (but it works fine). The volume cannot go any closer to the side, however. In fact, it has almost zero clearance now. You could move it 1/16"
farther from its side and the switch 1/8" in the same direction. This might unbalance the appearance of the front panel, however. By the way, as described below, the volume pot must be trimmed before it will fit. Mark the holes carefully. When measuring to a side around a rounded corner, use a straightedge held against the reference side. Mark the holes by scratching with a sharp object. Then you need a "center punch" to start the drill. To do this with the brittle plastic, I heated a nail (held with pliers) over the stove. For drilling, the case must be held in a vise. Don't clamp too tightly! Radio Shack sells a cheap vacuum-held vise which worked well. Drill carefully. It goes through the plastic quickly. The large 7/16" hole for the DC jack gave me a bit of a hassle. Since it is such a large hole for this box, I first drilled a quarter-inch starter hole. When I applied the 7/16 bit, it rattled around a little and suddenly grabbed. It then ripped through the hole in a flash. The edge where it grabbed was rough. In retrospect, perhaps it would have worked better without the starter hole. One thing's for sure: I'm glad that the box was securely in the vise and not in my hand!
Mounting the Chassis parts

Cut the shaft of the volume control to a length of 3/8" past the bushing from which it protrudes. To do this, mark the cutting position and put the end of the shaft in a vise. Since I was using a cheap plastic vise, I had to put something in the other side the vice grip to balance the load on the grip. Do NOT put the body of the control in the vise. Use a jig saw with a fine pitch blade to cut the shaft. I find I have to be very careful to get a square cut. Fortunately, the squareness doesn't matter too much here, but it should be decent. The volume control must be trimmed before it will fit in the box. Use side- angle cutters to remove the phenolic parts protruding with the taps. These are on the opposite side from the six main connection lugs. Be very careful not to crack the phenolic inside. I cut tangent to the case of the pot towards the rivet hole. Also remove the keying tab protruding toward the front panel. Grip it with needle-nose pliers and bend. It will break off. All six solder lugs for the pot should be bent down as much as possible to maximize clearance to the metal cover of the box. Leave nothing on the threaded shaft between the pot and the panel unless you want to take advantage of the tip below. After reading the tip, place the washer and nut on the shaft and tighten with the solder lugs up. ["Up" is towards the open side of the case.] TIP: You may want to ground the body of the volume control. I found out later that without it, the unit picks up hum from your hand when it is on AC power and you adjust the volume. To ground the control, wrap one turn of small, solid, bare wire around the threaded shaft before mounting the control. Leave about 2.5" of wire free for now. Turn the volume control fully counterclockwise. Unscrew the setscrew of the volume knob and place the knob on the control as close to the front panel as it will go. Point the knob to the 7:00 position and tighten the setscrew. Put two layers of electrical tape on the underside of the metal cover where the lugs of the volume control are. (There is very little clearance.) Leave room for the grounding lug to make contact with the metal cover. See the pullout.jpg figure to locate the grounding lug.
Mount the output jack (J1) with the ground lug up at about a 30 degree angle so that the tip and ring lugs are both easily accessible. Tilt the ground lug toward the front panel where the volume control is. The bottom-most lug is the tip (left channel) and the upper lug is the ring (right channel). Mount the DC jack (J2) with the ground lug toward the battery position. Bend the ground lug toward the battery so that it projects no farther into the box than the other pin on the jack. Mount the switch, aligned vertically, so it swings at right angles to the metal cover. Work a 3/8" outside diameter grommet into the hole for the input pigtail. Hold off mounting the battery.
Soldering Instructions
In the following instructions, "connect" means to crimp a wire onto a lug. When all connections have been attached, we will say to "solder" the connection. In general, only the last connection can be "tack" soldered; and then only when necessary. "Tack" soldering is using the solder to physically hold a wire without crimping it.
About the Hookup Wire

I used standard telephone hookup wire. The only drawback was that the insulation tended to melt-back quickly during soldering. It also is not tinned. I recommend solid wire.
Wiring the Chassis

We need to wire the chassis completely before attempting to install the amp board. If you do not plan to follow the chassis wiring below, at least make sure that you DO NOT connect the volume control ground and cover grounding lug to the other chassis part grounds. As discussed below, we need to separate the input ground from the output ground to prevent oscillation. Trim the length of the leads on the 9V battery connector to 2.5". Connect the positive (red) lead to the lower lug of the switch. The battery should not be connected. [We assume you are using a SPST switch. If you have a SPDT switch, ignore the bottom lug and use the two upper lugs.] Trim both leads of 330 ohm R6 to 1/2". Bend one lead 90 degrees in the middle and solder it into the center pin of DC jack J2. Solder a wire onto the other lead at about 3/16" from R6. Trim the solder joint and bend the resistor back into the corner as shown in figure pullout.jpg. Route the wire down along the bottom of the case and connect it to the lower lug of the switch. Solder the connection. Connect C10 between the upper lug of the switch and the ground lug of output jack J1. Position C10 with its leads pointing up as shown in figure inside.jpg. Be sure that the negative terminal is connected to J1. The negative terminal is the one marked with a minus sign and arrow. Solder at J1 but not at the switch. Connect a wire from the ground lug of DC jack J2 to the negative lead of C10, about 3/16" away from the cap.
Route this wire straight down from J2 to the bottom of the box and then up by the front panel around back of the C10 and up to its lead. Connect the negative lead of the 9V battery connector to the same place on the negative lead of C10. Solder the connection there. The input grounds must be kept separate from the output grounds, otherwise the unit will oscillate. Tied to the input ground are the input pigtail, the volume control and the lug contacting the metal cover. The pigtail is a miniplug and cable which is the input to the HeadBanger. I cut mine from an old pair of headphones. If you can't scrounge one, a Radio Shack cable is in the parts list. I made mine 28" from the tip of the plug to the side of the case. Thus, I can wear the Minidisc on one side and the HeadBanger and NoiseBuster on the other. If you know that you will keep the minidisc and HeadBanger together, perhaps 12" would be better for the pigtail. Just make sure that it has a 1/8" stereo miniplug on one end and open wire on the other end. the initial length will need to be about 4" longer than the final length. The pigtail should have two shielded cables. Push the open wire end through the input pigtail grommet. Pull 12" or so through and tie a knot about 3" from end of the wire. Tighten the knot and pull the excess wire back through the grommet until the knot is snug against the grommet. Cut the length of cable inside the box to 2" and strip 3/4" of the outside insulation. Be careful not to cut the fine strands of shield (ground) wire. Separate and twist the shield strands into two bundles and then twist the two bundles to make one ground wire. Strip 1/4" from each inner conductor. Connect the inner conductors to the two lugs of the volume control closest to the switch. The left channel (tip) goes to the lug farthest from the front panel. Connect the right channel (ring) to the lug closest to the front panel. The inner conductors may be color coded, white for left and red for right. Solder the two input connections. If you added the ground wire when mounting the control, route it through the two lugs on the opposite side of the control from the connections we just made. If you did not add the ground wire, connect a 2" bare wire to the volume control lug closest to the cover screw and pass it through the other volume control lug on that side. Then route the wire down behind the control and connect it to the ground wire of the pigtail. Solder at the pigtail only. We need a lug to contact the metal cover like the one by the volume control in figure Inside.jpg. I drilled-out one lug of a terminal strip for mine. Radio Shack sells terminal strips (part no. 274-688), but if you have to buy one, they have lugs too, such as part no. 64-3030. Since I haven't tried those, you would have to make sure it fits. Connect a short, bare wire to the cover lug and the rear ground lug of the volume control. Solder the two ground lugs on the volume control and the cover lug. Position the cover lug so that the cover screw next to the volume control will pass through it as in figure Inside.jpg. Bend the soldered end down a little so it will clear the cover. The chassis wiring is now complete. Now we will install the battery. Make sure that the power switch is off (towards the open end of the box). Attach the 9V connector to the battery. Orient the battery so that the leads from the 9V connector point away from the side of the box. Use side-angle cutters to trim any part of the 9V connector which protrudes above the battery. Next, we will need a warmed hot glue gun. In a very quick operation, apply one strip of hot glue to the side of the battery next to the wall and immediately press the battery firmly against the wall. It should be snug against the screw post near the bottom of the battery and also resting on the bottom of the box. Hold it tight for
30 seconds or so. If you need to replace the NiCd battery, you should be able to pry it from the wall with a screwdriver.
Building the Amp Board

This is the fun part: real hands-on electronics! But as you can see from figure Inside.jpg, there is very little clearance for the amp board. In fact, I had to try a few different component layouts, to find one which would fit. So I recommend that you try to build it just as it is shown. Figure Inside.jpg gives you the top view and figure Boardwir.jpg gives a bottom view. It also has component designators and the external connections are shown. Cut a piece of perf-board so that there are 11 x 12 holes visible. I used a jig saw with a fine-tooth blade, cutting along a row of holes. Be sure that you count-over one extra row so that the number of holes left is the right number. The trick to locating components is finding the lead holes after spotting the reference designator. Usually, there are two leads. They may be spaced vertically or horizontally. The spacing is .1, .2 or .3 inches. (Holes are spaced every .1". For example, take R4 (the only designator in black) in the upper right corner. The leads are spaced .3" apart horizontally. C3 at the lower middle is a little harder. Its leads are arranged vertically, tying to C2 and to pin 5 of IC1. Pins 1 and 5 of each IC (integrated circuit) are labeled in Boardwir.jpg. FROM THE BOTTOM, the IC pins are numbered in this order: 8 7 6 5 1 2 3 4
Pin 1 is marked on the chip itself by a dot (see Inside.jpg). Pin 8 is not connected in this design. Notice that R3 and R5 are stood-up, transistor radio style. You can see them end-on at the upper-right of the green caps in figure Inside.jpg. In boardwir.jpg, the right channel occupies the upper half of the board and the left channel is on the lower half. The two channels are laid out identically. A ground bus forms a "T", with the top of the T running between IC1 and IC2. The only place a wire needed insulation on the board is where the +9V bus crosses the ground bus. Notice that there are two external ground connections to this same ground bus. One is the Input ground (GND-I) and the other is the Output ground (GND-O). The Input ground wire comes to the top of the board and pokes directly through to its connection at the place to which the GND-I arrow is pointing. The two input wires also come to the top of the board and pass through for strain relief. They connect directly to IC socket pins which are very small. The easiest way to solder to the IC socket pins is to bend them flat against the board and run the wire beside them. Then tack-solder. You can also run the wire past a vertical pin and tack-solder. The ground bus runs over some pins bent flat and soldered. It is not easy to crimp wires onto the pins.
In most cases, you will not need hookup wire. Use the component leads themselves to make connections. After inserting a component, pull its leads out to secure it. Then insert components which attach to it and twist leads together. Solder and trim leads as you go, keeping an eye on the schematic (schem.gif) so you solder only after all connections to a point are made. You will also need to follow the schematic to insure that you are wiring correctly. The pictorials are not always obvious. To get started, insert the socket for IC2 and bend out leads at opposite corners to hold it. [Note: do not insert the IC's in the sockets until the end.] Insert R4 and bend the lead sharply over to pin 1 of IC2. You may need to trim the lead to get it to contact pin 1. Solder the connection. Now insert C6. Make sure that all caps with polarity markings on the schematic are inserted in correct polarity. C6 has its negative lead marked with a minus and an arrow. That lead should be away from R4, leaving the positive lead towards R4. Twist the adjacent leads of C6 and R4 together, solder and trim. Continue with the other components. You may be able to use the lead of C9 to connect ground from pins 2 and 4 of IC1 to the same on IC2. Use bare wire to complete the bus to R3/C1. After the amp board is wired, add 5" external leads for the following connections: IN, right IN, left OUT, right OUT, left +9V GND-O GND-I Enters from top Enters from top From bottom. From bottom. From bottom, at From bottom, at Enters from top for strain relief. (under C9) for strain relief.
C9. R3/C1. at place pointed as GND-I. Connect to gnd.
Complete the amp board by inserting IC1 and IC2 into their sockets. If you are concerned that your wiring of the IC pins may be wrong, you could leave out one of the chips until the other channel is tested good. This way, a mistake common to both channels cannot damage both chips. It is easy to take the wrong corner as pin 1 because the view from the bottom is the reverse of the view from the top.
Installing the Amp Board

Wire the amp to the chassis so that it can be pulled-out as shown in figure pullout.jpg. In fact, allow the board to be oriented vertically. With the board in this position (IC's up), resting on the battery, trim the length of the Output ground (GND-O) lead of the amp and solder it to the ground lug of the DC power connector. Note: When trimming the length of the amp board leads, leave a little slack, but not so much that they are meandering. Arrange the leads so you can easily rotate the amp to horizontal and press it down into place. Make sure that the switch is in the off position (towards the open end of the box). Then trim and solder the +9V lead of the amp to the top lug of the switch. Similarly, trim and solder the two output leads to J1. If you oriented the jack as described in "Mounting the Chassis Parts," the left channel (tip) lug is the one closest to the bottom of the box. The right channel (ring) lug is the next one up. You can look inside the extra jack to verify.
Trim and solder the amp Input leads to the two middle lugs of the volume control. Left is attached to the rear section of the control. Finally, solder the Input ground (GND-I) to the volume control lug attached to the cover ground lug. Congratulations! You have completed basic assembly of the HeadBanger. But don't go pushing the amp board in yet. We need to test this puppy.
Charging the Battery

While you can operate the HeadBanger on the AC supply, testing would be a little cleaner on a fully charged battery. If you did not ground the volume control (as in the TIP above), the unit may pickup AC hum when operated on the AC adapter. To charge the battery, first configure the connector on the AC adaptor. Tip should be (+) positive. Use the connector adaptor for 5.5mm OD and 2.1mm ID. Turn the HeadBanger off, plug the AC adaptor into the wall outlet, and insert the its plug into the DC jack on the HeadBanger. Charging will take about 10- hours with the high-capacity battery. [See Note 10 on the parts list.]
Testing the HeadBanger

Attach a pair of headphones to J1 and plug the pigtail into an audio source. Set the volume control to the 12:00 position (half-way). Put on the phones and switch the unit on (away from the open end of the box). You should hear a loud click. (Sorry about that; the output caps have to charge.) With the audio source off, you should hear little, if any, noise. Whirring or buzzing might indicate oscillation. If all is quiet, turn on the audio. It should sound excellent at all levels. You may need to adjust the output level of the source so that it does not distort. The MZ-E40 does not seem to distort at max gain setting, so that is where I tend to run it. Distortion at normal levels might indicate oscillation. If the HeadBanger sounds good, I would still recommend probing the outputs on J1 with a scope to make sure there is no oscillation. Test with high and low level signals and at high and low settings of the volume control. Testing with an oscillator would be best. Examine the negative half-cycle of a high- level signal closely. Before the design was debugged, it tended to oscillate in the 1MHz to 1.4MHz range. If you do not have a scope, a listening test should suffice. If the critter tests okay, bravo! You have almost completed a challenging project. If you find a problem, see "Debugging the Sick Puppy," below.
Final Assembly
With the unit turned off, carefully work the amp board into a horizontal position and down into the box. Rather than just pushing the board all the way, also pull down on the amp's external leads under the board. Try to make sure that any bare wire on the lead connections does not short to other points under the board. Push the board
down until it is below the DC jack lugs and the corner of Output jack, J1. The external lead wires will hold it firmly in place. Arrange the input leads coming from the top of the board so that they will run along the grounded metal cover when it is put in place. Make sure the unit still works okay. Then turn it off and attach the metal cover with the four screws supplied with the case. Do not over-tighten--just snug. Follow the instructions on the Universal Belt Clip package to attach the belt clip as shown in figure back.jpg. I positioned it so that the end of the clip is about 1/16" below the front panel. While the instructions say that you can use it immediately, I waited for 72-hours (three long days!) before clipping it on my belt, to allow the adhesive to cure completely. If you have made it this far, you now deserve a Summa Cum Laude in miniature project building. This is what it feels like to be a Japanese engineer ;D Let me know how you like it. Happy listening. (Take care of those ears...)
Debugging the Sick Puppy

Well, if you are reading this, you are not a happy camper. Sorry that it didn't work on the first try, but then few things do. Don't give up, it's probably just a wiring error or a short. Here are some suggestions:
If You Can't Get Any Output

First, check the obvious: Plug the headphones into the audio source to make sure it is working. Make sure that the switch is on (away from the open end of the box) and that the volume control is clockwise. [Leave it at halfway.] Use a multimeter to verify that there is 9V on pin-6 of the IC's and that pin-4 is at zero. [What we refer to as "9V" is actually lower due to the NiCd battery. Expect about 7 or 8 volts.] Use the DC connector ground lug for a reference. If you are using a scope, attach its ground to the that same point (not the Input ground). Check pin-5 of each chip to see if it is at about half the supply voltage. Pins 2 and 3 should be at zero.
Is There a Short Under the Amp Board?

The insulation on the leads going to the amp board should extend close to the points at which they are soldered. If not, the bare part of a lead may have shorted to other connections when the board was pushed into place. To check for this, pull the board up carefully and see if any bare lead wire is getting close to other connections.
Wiring Check
Compare your wiring to boardwir.jpg and schem.gif. Compare the top view to inside.jpg. [Make sure your viewer shows a large, zoomed-in view of the board.] Trace the wiring point-to-point vs the schematic (Schem.gif). Look for shorts. Make sure that the polarities of C1, C2, C3, C5, C6, C7 and C10 are correct.
Check the component values, especially the resistors. R2 and R4 are Brown/Gray/Orange. R3 and R5 are Brown/Black/Black. Check the chassis connections against inside.jpg, pullout.jpg and schem.gif.
Oscillation Problems
The unit will definitely oscillate if: 1. The input ground is not separated from the output ground. Make sure that these are not shorting at the negative lead of C10 near the pigtail ground wire. If you have not wired the grounds exactly as described in the text, do so. This isn't boiler-plate; it's critical. 2. C9 is not on the amp board. IC1 and IC2 need HF power supply bypassing very close to their power and ground pins. You could try adding another .1uF cap bypass under the board. Note: In the photo, C9 is red. I used a smaller one that I already had. Yours will be larger and green like my other ones. 3. The output loading network R3/C4 or R5/C8 is not correct. The amp needs a stable load at high frequency. Make sure that these components are the right ones and are connected properly. If the oscillation stops when the headphone is unplugged, this may indicate a problem with the loading network. Note: Some fluorescent lamps generate 50kHz noise in a big way. Apparently, they use a switching supply. My Service Merchandise magnifier lamp (with Circleline bulb) does this.
Checking Current Consumption

High idle power supply current might indicate oscillation or other problems. Normal current with no signal is about 10mA. With the battery in-place, it is not very easy to remove and reattach the battery connector. To measure the current, though, you can use a flatblade screwdriver to pry the connector away from only the top (negative) terminal of the battery. Slip a small piece of paper between the connector and the battery. Set the multimeter to read current on a 100mA scale. [Some meters require the red test lead to be moved to a different jack to measure current.] Then, with the HeadBanger switched on, hold the probes on the battery terminal and the connector terminal to read current. Remove the paper and reattach the connector. Slip the screwdriver down along the top the connector to press the lower part of the connector against the battery, in case it has loosened.
If All Else Fails

Don't call me ;) (Sorry, but this project has already gone far beyond the amount of time I had for it.) Consider taking the unit and all of the documentation in this article to a hobbiest or ham friend or to a local repair shop. I sincerely hope that it turns out well for you. --shl
Parts List for HeadBanger Headphone Amp

(All parts are available at Radio Shack {RS}.) Qty Description REF RS Part No. $ ea $ Note =========================================================================== 1 100K stereo control-audio taper R1 271-1732 1.99 1 1/8" phoneplug/cable for pigtail P1 42-2387 3.99 1 1 1/2" knob, blue tip [R1] 274-403 (2ea) .99 2 LM386 IC power amp IC1,IC2 276-1731 1.19 2.38 4 Cap, 10uF 35V C1,C2,C5,C6 272-1025 .59 2.36 3 Cap, 470uF 16V C3,C7,C10 272-957 .99 2.97 3 Cap, 0.1uF 50V C4,C8,C9 272-1069 .79 2.37 2 2 Socket, 8-pin dip [IC1,IC2] 276-1995 (2ea) .59 3 1 Perf board 276-1395 2.19 4 1 Case ~3x2x1. Al cover. 270-230 1.99 1 Resistor, 330, 1/2W R6 271-1113 (5ea) .49 10 2 Resistor, 18K, 1/4W R2,R4 RSU-11345105 (5ea) .49 5 2 Resistor, 10, 1/4/W R3,R5 271-1301 (5ea) .49 1 1/8" stereo phone jack OC J1 274-249 (2ea) 1.99 6 1 9-volt battery connector [B1] 270-325 (5ea) 1.39 1 DC jack 5.5mm/2.1mm J2 274-1563 1.69 7 1 9-volt hi-cap NiCd battery B1 23-299 9.99 8 1 AC adaptor, 12V 500mA A1 273-1652 12.99 1 Belt Clip, universal 43-168 1.99? 9 1 Grommet for pigtail, 3/8" 64-3025 (assorted) 1.49 1 Switch, submini SPST S1 275-612 2.89 11 1 Lug from terminal strip 274-688 (4ea) 1.29 12 Notes: 1. I cut a phone jack and cable from an old pair of headphones instead. Leave enough cord so it can go around your back. 2. The RS part is a bit large. I used a smaller one I had on hand for one of them. 3. The RS part has short leads which aren't very easy to solder-to through the vector board. If you can find ones with longer leads, do it. 4. I used the standard perf board with holes every .1" and no solder pads. Picked it out at RS--I think this is the right part number. 5. This standard resistor must be ordered at most Radio Shacks. You can substitute a 22K (P/N 271-1339). This will give slightly higher gain and possibly longer running time at the expense of slightly higher noise. 6. It's a good thing these come 2-each because the first one I put in was bad. Before installing, check yours to make sure that you don't lose connection on either channel when tugging lightly on the phone plug. channel when tugging lightly on the phone plug. 7. I wished that I could have found a smaller one. RS has others, but they have an internal switch that isn't needed. If you use a different one, make sure that the AC adaptor fits it. 8. I actually got stuck with their lower-capacity battery, since the hi-cap was sold out. Pity, since the hi-cap is only $1 more and has twice the capacity (120mAh). Probably can withstand quick charging better too.
9. RS's universal belt clip is a real jewel! Comes with permanent adhesive. Just perfect for this (and other) projects. 10. This resistor sets the charging current of the NiCd battery. The 330 ohm value gives about 25mA which will charge the low-cap NiCd in 5-hours or the high-cap NiCd in 10-hours. If you use 150 ohms, it will cut the time in half. I would not recommend this with the low-cap NiCd and don't know about the hi-cap one. The low-cap NiCd package said 7mA for 14-hours, so even doing it in 5-hours may shorten battery life. I chose 5-hours because many NiCd's are being charged at that rate. Note: The charger delivers 14.7V at this light load. The battery is about 8.4V during charge. 11. I used a switch I already had. Picked this one as the closest match out of the RS catalog. Make sure that it fits the box okay and that the sleeve is long enough to go through the thick plastic wall and still have enough turns left (three) for the retaining nut. 12. Actually, all we need is a lug with which to contact the metal cover. I drilled one out of a terminal strip. If you have to buy one, check Radio Shack's lug hardware (such as 64-3030) to see if they have a lug that fits. (See figure inside.jpg --lug in lower left corner of box.)
Addendum
This addendum describes an important modification to the headphone amplifier described in my construction article, "Making Your Own HeadBanger." In using the unit on a Snapper riding lawnmower, I found that the ignition noise from the engine was being picked-up by the HeadBanger. The fix for this problem is to add a grounded metal plate to the bottom of the chassis. This is easier and more effective if you do it before mounting the components on the chassis. The shield seemed to fix the problem, but I was only able to test it once, since cutting season ended. If you encounter further problems, some more ideas are given at the end. Note: If you did not ground the volume control body as was suggested, in the article, you should do so now. (See article.)
Adding the Shield

Cut an a rectangle from thin aluminum as large as will easily fix on the bottom of the chassis. If you are doing this before mounting components, this will be easy and you can afford to leave 1/8" of clearance to walls and posts. If you have already built the unit, as I have, start with a rectangle of 1 3/8" x 1 9/16". I used the metal from a soda can. This is not an ideal choice, since it seems to have an insulating coating. Gently pull the amp board out without breaking wires. Try not to let wires bend any more than necessary. It is not necessary to unsolder the board. See if the shield will fit under the area where the amp board usually sits. You can feed it in from the wall where the output jack is mounted, curving it around the corner of the wall and the bottom. Depending on how solidly the battery is pressing on the bottom, you may need to trim the shield.
Remove the shield and make a hole in it, large enough for a 4-40 screw, 1/4" from a corner. We will be looking into the chassis with the output jack wall at the bottom and the DC jack to the right. Orient the shield with the hole in the lower right corner. Push a short 4-40 screw through the hole, up from the underside of the shield. Cut a 4" length of insulated hookup wire. Strip and twist a loop around the screw, next to the top side of the shield. Tighten the screw with a washer and nut. Cover the shield with electrical tape, except for the corner with the screw. Trim excess tape from the edges. Thread the shield into the bottom of the chassis. The corner with the screw should be in the lower right corner, under the 330 ohm DC jack resistor. Run the wire along the bottom of the chassis, then up to area of the volume control. If you have already mounted the control, attach the wire to the ground lug of the volume control (closest to the output jack wall) and solder it. Otherwise, attach it later when the control is mounted. Carefully push the amp board back in and test the unit. Re-attach the cover.
If You Encounter More Interference

If you should have more interference problems, you could try this idea: Add 220pF caps (RS# 272-124) from the wiper of the volume control to ground. You can mount these on the control itself. The wiper is the center lug and the ground is the lug attached to the free ground lug.
HeadBanger Grounding
Since there have been questions, I want to clarify the HeadBanger grounding. Some folks have been understandably confused by what we mean by "keeping the input and output grounds separated." The idea behind the grounding is to prevent output currents from flowing in the input ground. This causes oscillation. The input and output grounds do come together, but only at a single point on the amp board. In the ground.jpg pic, the ground bus under the board is marked in red. Notice that the output ground connection (GND-O) is at the left and the input ground connection comes in from the top side, right at the point marked "GND-I".
FAQs about HeadBanger grounding:

1. It is stated in many places that the output ground and input ground need to be separate. However it also says: "Notice that there are two external ground connections to this same ground bus. One is the Input ground (GND-I) and the other is the Output ground (GND-O)." From this it sounds like GND-I and GND-O are connected together, on the amp board. Hence my confusion. Answer: The input and output grounds are separate EXCEPT for where they come together under the ground board. 2. Which parts should be connected to the input ground and which to the output ground?
Answer: The input ground goes to the input pigtail (P1), volume control, pins 2 and 4 of both IC's, and the case. All others are output grounds. 3. The grounds are connected on your board. In boardwir.jpg, is there a wire under the black thing between labels "IC1" and "IC2"? Answer: The "black thing" is a piece of tubing used to insulate the +9V wire. Yes, the ground bus runs under it. Please refer to the attached ground.jpg. 4. In boardwir.jpg, are the grounds on the left, input grounds? Answer: No, notice that the output ground is connected on the left. On my board, the external wire for input ground comes in from the topside exactly at the point marked "GND-I". 5. Your plans call for "separate grounds" for Input and output...should there also be a separate ground for everything else in the schematic? Ultimately, they would all end up going to the 9V battery anyway, right? Answer: You don't need separate grounds for everything. We just need to group the output grounds together and then the input grounds together. Then connect the groups at one point. While they all "end up going to the 9V battery" eventually, the important thing is to prevent the high currents in the output grounds from flowing through the input ground wires. Things connected to the input grounds are sensitive to the small voltages which would be induced in the input ground wires by the output currents.
Modified Koss Earplugs Instead of HeadBanger

The HeadBanger was designed to increase portable minidisk output level, especially when used with active noise reduction phones. A completely different approach is to use earplug style phones. Until recently, I did not consider those because: (1) The units I was familiar with had poor fidelity. (2) I was concerned about earwax mess. and (3) I thought that it would not be comfortable enough to wear for hours at a time. Then I saw the article by Chu Moy at the site: http://headwize.com/projects/cmoy4_prj.htm I tried the Koss plugs with Moy's cushion-modification and was pleasantly surprised. The fidelity was decent, although not great. There was no problem with earwax. (With Moy's approach, replacement cushions are also plentiful.) Comfort was adequate. The best part is that the noise reduction is WAY beyond anything I can imagine from active cancellation. An added benefit is that the Koss Plugs are more sensitive than the other phones I have tried. This, combined with their noise reduction, eliminated the need for using the HeadBanger amp with the MZ-E40 portable minidisk player. Some issues about using the Koss/Moy Plugs: 1. The low-frequency response depends on the quality of the seal between the Plugs and the ear canal. The
seal, even with Moy's mods, takes a minute or so to develop. This is apparently because the earplug foam is somewhat compressed as it is pushed-in. It gradually relaxes against the confines of the ear canal, forming a seal. So the low frequency response doesn't seem good in a quick test. 2. After the foam relaxes against the ear canal, there is noticeable pressure. I did not find it objectionable. In any case, it is what the Flent's earplugs do. (The original Koss foam is softer, but doesn't seal well.) 3. I used a Dremel to drill the holes, I think. (See Moy.) 4. After you cut the Flents Earplugs to length, they will have a shiny end and a regular foam end. It works better if the shiny end is towards the ear.
User Questions & Comments

Questions
From Todd Matherne: I recently decided to start using a personal headphone monitor system on stage, to replace my floor monitor. I only have a few radio shack headphones. I noticed that the amp drives the headphones rather hard. I can not turn up very much, before the headset diaghragms start to rattle. I am however using the 22k Resistor, instead of the 18k. I noticed in your document that "noise" could be a factor. I would like to include a tone ckt to take out some of the bass frequencies on stage. I am a gigging guitarist, and I simply and tapped off of the stereo mix of the sound board. Anyway, I have a few basic questions: How do I measure the impedance of my headphones? Am I driving the wrong type of headsets? I didn't hear any noise last night, when I prototyped, but just explain in detail the grounding thing. Do you have a simple tone ckt to equalize the bass and treble? Steve Lafferty replies: Please see the blurb "HeadBanger Grounding", about the Grounding Thing. Sorry that you are experiencing a "rattle" in the headphones. Could it be that they just aren't able to take the level? I guess you already checked that by driving the phones from another source. The HeadBanger should be able to drive any phones with 8-ohms or greater impedance, so it should not be an issue. The 22K resistor instead of the 18K shouldn't make much difference either. I'm sorry that I can't supply bass and treble circuits for the HeadBanger, but taking out the bass frequencies is easy: Just insert a 0.005uF cap between the input jack and the volume control pot. (Best placed near the pot.) This cap value will roll-off 3dB at 300Hz, giving about 10dB rejection at 100Hz. If you want less bass rejection, increase the cap and vice versa.
From Lawrence in the UK: Having bought the impressive Creative Labs Jukebox player (6GB hard drive), I would appreciate more volume from the 'phones output and plan to build a headphone amp. Please can you tell me whether this circuit is designed to be plugged into a "line out" socket rather than the headphone socket. The "line out" will give better sound quality especially with the Creative because they (according to a review) roll off the bass on the headphone socket below 60Hz. Steve Lafferty replies: Yes, it should work fine on the line out. By the way, if the bass rolls-off because of a small output coupling capacitor, the high-Z load of the HeadBanger on the headphone output would solve the rolloff problem. But, as you mentioned, the line out should still give better quality.
From Lawrence in the UK: Happy new year. I want to thank you for the circuit details for the headbanger. The job was done over the holiday. Its suberb and just what was I needed - should have made one years ago for my Sony Discman and it is now perfect for my new Creative DAP jukebox. The intrinsic sound quality with my Koss MAC 5 headphones is greatly improved (more control, dynamics and detail). There is just the faintest trace of radio breakthough and hum but its not a problem. This may be sorted when I complete the screening and socketry. The job came in about at about $21. What fun for so little financial outlay! Should I visit Roswell I will buy you a few beers. Thanks. Steve Lafferty replies: >trace of radio breakthough and hum ---I trust that you saw the bit about grounding the volume control case and the addendum about adding a shield under the board. For the RF interference, you could add the 220pF caps mentioned in the section, "If You Encounter More Interference". (Smaller caps could be used if you are concerned about the effect on response.) >Should I visit Roswell I will buy you a few beers. Thanks. ---In the meantime, I will drink a Guinness in your honor ;-) It was nice to hear from you.
From Mark Mander: I am a newbe and have a few questions I hope you can help me with. Can I use your headphone amplifier on a Apple G4 sound output ( Full Scale Output level: 3.0 V peak to peak with a 5 kilohm load )? Will a 600 ohm sennheiser headphone, which I have work on your output? Steve Lafferty replies: The HeadBanger should work okay with the Apple output. (If you are planning to buy a commercial version, make sure that you get the model with the volume control.) The headphones should work on the HeadBanger output. One caveat: The 600ohm impedance of the headphones is a bit high. This is no problem, but it might imply less voltage-sensitivity than typical. The HeadBanger max output is 1.7VRMS (4.8VP-P). You might want to set the speaker-output of a stereo to this level and connect the headphones to see if it will be loud enough for you. I don't really anticipate a problem, though.
From Greg Campbell: I just built the headbanger but am having problems with it distorting at just about any volume. What do you suggest I try looking at? The volume of the input source is down as well and I still get a sound like the unit is over driving? Why? Your help is appreciated. Thank you. Steve Lafferty replies: Sorry that you are having a problem with it. It's difficult to troubleshoot remotely, but I'll try to help: First, it may sound trite, but you should do a thorough check of the wiring against the schematic. The most effective way is to use a high-lighter to mark the lines on the schematic as you trace them on the unit. There has been some confusion on the grounding. Please see the "Headbanger Grounding" article below and the attached pic. The distortion could be caused by oscillation. The best way to check for oscillation is with an oscilloscope. With audio applied, see if there is a high frequency (perhaps 1MHz or so) signal riding on the audio waveform. If you don't have access to an oscilloscope, just make sure that your ground wiring complies with the grounding described in the original article and the article below.
Is the problem happening on both channels? If so, there may be a common cause... If you have a multimeter, you can do some voltage checks: - Make sure the 9V supply is approximately 9V. - Check the voltage at pin-5 of each LM386. It should be about half the power supply voltage (4.5V). - Are C3 and C4 0.1uF caps? If they were say, 10uF, it might cause distortion. I hope that this helps, Greg. If not, take heart: Lots of these have been built. There's probably just one little thing wrong in there and it will sound great when you find it.
From Fred Harmon: Do you have any suggestions for converting the Headbanger to work off a vehicle's 12 volt electrical system? Seems like I would need to both regulate and filter (ripple) the power source. Can you offer any advice? Steve Lafferty replies: First, instead of using the HeadBanger, you may wish to consider the in-ear phones discussed in the "Earplugs" blurb. I will answer your question, though: If you plan to use the HeadBanger alone, as well as on the cycle, you could just apply the vehicle power directly to the AC adapter jack of the standard design. The 14V power is close-enough to the 14.7V it expects there. The NiCd battery regulates the voltage. But I assume that you want to mount it, or otherwise don't need the NiCd battery. In that case, you could use an LM386N-4 chip instead of the LM386N. The Dash-4 part operates up to 18V and can withstand 22V. Eliminate the NiCd and change R6 to 100-ohms. With the 470uF bypass cap, this will provide 80dB of power supply rejection at 100Hz, including the 50dB provided by the chip.
From Fred Harmon: I built the unit this weekend and tested it (without a battery) directly connected to the bike's electrical system through the 330 ohm resistor. I measured the voltage at the chip and it was about 10.9 volts. I think I can probably just increase the size of the resistor to say 400 or 450 ohms and that should knock it down enough that it will always be in the safe zone. Steve Lafferty replies: Actually, the (low voltage version) chip operates okay up to 12V and can withstand 15V, so this
voltage is safe. I am concerned, however, that the voltage may drop too low on continuous loud passages. Quiet current drain is about 10mA, but typical is 25mA. At the typical level, with a 14.2V electrical system, the 330-ohm resistor (R6) would leave only about 6V at the chip. This is just when it needs the most voltage for the large signals. You might not notice much of a problem, because the 470uF bypass cap can supply current for short intervals. (But hey, we're talking about High Fidelity here :-) Anyway, I would recommend changing R6 to 200-ohms. The max voltage at the chip will be about 12V. To make sure that it will operate to spec, you could add a 9.1V zener diode (Radio Shack 276-562) across C10 (but I doubt that it's needed).
From Fred Harmon: Interestingly enough I did not seem to pick up any engine noise or alternator ripple. I had planned on putting a choke on the power lead from the bike to get rid of any ripple, but it appears I will not need to. Steve Lafferty replies: R6/C10 and the chip give plenty of power supply rejection.
From Fred Harmon: While building the unit I found an error on our schematic. The .1 uF cap that attaches to R5 is incorrectly labeled as C3. I believe it should be labeled C8. Steve Lafferty replies: That's right. Thank you for the correction. We will update the schematic.
From Fred Harmon: Thanks again for your help. This little amp really works well! I may build another for a friend. Steve Lafferty replies: And thanks for the kind words.
Author's note: When connecting HeadBanger (or anything) to a vehicle electrical system, you should make sure it is properly fused. A 1-amp fuse would be adequate for the HeadBanger. Failure to do so could disable the
vehicle or cause exciting things to happen. If you tap-off after an existing fuse, make sure that it isn't for something important like lights or engine. When I was a teen, I made a connection to my dad's car, taking it from the battery-side of the fuse box and running it to the back seat. While I was getting something, the loose wires shorted. When I came back, I could see an orange glow inside the car. To my horror, the entire wire, running from front to back was glowing redhot! The melting insulation had filled the car with smoke! Fortunately, my dad was a very understanding parent... :-)
Comments
from Chris Carfagno (ccarfagno@hotmail.com) I built the headphone booster and it works great! I had tried the Boost-er-ooo and was not happy with the results. This little project took me about 3.5 hours to build. I built it exactly per the plans (nice job Steve!) and it worked right the first time, with no problems. It has lots of output, more that the headphones (and my ears) can take. At about 3/4 output the sound is deafening! I would recommend this project to any MD user who wants more oooomph out of their headphones. Also, I use one of those cassette adaptors in the car, and during quiet passages, because of the crappy factory radio that I have, I used to be able to hear lots of background noise coming from the cassette amp. Not any more, this really helps in the car too. It sounds great. I set the MD player to about 3/4 volume (I find that on any portable electronics that I have that full volume settings tend to roll-off the bass response and color the midrange some) and adjust the volume control on the booster to the desired loudness. It adds no additional noise and is a pleasure to use. Once again, thanks to Steve Lafferty for designing this little wonder, especially his efforts in component layout, which saved me lots of time during construction.
from "David J. Richard" (wx929@freenet.victoria.bc.ca) A friend and I built one (well, he did the actual construction after the test phase). We've found it to be exceedingly good. It puts out almost zero noise and doesn't distort the signal at all (to any degree that we can currently detect). I recommend it to anybody out there that has a pair of good headphones (i.e. not the crappy ones that generally come with players) but doesn't want to spend the money on a commercial headphone amp.
from "Chu Moy" (cmoy@ricochet.net) I just built the Lafferty headphone amplifier but with some modifications. I wrote to SL who suggested that these modifications be included in the user comments section of the headbanger instructions. Although there are several LM386-based headphone amp designs available, the Lafferty amp design was the most thoughtful that I had seen. The other designs seem to focus on low parts count or are just lifted from the National Semiconductor application notes. Here are my modifications: 1. Upgrade the resistors to metal film type. The tolerance and noise characteristics of metal film resistors are superior to carbon types. The cost of this upgrade is minimal. Radio Shack sells metal film resistors on special order. They also sell a variety pack of metal films, but these may not have the values required for the project. 2. Upgrade the capacitors. I upgraded all of the electrolytic capacitors to low leakage, low impedance types such as the Panasonic Z series, which is available from Digi-key Electronics. I also upgraded the other capacitors to metal film or polypropylene types, which are also available from Digi-key. Radio Shack sells some metal film types. The cost of this upgrade is nominal since the better parts cost about the same as their RS counterparts and there are only a few capacitors to upgrade. The upgrade applies to all capacitors except C9, for which I used a ceramic type. In general, ceramics have excellent bypass characteristics. C9 is not in the path of the audio signal but is being used as a bypass. 3. Change the power supply for AC/battery operation. I wanted to use the amp from AC, but I also wanted the longevity of alkaline batteries. This modification requires removing the rechargeable battery and the charging resistor and adding two silicon diodes to prevent backflow. One diode comes from the positive terminal of the battery and one from the positive terminal of the DC supply as follows: DC supply - - - >| - - |- - - - to C10 9V battery - - - >| - - Of course rechargeable batteries can still be used, but they must be recharged with an external charger. The advantage, though, is that any type of rechargeable can be used. This upgrade costs less than a dollar using Radio Shack silicon diodes such as the 1N4001. 4. Add a regulated power supply. A regulated supply reduces hum, which is important to headphone use. Some people say that regulated supplies improve sound - eg, the bass response of the amp is more solid. Regulated supplies used to be expensive and bulky. However, Radio Shack now sells AC wall adapters with a regulated output. I used a 6V model (part no. 273-1664). The 6V supply is lower than that provided by the battery or the original AC adapter, but the LM386 chip runs on as little as 4V. The modification is bit more expensive than the other mods. The new adapter costs about $10 more than the original. However, I think the results are worth it. 5. I added a low current LED power indicator. The low currrent LEDs are also available from Radio Shack. The rated current is 2 mA, but I used a 1K resistor to bias it at slightly less than 1 mA. It is not as bright as 2 mA, but you can still see it. 6. Finally I changed to case to one the new PAC-TEC cases that Radio Shack now sells. It has a compartment for a 9V battery and is about 2.5" x 4.5". Unfortunately, the volume control no longer fits (at least I didn't want to try squeezing it in there). Instead, I used an external headphone volume control
which has a mini-plug and jack. Radio Shack sells it (part no. 42-4259).
from "CAPT EMF" (captemf@aol.com) The headbanger works great! Amazingly quiet and distortion-free. Tapped an aux send from my Mackie board, (mono), put a stereo-to-mono adaptor on the feed to the headbanger, then out to the headphones. Presto! Drummer gets custom mix, albeit in mono, but the gain is incredible. He sets the headbanger at barely half volume with nominal feed from the board, and the unit smokes! Gonna build one for myself and lose the floor monitors. The only thing I did different was use the next size up for a case. It was deep enough so I could lay the circuit board in vertically and not worry about the volume control lugs touching the metal cover. The size and weight difference are negligible.
from Allen Wisbey (wwisbey@kscable.com) to Sephen Lafferty Just a quick note to say thanks for the design. My family and I went to a NASCAR race earlier in the summer and we took along a Headbanger (modified) to boost our scanner's output. I converted it to two mono ouputs with separate volume controls. It had just the one mono input. I did some testing and ditched the recharging portion of the circuit also. I also used some tantalum capacitors I got from work, which are much smaller than the electrolytics.
Comments on the NoiseBuster(R) NB-DX

Note: This is in response to questions I have received regarding the NoiseBuster active noise reduction phones mentioned in the HeadBanger article. The NoiseBuster model NB-DX was made by Noise Cancellation Technologies, Inc. The model I used (NB-DX) is many years old, and has been replaced by NB-EX. You can find it at: http://www.nct-active.com/busterex.htm From looking at the webpage, I can see that the new model has many improvements over the one I used. (At $39.95, it's much less expensive too!) It claims higher cancellation, longer battery life and many other features, so please consider that the following comments may be outdated: While the NB-DX does not provide what I would call dramatic noise reduction, it does provide real benefits. Weighting the frequency-dependent reduction subjectively, I would estimate it at 5dB or better. Sound like a
yawn? If it lets you reduce the music level that much, it would reduce the ear-damaging power by a factor of better than 3:1. When operating in noisy environments, it clearly reduces stress on the ear substantially. Moreover, with strong cancellation at low frequencies, the quality of the music is much better. NoiseBuster is a registered trademark of Noise Cancellation Technologies, Inc.
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HeadWize - Project: Revisiting Koss "The Plug" Headphones by Chu Moy
Projects Library
Revisiting Koss "The Plug" Headphones by Chu Moy
[The original modification for the Koss Plugs was a substitution of the cushions only. This revision of the article describes a second modification to mitigate the "tinny" sound quality that manifests itself even after the cushions are replaced. The latest production of The Plugs comes with cylindrical cushions in addition to the conical type. Recent reports indicate that while the cylindrical may be a better fit, the soft foam may still not provide an adequate seal for some ears.] When I purchased Koss' "The Plug" canal-type headphones, I was filled with great expectations. Its cousin, the famous Etymotic Canalphones, retailed for over $300 and were prized by many headphone devotees for their acoustic isolation and clarity of reproduction. Here, for less than $20, the Koss Plugs promised many of the same advantages of the illustrious Etymotic headphones. The Koss packaging loudly proclaimed "isolation to the max," "custom fit," "deep bass" and "sounds great." I could not wait to try them.
http://headwize.com/projects/cmoy4_prj.htm (1 of 13) [1/12/02 11:20:52 PM]
Unfortunately, from the moment I first put them on, the disappointment began building. The Plugs fit so loosely that they fell out of my ears with the slightest tug. I tried reversing the funnel-shaped cushions as the instructions suggested, but then they were uncomfortable, and I could feel the hard plastic acoustic tubes pressing against my ear canals. Nor was the acoustic isolation anything to marvel at. I could hear noises around me as clearly as when I had nothing in my ears. And to top it all off, the sound was tinny and there was no deep bass to speak of. I put them away and did not think about them again, until a posting in the HeadWize forums complaining about the poor design of The Plugs led me to think about how to improve their performance. The poor bass response was at least partially due to the inadequate seal provided by the ear cushions. The original Plugs had only the conical cushions, which were supposed to help "focus" sound directly into the ear. The size of the cushions was too small and the density of the foam too low to be a good match with my ears. The tinniness, though, was most likely a reflection of the irregularities in the treble response of the transducers. The first modification is to create new cushions for The Plugs that have superior sealing characteristics. To smooth out irregularities in the treble response, the second mod adds acoustic damping to the Plug enclosures. Neither of these mods is permanent. If you don't like the sound of a particular mod, you can remove it. Each mod can be installed independently of the other. If the Koss cushions fit your ears, then try mod #2 by itself. Although the mods can be done in any order, I recommend that mod #1 is done first, so that the effects of the second mod can be judged with the new cushions installed. These mods may also work for other canaltype headphones that suffer from similar fit and frequency response characteristics. The cushions will work best on canal-type phones that have an acoustic tube about the same length as The Plugs. With shorter length tubes, the cushions will have trouble maintaining the seal. Modification #1 New Cushions for The Plugs I based the new cushions on foam ear plugs, and cylindrical-shaped plugs generally have a more effective seal than the conical types when the foam expands after insertion. The shape and the material composition of the ear plugs could affect the sound. It is a good idea to test several brands of ear plugs for the best sound quality, as
well as the best individual fit and noise reduction. For example, if The Plugs with ear cushions made from the Flent's turn out to be bass-heavy, another set of ear plugs with a different shape or composition might result in a more balanced frequency response. I have not tried the cotton-wax and silicone putty-type ear plugs. Since these types are moldable, they might serve as replacement cushions by wrapping the material around the transducer tubes. Putty-type plugs may last longer than the foam ear plugs, which will lose their ability to recover their shape after about a week or two of constant wear. However, they usually do not attenuate noise as well as foam ear plugs. Pre-molded ear plugs (the rubbery kind) may require additional preparation (such as drilling or shaping) to work in this application.
Figure 1 For maximum acoustic isolation, it is important to get foam ear plugs that fit snuggly and have a high noise reduction rating. The noise reduction figure is usually prominently displayed on package. I chose Flents ear plugs (figure 1) that reduce ambient noise by 29dB. A Flent's box containing 10 pairs of ear plugs costs about $4.00 and is sold in drugstores. The ear plugs should be long enough to cover the length of the acoustic tube, although they may have to be shortened later during testing. A note to the style conscious: most ear plugs are white or beige. There are colorful alternatives, although flashy foam ear plugs are not easy to find. In addition to colored foam plugs, pre-molded ear plugs that are sold in a variety of colors and shapes. However, non-cylindrical ear plugs may not be physically suitable as ear cushions for the Koss Plugs, and the sound quality, fit and noise reduction of the ear plugs should not take a back seat to style.
My original method for making the holes in the foam ear plugs was to use a large sewing needle to pierce the length of the ear plugs and ream a hole. However, this method was both tedious and messy, and resulted in a rough finish. Some DIYers have reported that an electric hobbyist drill (such as the Dremel) does the job nicely. I don't have a hobbyist drill, and my Fiskar's hand-drill would compress and get stuck in the foam material. Trevor Walton emailed me with the idea of using a hot nail (held with pliers and heated with a torch) to melt a hole in the ear plugs (see the addendum). Mark Calder followed up with an email saying that the hot-nail method worked beautifully. The nail does not need to be red hot. He held the nail with pliers and heated it with a match instead of a torch. I didn't have any nails handy (at least none that were thin enough for this application), so I adapted this idea for use with a soldering iron as a heating element. I call it the "heated needle" method.
Figure 2 First, make a "needle" from a 4-inch length of 22 ga. solid wire. A 20 gauge wire may be preferable as it will create a larger hole, and will not need further enlargement. However, there is also less room for mistakes. Strip off the insulation from about 2 inches and wrap the insulated length around one jaw of a mini needlenose plier. Bend the exposed wire so that it is straight and perpendicular to the pliers (figure 2).
Figure 3 A book cover can serve as a work surface for positioning the ear plug. Center a piece of double sided tape on the book cover, and gently put the ear plug on tape. Apply only enough pressure to anchor the ear plug on the tape - or the plug may become permanently attached to the tape. Choose ear plugs that are as close to perfect cylinders as possible. Squished or mis-shaped plugs may be corrected by tugging and pulling at them.
Figure 4 The goal is to make a single hole for the Plug's acoustic tube that is centered all the way through the ear plug. The same hole is formed twice to ensure that the opening has not closed back up and to correct any mistakes. Make the hole by holding the needle perpendicular on top of the earplug, and centering it. Apply a hot soldering iron to the needle and slowly push the needle through the earplug until the it hits bottom, keeping the needle straight and perpendicular all the way down. The soldering iron must NOT touch the foam. Pull the needle out. Carefully lift the ear plug off the tape, turn it over and put it back on the tape. If the first hole is correctly centered, then repeat the process by inserting the needle through the same hole. If the first hole is not centered correctly, form the second hole to compensate.
Figure 5 With a 22 ga. needle, the hole will still be too small. Enlarge it with a 3/16" drill bit, gently pushing it through the ear plug while twisting it forwards and backwards between your fingers. As a safety precaution, it is a good idea to put the heated needle back into the hole one more time to "cauterize" any loose bits of foam. The hole should be just large enough for the acoustic tube to go through, but not allow the cushion to fall off. Adjusting the New Cushions
Figure 6 When installing the new cushions, the shiny end should face out and be flat with the opening of the acoustic tube, but not extend beyond it. Examine each end of the ear plug - one side is shinier than the other. Stephen Lafferty says that the shinier side inserts into the ear canal more easily. Apply a utility knife to the other side of the ear plug and cut off about 1/8" so that the cushion installs flush with the acoustic tube.
Put on The Plugs one at a time. First, squeeze the cushion all around the acoustic tube to flatten it. Then insert The Plug into the ear canal and hold it there for a few seconds until the foam expands. Test the new ear cushions by listening to a variety of music. Be prepared for the near lack of ambient noise and the "dead quiet" background of these headphones. If The Plugs sound muffled, it may be because the expanded foam is partially covering the transducer tube inside the ears. First, try pushing the cushions back until the transducer tubes protrude slightly. If the sound is still muffled, bevel cushions by trimming a small amount of foam off the top along the outer perimeter of the cushions. If the sound is still wanting, then trim back the length of the cushions by a millimeter or so. Do not to trim too much. Modification #2 Adding Acoustic Damping to The Plugs The Koss Plugs with and without the new cushions have been the subject of some discussion in the HeadWize forums. One frequently raised complaint about the sound quality was a peak in the lower treble that made listening to The Plugs for long periods very fatiguing. I wondered if I could change that as well. My first thought was to replace the original Koss Plug transducers with better sounding ones (as suggested by "Strap" in the forums). Unfortunately, the transducers have to be 13mm or they will not fit the Plug enclosure. Strap used transducers from Sony E837 earbuds, which at 13.5mm are too large. He somehow managed to cram them in. In general, earbuds with 13mm transducers are not common except in the budget models. The only ones I could find were in the EarHugger A1000; the A1000 sounded terrible. Even if I could find earbuds with 13mm transducers, I did not want to spend too much money on replacement transducers. Since I would not be able to substitute transducers, I thought about altering the frequency response of The Plugs themselves. One common cause of frequency response irregularities in headphones is underdamped transducers and/or a resonant enclosure. Several mods had been posted in the forum to address this issue. For example, Bob Horn suggested adding mass to the enclosure by drilling a hole in a penny coin and putting the coin on the acoustic tube before installing the cushions. Since The Plugs have a vented enclosure, I could dampen the transducer's response by acoustically loading the vent holes with some earbud cushion foam. This method has the advantage
of not increasing the weight of the Koss Plugs and dampens both the Plug housing and transducer.
figure 8 The acoustic foam for my mod came from the EarHugger A1000 cushions. Other foam cushions should work equally well. Select a thin cushion material - it is not necessary or advisable to spend money on thick, "high quality" cushions. To disassemble a Koss Plug enclosure, gently slide the edge of a pocket knife along the enclosure's blue/yellow seam line where the front and back parts meet until it "slips" in. Then rock the knife edge slightly to open the enclosure. Be careful not to damage the transducers!
figure 9 Cut a 3/8-inch foam square from an A1000 or other earbud cushion. Insert the foam square behind the transducer over the enclosure's vent holes. Reassemble The Plug enclosure by snapping the front and back parts together. Leave the other Plug enclosure unmodified for now and audition The Plug headphones with a music source. The size of the foam square will affect the degree of damping. It will smooth out the upper frequency response, but it will also augment the bass response. If the foam square is too large, The Plugs will sound muffled. If necessary, reduce the size of the foam square
to achieve the best balance between the bass response and treble damping. Once the sound of the modified Plug is optimized, apply the same mod to the other Plug enclosure.
figure 10 Even when optimized, the bass response of The Plugs will be very strong and will have a slightly loose or "tubby" character. If you like the sound of The Plugs at this point, then you need not go further. The next step of this mod is to restore some balance and control to the bass frequencies and is based on a mod for the Sony MDR-EX70 headphones described by "Neruda" in the forums. Cut a strip of the foam 1/8-inch wide by 1-inch long. Cover the opening of the acoustic tube with it and secure the foam against the acoustic tube with a piece of adhesive tape. Do not use too much tape or it will be difficult to re-install the cushions. Add this modification to the other Koss Plug and audition the headphones. If the treble is too muted, try pulling the foam tighter over the acoustic tube or reduce the width of the foam strip so that a small bit of the acoustic tube's opening is exposed. The Results
The final assessment: quite listenable! These mods together demonstrate the great potential of the Koss Plugs. I don't claim that the modded Plugs will trounce the Etymotic canalphones, but they do a very credible job. I imagine that they are an unbeatable value for travel headphones and for listening in any environment where acoustic isolation is important. Because of cord noise (a problem with all canal-type headphones), I do not recommend The Plugs for jogging or other activity which causes the cord to thrash about, unless it can be immobilized (such as by pinning it to clothing). The modded Plugs are slightly less efficient than the stock version, and seem to be missing the highest octave of treble and transparency. Nevertheless, I think that the modded Koss Plugs will please very much - especially when compared to the originals. Where The Plugs before were loose-fitting, they are now molded to the ear canals for a true custom fit. Where The Plugs before had poor acoustic isolation, external noise is now substantially attenuated. Where The Plugs before had a bright fatiguing sound with no low end, they now sound balanced with a clear and strong bass response. And despite the slight drop in efficiency, they still run plenty loud from portables. I particularly recommend these mods for current Plug owners. Anyone who is dissatified with the sound of The Plugs should try these modifications. Since the investment in materials and effort is so minimal, modding the Koss Plugs is like getting a new pair of quality headphones for the price of a bus ride. Addendum 12/13/99: Added figure 4 and section on adjusting the new ear cushions. 12/15/99: From Sebast on the MiniDiscussion board: My improved plugs work much better!!! You can also try to cut off about 2 mm of the yellow acoustic tube if you have shallow ear tunnel like I do... 12/20/99: From John B on the MiniDiscussion board: Top idea. Just modified my "plug", and it is way better. Better fit, stronger bass and better isolation. 1/7/00: From Jerry Johnson: I couldn't wait to try your suggested mod for the The Plug headphones. I had sought out these phones for 2 months, looking for a headphone that would sound good and not "sound leak" while listening in bed late at night - don't want to disturb the wife. I thought the Plugs would be the answer but out of the box they were clearly lacking due to the poor fit of the pads. Now, with your suggested mod, they are finally listenable.... Thanks for the tip! 1/14/00: JKaiser in the HeadWize DIY forum recommends using a round toothpick to make the hole in the ear plugs and then use a drill bit (not a drill) to enlarge the hole.
Complete instructions are in his forum posting. 5/1/00: JonR in the HeadWize DIY forum suggested this idea for making the ear plug holes: Although reversing the Koss foam pieces worked well for my ears, I still wanted to make custom plugs, so I followed these instructions. But with the brand I use (my favorite for sleeping and on the bus) the hole wouldn't stay open. So I inserted a piece of electrical wire insulation and now there is a rigid "hole" and it stays open; the Koss tube is an exact fit inside the insulation. 7/7/00: Trevor Walton writes: Ran across your page today, didn't realize there was a page describing that mod. Doing that was the first thing that occurred to me after buying them, not surprised the same idea has occurred to others... Anyway, to get to the point, have you tried using a red hot nail heated with a torch to simply melt a hole in the plug? That's how I did mine and it works quite well - smooth, clean hole. It is nearly effortlessly. Just gotta be careful not to burn yourself... 10/9/00: Leon Werenka had these suggestions for punching holes in the ear plugs: - a leather hole punching tool - it typically looks like a handheld paper hole punch that has a wheel with 4 or 6 various hole sizes that can be rotated and punched. - hardware stores sell the two pieces needed for putting snaps in clothing (like the front snap on blue jeans). Before they are compressed with a tool, one piece looks like a little funnel with a tiny hole. The edge is actually needed to punch through the cloth in the installation process. One of these could be purchased for a few cents and easily be pushed through the ear plug against a hard surface. 5/24/01: Mark Calder suggests that DIYers who have constructed the Koss Plug replacement cushions with a drill bit may want to "cauterize" the interior wall of the hole to prevent any foam bits from coming loose and lodging in the ear canal. Since the acoustic tube of the Plug presses against the interior wall of the cushions, I don't think it is easy for foam bits to come loose, but cauterizing the hole is a good safety precaution. The cauterization can be done with a hot nail (see Trevor Walton's suggestion) or with the simple heated needle method described above. 5/27/01: Major revision of article. Added description of heated needle method for making holes in the ear plugs. Also, added section on damping the Koss Plug transducers (modification #2). 5/27/01: "Duncan" in the forums reports on the latest mod (which was posted in the forums prior to this article update):
I've just done this mod (not as yet done the first one) and you are right, it does seem to equalise the sound. Admittedly I wasn't very scientific about it (ripped an earpad in half and placed it underneath the wire by the vent) but what you get out, as you say is quite listenable... not fatiguing (imo) at all anymore. 8/7/01: Richard Petrilla made replacement cushions for the Koss Plugs from Smith & Wesson "Quick-Fit" ear plugs, which cost about $5.00 per set at Walmart. He writes: The plastic cord between the two sides easily slides off and this leaves a guide for you to bore a hole. You can use a drill, but I would suggest using a hot piece of straight coat hanger. My holes ended being very straight with this method. There is very little melted plastic mess if you do it quickly. I also cut the base just a tad to get the plug at its fatest part. My plugs have a removable acoustic tube and no mute button. It took me a while at first but now I could do a pair of replacement cushions in five minutes. The cushions are installed on the acoustic tubes up through the middle. Now for the sound. I like the isolation that the plugs provide. I used mine a few times on the plane and it blocks out a good portion of the outside noise. As typical with other in-ear plugs, the sound can change quite a bit by the way they are worn. If you leave them out a bit, they sound lean. If you push them in farther, they get bass heavy. I did eventually find a good balance and they sound respectable for the $20 that they ended up costing me. I find these to be more comfortable than the foam cushion pads but others may not.
8/7/01: Forum member Mail4U tried the mods on the new version of the Koss Plugs (removable acoustic tube, no mute switch) with these comments: "I did the complete cmoy mod - this needs to be done or it sounds very tinny. With the cmoy modification the treble smooths right out, though accurate bass is still a problem with the foam ear plugs. The midrange and treble to me are very liquid and non-fatiguing with the mod. I replaced the foam mod with the Etymotic ER20 ear pieces ($10 + $5 shipping). Bass much clearer and isolation is excellent. Generally very smooth non-fatiguing sound. For
total $30 cost can't be beat. Think it gives a lot of the under $100 phones a run for the money - the cheapskates Etymotic ER4P!"
c. 1999, 2000, 2001 Chu Moy. Questions or comments? Visit the HeadWize Discussion Forums.
Chu Moy, 2001
HeadWize - A Resource Site for Headphones and Headphone Listening.
A Headphone Resource Site
New users: the FAQs page has a description of this site.
1/11/2002: Project Update - New Lights for the Light Boy Advance. Level Six, the company that sold me the first Light Boy clones used in this project, has now switched to a different brand called "MW". Unfortunately, the magnifier on the MW clone is foggy and distorting. Do NOT use it. I contacted Level Six several days ago about getting the MW clones replaced with the product they originally sold me. So far, I have not heard back from them. I will post more information when available. 1/10/2001: Stefan AudioArt's Equinox cable for the Sennheiser HD590 is constructed from 3-conductor cable consisting of ultra high purity copper with individual strain isolation enclosed with a Teflon/Oxygen dielectric. The 2.5-mm and 3.5-mm connectors have heavy-duty black handles with gold contacts. The connectors are applied to the cable with Stefan AudioArt's exclusive UltraSolder and UltraSeal process. The Equinox cable is currently being offered in 9-ft lengths for $109 US. A version of the Equinox cable and the Vision 1 cable will soon be available for the Sennheiser HD600 and HD580 headphones. 1/9/2001: The FreeSystems-Grado wireless digital headphone (first announced at the CES 2001) is almost ready to ship. The system is essentially a Grado RA-1 amplifier paired with a FreeSystems' digital infrared transmission technology. It comes with a Grado headphone custom-designed for this application. The system is a limited edition of only 500 pieces and will be available in Feb. 2002. The retail price is $3,800 US. 1/9/2001: At the CES, QSound has been demonstrating QImmersion, a 3D virutalizer technology for PC gaming that combines headphones and speakers. By enhancing localized 3D effects heard through headphones with a sound field from regular stereo speakers, QImmersion presents a layered audio effect that puts the player into the heart of the action.
http://headwize.com/index.htm (1 of 8) [1/12/02 11:24:03 PM]
Also new from QSound is the latest version of its sound effects plugin for RealNetworks RealOne Player: iQfx3. It features a new user interface, six environmental settings (Hall, Theatre, Stadium, Jazz Club, Large Room, Basement/Garage) and the ability to convert a mono or stereo signal to 3D sound. iQfx3 retails for $19.99.
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1/9/2002: Zi Services, the telecom engineering division of Zi Corporation, is showing a wide variety of practical-to-use, wearable and fashionable Bluetooth headset designs for OEMs at the CES. In addition to their stylish look, Zi Bluetooth headsets provide users with convenient hands-free functionality for their Bluetooth-enabled mobile phones and allow voice and data communications with associated Bluetooth embedded devices. In terms of personalization, Zi headsets ultimately enable a wide range of intelligent controls over various applications. 1/8/2002: ISEM's QuarQ is bi-directional digital converter with a dedicated headphone amplifier and infrared remote control. The conversions are handled by a 24-bit Crystal ADC and DAC operating at rates up to 96kHz and 256 times oversampling. The QuarQ has 5 inputs (2 analog, 3 digital - coax and toslink) and 4 outputs (2 analog, 2 digital). The headphone amplifier is discrete class A and can output up to 40mW into 600 ohms. The remote control provides volume and mute functions. The QuarQ retails for 1500 euros. For more information, contact ISEM. 1/8/2002: Cary Audio's SLP2002 is a tube preamp with a dedicated headphone amplifier, motorized remote control and balanced I/O. Each channel has a 6922 gain stage and a 5814 output buffer stage. The headphone amplifier is a 5814 buffer connected to an audio output transformer. The remote control operates an ALPS 4-gang motorized potentiometer. The SLP2002 retails for $3000 US. 12/22/2001: Project Update - Designing A Pocket Equalizer For Headphone Listening by Chu Moy. 12/17/2001: Project Update - A Single-Ended OTL Amplifier for Dynamic Headphones by Aren van Waarde. 12/13/2001: The Sennheiser HD280 Pro is a closed-back headphone for pro audio monitoring applications. Designed to deliver exceptional isolation from ambient noise with precise and linear sound reproduction at high SPLs, the HD280 Pro combines high fidelity with practical design and maximum comfort. The formfitting, circumaural ear cushions remain comfortable for long periods of listening and can be rotated for flat mobility and space-
saving transport. All HD280 parts are user-replaceable. The MSRP is $199.
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12/13/2001: Amphony's model H1000 wireless headphones use 2.4GHz digital transmission without compression for full CD quality sound (3Mbps data rate, 64x oversampling). The transmitter's range is 200 ft (line of sight) or 50 ft through walls. The system employs an error correction algorithm for superior reception and has a high-speed data port for connecting "Range Booster" modules. The headphone receiver operates on two AA batteries that can operate for up to 100 hours. The MSRP is $129 US. 12/10/2001: Forums are down for maintenance. They should be up again in a few hours. 12/10/2001: Cyberlink's PowerDVD 4.0 adds new decoding, surround and customization features, including DTS Digital Surround, Dolby ProLogic II, SRS TruSurround XT, skins, and adjustable color cast controls. It supports DVD-V, MP3, CD, VCD, SVCD Multi-channel. PowerDVD 4 comes in two retail versions. The Deluxe edition costs $70 ($75 in a retail box) and has all of the new features. The Standard edition costs $50 ($55 in a retail box) and has all of the Deluxe features except for DTS Digital Surround and SRS TruSurround XT. The Standard edition can be upgraded to the Deluxe edition for $40. PowerDVD 4 requires Windows 95 or greater and a DVD drive. The minimum CPU is a 300 MHz Pentium or at least 400 MHz for Dolby Headphone, DTS or SRS TruSurround processing. 12/8/2001: The 2001 model of the Rega Ear Headphone Amplifier gets a new extruded aluminium case (in black and silver) and new styling giving to match other components in the Rega line. Otherwise, it has specs similar to its predecessor: input impedance 24K ohms, gain 21.7dB, max. output power 525mW @ 32 ohms or 55mW @ 600 ohms. The power supply is 24VAC @ 240mA. The recommended minimum load is 32 ohms. Pricing is about 99 UKP or $225 US. 12/7/2001: Yamamoto's HA-01 headphone amplifier uses two 3S4 or 1S4 tubes connected in a single-ended, non-feedback mode. It is transformer-coupled with an output impedance of 50 ohms. The power supply is regulated. It can drive 30-200 ohm headphones. The maximum output power is 180mW. The HA-01 retails for 68,000 Yen. 12/7/2001: The SAEC HP-2000 headphone amp uses SRS Labs audio enhancement technology: SRS WOW 3D and TruBass processing. The amp can output 20mW into 40 ohms with 0.15% THD. It has two headphone jacks, and there are switches on the
front panel are for enabling WOW and TruBass. The rear panel has line-level input and output jacks. The retail price is 110,000 Yen or about $885 US.
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12/7/2001: The HPA-6B headphone amplifier from IAG features two 6BM8 tubes in a single-ended configuration. The Sowter SE output transformers will interface with headphones from 37.5 ohms to 600 ohms. On the front panel are a 2-selector input switch, a volume control and a standard 1/4" headphone jack. The power transformer is mounted externally on a box attached to the rear of the enclosure. The unit will be available in January 2002 and will be priced in the $500 - $600 US range. For more information, please contact Horace Atkinson. 12/7/2001: Sony's MDR-DS8000 wireless surround headphone is the successor to the DS5100. The onboard virtualizer can create up to 6.1 virtual channels in headphones AND has a Gyrotrac headtracking system which maintains the positioning of the original acoustic image for greater realism when the listener moves their head. The DS8000 uses digital infrared transmission (the DS5100 transmitted an analog signal) with a 10-meter range and has builtin Dolby Digital and DTS-ES decoders. The companion MDRIF8000 headphones are open-back type and run on two NiMH rechargable batteries that last up to 7 hours per charge. Pricing is around $600 US. The DS8000 is available now in Japan. 12/1/2001: AcidHardware.com has published a survey of five headphones: AKG K501, Beyerdynamic DT931, Grado SR-325, Sennheiser HD600 and the Ultrasone HFI-2000. There are also mini-reviews of the Antique Sound Labs MG-Head headphone amplifier, the Rega Planet 2000 CD player, and a Ted's Excellent Cable headphone extension cord which comprised the reference system used in the listening tests. The headphone review can be found here. 11/28/2001: Check the forums regularly for pre-CES 2002 product announcements. Many of these will not be listed in the Breaking News section because they are not closely related to headphones or headphoning. 11/27/2001 The Koss EQ-50 portable equalizer is the successor to the EQ-30. It a unity-gain input amp, runs for 15-20 hours on two AAA batteries like the EQ-30 and comes with a 4-foot cord. The new price is also less: $19 US. 11/27/2001 Koss's Cheese Headphones are the perfect gift for dairy-loving headphoners who would like to wear their favorite food. They are actually KSC-19 ear frame headphones, each adorned with spongy yellow wedges. They retail for about $20.
11/24/2001: Project Update - An Acoustic Simulator for Headphone Amplifiers by Chu Moy. 11/23/2001: New Project - The Collected Grado Headphone Mods by "Skippy" et al. 11/19/2001: The BRS (Binaural Room Scanning) Processor from Studer Professional is a headphone virtualizer and monitoring system. Acoustic measurements of a room can be programmed into the processor to simulate the acoustic response of the room in headphones. The BRS Processor can place up to 6 virtual speakers in headphones from 2-channel stereo to 5.1channel surround. A head tracker accessory is available separately and measures the rotational head angle of the listener for highest accuracy in the simulation. The BRS Processor is scheduled for release by the end of 2001. 11/19/2001: AKG's new wireless headphones are notable for their "powerful bass reproduction". The K305 UHF is a UHF wireless system with a transmission range of over 330 ft. The open-back headphones weigh 8.1 oz, have detachable, washable earpads and can operate for up to 10 hours on the internal Nicad batteries. The transmitter, which doubles as a recharger for the headphones, can broadcast to an unlimited number of other AKG UHF series headphones. The two new models in the AFC series are the K305AFC II and the K405AFC II. The AFC series wireless headphones have an autotuning function to tune in the transmission frequency at the push of a button. Both are open-back UHF-wireless headphones that operate off two AAA rechargeable batteries (10 hr. Nicad in the K305 and 20 hr. NiMH in the K405). The K405 II headphones will automatically mute the sound if the signal is too weak. The transmitter base of the K405 II includes a battery charger. Other specs for these phones are similar to the K305 UHF.
11/19/2001: The Etymotic ER-6 is a new low cost entry in the Canalphone line. Slightly smaller than the ER4S, the ER-6 is easier to insert in the ears and has less isolation than the other Canalphone models. Specs: 50 ohms impedance, 102dB/mW sens. It comes with 2 eartips and retails for $134. 11/18/2001: Project Update - The SESS Tube Headphone Amplifier by Andrea Ciuffoli. 11/18/2001: AKG Acoustics updated their Hearo line with the new Hearo 777 Quadra and Quadra Deluxe wireless headphones. These have the same IVA stereo and Prologic
headphone virtualizer circuit as the original Hearo 777. New features include 24/96 DACs, bridged amplifier with quadruple the output and the Lexicon Logic7 chip for decoding Dolby Digital, DTS, Dolby EX7.1 and other formats and simulation of up to 8 virtual speakers (when used with the IVA virtualizer). The Quadra Deluxe is encased in a scratch-proof acrylic plastic. These products are not available in the US yet. The MSRP (based on prices in Germany) is about $250 US for the Quadra and $285 US for the Deluxe.
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11/18/2001: Stefan AudioArt's new Nightpath cable for Sennheiser headphones uses silver-coated high-purity copper wire with a Teflon dielectric, finished in a durable woven black jacket. Nightpath creates a precise sound atmosphere with an expanded soundstage, detailed high frequencies, tight bass and ultra clear midrange. The 2.5-mm and 3.5-mm connectors are heavy-duty black handle with gold contacts. The cables are available for models HD200, HD270, HD490, HD495, HD500, HD570, HD575, HD590, EH2200 and EH2270. Pricing is as follows: 6 ft - $45, 8 ft $49, 10 ft - $55. 11/10/2001: New Project - Measuring the Effective Impedance and Sensitivity of Headphones by Ben H. Tongue. 11/8/2001: Meier Audio is having a sale on Ultrasone headphones: HFI-600 for $95 US and the HFI-2000 for $120 US (regularly $105 and $135). The Ultrasone sale pricing ends on November 14. Meier Audio is also introducing its new portable amplifier, the Porta Corda. It retails for $160 (assembled) or $135 (kit). Until December 7, Meier Audio is offering two sales packages: a Porta Corda (assembled)/Sennheiser HD580 headphone combo for $275 US, including shipping, or the same package with a Porta Corda kit for $245 US. For more details, see this discussion thread or contact Meier Audio. 11/02/2001: Project Update - A Pure Class A Dynamic Headphone Amplifier by Kevin Gilmore. 10/29/2001: November announcements are online!
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Stax SR-4070 closed-type electrostatic headphones Audio-Technica ATH-A100CTi and ATH-W2002 headphones (with matching AT-HA2002 amplifier) Vonia EZ-500 (bone conduction type) headphones Sony Sony MDR-G63LP, MDR-G73LP NW-E8P MDR-RF975RK MDRRF945RK MDR-RF915RK headphones Koss KSC-50 and KSC-55 headphones Aiwa HP-EL101 EarLink and HP-EC101 Shellz headphones Antonio Precise Products SR90, SR20 and SR10 3D headphones HeadRoom BlockHead and revised Max, Maxxed Out Home, Home, Cosmic and Supreme amplifiers Sharp DV-L90TC portable DVD player (with Dolby Headphone virtualizer) Opera Audio Cyber 20 headphone amplifier
Please visit the Announcements and News page for more information.
HeadWize is a non-commercial site specializing in headphones and headphone listening for audiophiles, audio professionals, radio enthusiasts, DIYers - anyone who uses headphones. The HeadWize library contains a large archive of articles, essays, projects and technical papers about headphones. The site also has a FAQs page, a searchable database of commercial and non-commercial links and a very popular discussion forum.
To users of text-only browsers: most of the pages on this site will display correctly in Lynx version 2.8.2 and above. Several pages contain simple tables, as Lynx now has support for tables. A few of the forum features may require that the browser run Javascript, which Lynx currently does not support. However, the basic forum operations (such as viewing topics and posting new topics and replies) do not rely on Javascript. If this is your first time visiting HeadWize, the Headphone FAQs page has a description of the site layout and is a good starting point. Please check the Announcements section for the latest news. The Library receives new materials regularly. HeadWize reference articles, such as the HeadWize Headphone Guides in the Articles library, are updated as new information becomes available. Other articles and papers are updated at the request of the authors. If you have comments or suggestions, please do not hesitate to contact the webmaster!
HeadWize - Announcements
Announcements and News
If you have comments or questions, please visit the HeadWize discussion forums. If you have headphone-related news, please email the webmaster. 11/01/2001: It has been 10 months since the last announcements update, so this update is packed with information. The January announcements covered the 2001 Consumer Electronics Show (see the "Special Reports" page above for CES 2001 coverage). Although I did not finish writing all the CES reports due to numerous circumstances, it seems a bit late to do them in November. Instead, I thought it might be a better idea to take a look at the state of consumer electronics with just 2 months to the CES 2002. HeadWize Peeks into the Consumer Electronics Crystal Ball Back in January 2001, several industry luminaries gave packed-to-the-rafters keynotes, predicting that the future of consumer electronics lay with the evolution of the personal computer. Microsoft's Bill Gates and Intel's Craig Barrett asserted that humble PC would become the communications hub for the home and the gateway to the Internet. With the help of wireless networking, PDAs and other electronic devices would connect as "peripherals" to this PC server that would both store files (such as music files) and route messages between devices. Their visions emphasized the "Wintel duopoly" and held forth the Windows XP operating system and Pentium IV CPU as the primary enabling technologies of that future. As an alternative to this PC-centric view, Panasonic's Don Iwatani evoked a world where the PC disappeared all together, being absorbed into cell phones, clothing, jewelry and other personal accessories and would connect the user 24 hours a day to the net through public wireless networks. The centerpiece technologies in this future were the miniature Secure Digital memory and I/O cards, which would provide expansion and interoperability for portable devices. Panasonic is a founding member of the SD Card Association. Microsoft and Intel are members of the SD Card Association. Is one vision on its way to domination? As we approach 2002, passing through faltering economies and human tragedies, neither future seems on the verge of achieving reality. Intel's Pentium IV CPU sat in warehouses most of this year. Only a few weeks ago, Intel drastically slashed prices on the P4 to make it more attractive in a slow PC market. Already, Intel is looking beyond the P4. In October, Intel gushed about its new "hyperthreading" architecture, which will first appear in its Xeon processors for servers in the middle of 2002. Microsoft's Windows XP is out. While reviewers have praised the rock-solid stability of the new OS and the pleasant Mac OS X-knockoff interface, the heavy hardware requirements, slow PC sales, privacy concerns and the new, costlier licensing model may delay widespread deployment. To nudge reluctant consumers, Microsoft is giving away promotional items with XP that are worth as much as the OS product itself. And in a bizarre twist to its own vision, Microsoft has chosen not to include Bluetooth wireless support in this version of XP.
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Nor have Panasonic's e-wear cybernetic fashions based on SD technology become ubiquitous. Surely part of the reason for that is the price: the SD audio headset and armband player retail for $400 each. New SD products are almost as rare as hen's teeth. The two major backers of SD are Panasonic and Palm Computing, which has standardized on SD expansion ports for its PDAs. Back in July, Panasonic dropped the prices on its SD memory cards and announced a partnership with Palm Computing "to accelerate consumer and enterprise acceptance" of SD technology. Clearly, neither the PC-centric nor the device-centric vision will pass into reality anytime soon. The state of the global economy plays a major role in shaping consumer trends. The Reuters news agency predicted that consumers would "shun" luxury electronic goods for some time to come (09/14/2001). David Leonhardt and Louis Uchitelle in The New York Times said that the U.S. economy had come to a "wrenching halt." Last month, Forrester Research predicted that online sales would grow 10% to $11 billion this holiday season - compared to the 100% growth last holiday season. And paralleling the decline of the U.S. economy are the economies of the rest of the world. Projections of consumer electronic sales in these times of economic contraction must still incorporate the trends that have become evident over the course of the year. In early September, the Consumer Electronics Association found that sales of DVD players have shown gains every month for the past 40 consecutive months. Over 670,000 DVD players were sold in August alone. Very strong sales of digital television products confirmed consumer interest in the video category. General electronics sales have been slipping. Sony's Electronics division reported flat sales for the second quarter and an operating loss of over $200MM. What, then, do all these indicators seem to be saying for end-of-year and early 2002 sales of audio/video consumer electronics? If Leonhardt and Uchitelle are correct, sales of digital televisions, which are high priced items, should fall, but sales of DVD players (not the portable types), which are mostly inexpensive, should be relatively strong. DVD-related hardware and software, such DVD/RW drives and media, are also likely to do well, but sales of new PCs, which have been declining throughout the year, should experience an even more precipitous drop due to market saturation. Sales of PDAs may be better, especially as alternatives to PC purchases or as a companion to an existing PC, in this recessionary holiday season. Palm computing reported a net loss of $32MM for the quarter ended August 31, compared to the same quarter last year, but revenues were up by 30% over the previous quarter. Handspring also reported increased revenues of $61.4MM in October, slightly better than the $61MM in the previous quarter. The big PDA sales are likely to be with color models (with and without music playback features), especially if purchased as an alternative to a PC. Most of the non-entry-level monochrome models have been languishing on dealer shelves. Pocket-PC PDAs (such as Compaq's iPaq and HP's Jornada) have had excellent expansion options and built-in media players from the beginning. Some Palm-based PDAs have multimedia capability; others are catching up. Always-on wireless modem/802.11 networking capability may be the next hit feature in PDAs, although not until 2002. Palm's pending purchase of Be Inc. could be hinting at the transformation of PDAs into always-on Internet appliances. Indeed, wireless capability could be the next hit feature in all types of portable equipment. Both the PCcentric and device-centric visions of the future depend on wireless technology for connectivity to the PC server or to an all-pervasive wireless network. Even without such networks in place, there are more modest ambitions for wireless connectivity such portable audio/video players and PDAs docking with a PC to transfer files and information quickly and easily. And whether the music comes from a PDA or from a dedicated audio player, the most popular audio-ear interface is still the venerable headphone (you were wondering when I would get to headphones, huh?). As a form of low-priced audio gear, headphones are likely to remain a popular holiday gift. Headphones, even very good headphones, are relatively inexpensive. And what more economical and tasteful a gift than to
upgrade a beloved audiophile's old headphones or to replace the cheap, tinny ones that come with most portables. Headphones now come in such an abundance of styles that headphoners will often own many pairs and choose phones to match their mood or clothing. Headphone sales could also ride high with sales of hardware and software DVD players and surround sound decoders that feature headphone virtualizer technologies such as Dolby Headphone. Products incorporating Dolby Headphone and other virtualizers have been slow to come to market. DH has been available in software DVD players since 2000. DH exists in a few hardware devices (portable DVD and MD players and a surround amplifier). Such players began appearing this summer, and the pricing remains high and distribution of these devices limited (mostly in Japan). Rumors are that a slew of Dolby Headphone and other virtualizer-based products should appear at the beginning of 2002. If the performance of these virtualizers lives up to expectation, consumers may purchase quality headphones in order to get the best listening experience. However, there may be a great deal of consumer confusion about virtualizers. The technologies are new and the performance varies. There are products labeled as virtualizers that do nothing more than add echo or reverb to the audio signal, and mediocre performance at this stage could taint the entire product category. Assuming that these marketing and technical issues are resolved, the long-term future looks rosey indeed for the headphone market. Virtualizers promise to eliminate the main objection many consumers have to listening with headphones: a flat, claustrophobic sonic perspective that is objectionable with music and very much objectionable with surround movies, which demand to be heard in 3D. Headphone manufacturers are already creating products optimized to work with virtualized audio, such as Grado Labs' new Cinema headphones. HEADPHONE PRODUCT ANNOUNCEMENTS
Philips Electronics's new SBC-HP820, SBC-HP840 and SBC-HP890 headphones feature neodymium transducers for strong bass and crisp details, ergonomically-shaped ear cushions and self-adjusting headbands. The HP820 has 40mm transducers. Its specs are: 104dB/mW sensitivity, 32 ohms impedance. The flagship model SBC HP890 has 50mm XXL transducers, a metal grill, replaceable cord and velvet ear cushions. The HP890's specs are: 106dB/mW sensitivity, 110mW power handling, 32 ohms impedance. The HP890 retails for about $60 US.
Aiwa has introduced a series of stylish, low-cost, clip-on and lightweight headphones. The Aiwa HP-
EC1 comes in 4 colors and have an elliptical shape to match the ear. The the black, blue, and pink versions have a holographic design. The white EC1 has a pearl-like finish. All feature 30mm transducers, a 50cm cord and a 70mm extension cord. Specs: 102dB/mW sensitivity, 100mW max. power handling, 32 ohms impedance. The EC-1 sells for about $35 US.
The EC-101 Shellz clip-on phones are available in black, pearl white, blue and pink and have 30mm drivers. The EL-101 Ear-Link model are actually earbud headphones (15mm drivers) held in an ear frame that completely surrounds the ear. They come in royal blue/silver or orange/silver and in three different ear frame sizes to fit different size ears. They retail for $25 and $30 US respectively.
The HP-JS35 ($25 US) is a new water-resistant model in Aiwa's Swoops line. It has a black band and silver earpieces with red accents and a headphone cord with inline volume control. The HPVJ201 ($20 US) is an in-ear version of the Swoops design in metallic gray. Swoops phones were originally vertically-mounted earbuds on a neckband frame. The in-ear version places the earbuds flush in the ears. It has 13.5mm drivers with Acoustic Plus and Pipe-Phone technology to improve the bass response. Colors: metallic black and red. The HP-AJ101 ($20 US) is an open-back neckband headphone. It has 28mm transducers and comes in metallic blue and pearl white.
Sennheiser introduced four new headphones at the IFA 2001 in Berlin: HD477, HD497, PX30 and PX40. With impedances of 32 ohms and sensitivity ratings of 109dB/mW and 112dB/mW respectively, the open-back, circumaural HD477 and HD497 are designed for hi-fi and portable audio systems. They have been optimized for the best dynamic range and wearing comfort in the 400 series as well as the resolution of detail and spatial information. The HD477 and HD497 have userreplaceable parts and a two-year warranty. The HD477 and HD497 retail for about $40 and $60 respectively. The specifications of the new PX Series lightweight-headphones are matched to the headphone
outputs of portable players. Their sound quality is "optimised for pop and rock music." These headphones have a "bass tube" for a rich bass response. The PX40 adds an inline volume control. General specifications: 32 ohms at 115dB/mW sensitivity.
Audio Technica has added two models to its "Art" series headphones to commemorate its 40th anniversary. The ATH-A100CTi is a limited edition closed headphone (2000 units). The enclosure is based on the ATH-A10ANV headphones, except that the earcups are made of titanium in a bright blue finish and the transducers are from the ATH-W2002. The self-adjusting headband uses the new "wing" support pads. The earcups feature Audio-Technica's "Total Ear Fitting" design that accommodates the entire ear for best fit and acoustic coupling. Specs: 53mm transducers, 100dB/mW sens., 38 ohms impedance, 2000mW max. power handling. The ATH-A100CTi retails for 33,000 Yen ($272 US). The ATH-W2002 has lacquered cherry wood earcups and features AT's Double Air Dampening System for extended bass response. Audio-Technica is marketing these as the ideal headphone for listening to SACDs. The headband is self-adjusting with the new "wing" support pads. The Total Ear Fitting earcups surround the entire ear for best fit and acoustic coupling. Specs: 53mm transducers, 102dB/mW sens., 40 ohms impedance, 2000mW max. power handling. The ATH-W2002 retails for 100,000 Yen ($825 US). To drive the ATH-W2002 headphones, Audio-Technica has created the companion AT-HA2002 headphone amplifier. The circuitry is class A with MOSFET output transistors and can provide up to 1.2W per channel. The lacquered cherry wood front-panel sports gold-plated brass hardware and two headphone jacks. The back panel has AC- and DC-coupled audio inputs. The headphone outputs will drive loads from 16 ohms to 600 ohms. Other specs: 0.006% THD, 117dB S/N, 1.1V/50K ohms sens., 62dB channel separation. It measures 180mm(H) 360mm (W) 350mm (D) and retails for 140,000 Yen ($1200 US).
The ATH-A55 is a closed headphone with 53mm transducers for extended bass response. The dampened housing reduces interior resonances for the clearest sound. Specs: 60 ohms impedance, 102dB/mW sens., 1400mW max. power handling. The ATH-A55 retails for 11,000 Yen ($90 US).
The ATH-PRO5 MS is a monitoring headphone (closed) with new camouflage styling. Both earcups are reversible for single-sided monitoring. Specs: 40mm transducers, 40 ohms impedance, 103dB/mW sens. The MSRP for ATH-PRO5 MS is 8000 Yen ($66 US). The ATH-F55 is a stylish, folding headphone with a remote control in the headphone cord for use with portables. Both earcups can be reversed for single-sided monitoring. Specs: 40mm transducers in closed-type earcups, 35 ohms impedance, 108dB/mW sens., 1000mW power handling. Color options: Camouflage (green and blue), Panther, Pearl Blue, Skeleton Black, Zebra Red and Zebra Blue. The ATH-F55 retails for 5500 Yen. Audio-Technica's two new clip-on headphones focus on style and comfort. The ATH-EZ5 "EARZ" clipons have clear-plastic caps that change color when exposed to sunlight. The color-change models are blue, orange and red. ATH-EX5 Specs: 32mm transducers, 104dB/mW sens., 32 ohms impedance, 500mW max. power handling. The ATH-EZ5 sells for 2500 Yen. The ATH-EQ2 is a highcomfort clip-on. The ear clip is hinged so that the wearer can adjust the amount of applied pressure. It comes in blue, metallic and silver. Specs: 19mm transducers, 100dB/mW sens., 16 ohms impedance, 500mW max. power handling. The ATH-EQ2 sells for 1800 Yen.
Dowumi's EZ500P is a lightweight (80 gr.) neckband headphone which uses a bone conduction element in place of a standard acoustic transducer. They are worn so that the bone conduction elements are in contact with the side of the face. Vibrations from the transducers are transmitted through the cranial bones to the auditory nerves. People with hearing loss but undamaged auditory nerves may be able to use these headphones. The headphones are relatively inefficient, and require the EZ-S20 amplifier when used with portable gear. The EZ-S20 weighs 30 gr. and is powered by 2 AA batteries. EZ-500P Specs: 75dB/mW sens. (90dB with amplifier), 70mW max. power handling. EZ-S20 Specs: 50Hz - 20kHz frequency response, 40dB crosstalk.
The DT234 Pro from Beyerdynamic is basically the DT231 (closed type, supra-aural) with a microphone boom. Created for multimedia applications, the DT234 Pro excels in speech applications thanks to it's noise-cancelling cardioid electret microphone. Specs: 32 ohms impedance, 95dB/mW sens., 125dB SPL (microphone). The headphone cord is terminated with a standard 3.5mm stereo
mini-plug but custom connectors are available.
Sony's PSYC Streetstyle have interchangeable headphone caps in different colors to complement the colors of the Sony PSYC portable audio players. The MDR-G63LP is a neckband-type headphone with red and yellow caps. Specs: 30mm transducers, 105dB/mW, 24 ohms impedance. The MDRG63LP sells for about $30 US. The MDR-G73LP is a open-type, clip-on headphone with single-sided cord. Sony calls a spiral neckband style because the curved section of the cord running between the transducers is covered is thicker than the cord itself. Specs: 30mmm transducers, 105dB/mW sens., 24 ohms. The MDRG73LP is available in metallic blue and retails for aobut $40 US. The NW-E8P Network Walkman is a pair of clip-on headphones with integrated audio player. It has 64M of flash memory for up to 120 minutes of recording time (at 66kbps ATRAC encoding). One of the earpieces has a backlit LCD that displays tune and volume information. It will run for up to 7 hours on a single AA battery. Music files must be downloaded from a PC through a USB port. The minimum system requirements are Windows OS (Win98, WinME, Win2000), 233MHz CPU, 64M of RAM. The Network Walkman is Sony's first product to have its Net MD interface, which connects MD players to PCs via a USB port. Although music files transferred to MD discs are, in fact, converted to Sony's Atrac format, Net MD is meant to capitalize on popularity of using MD discs to store MP3 music files. To address copyright issues, Net MD supports the Serial Copy Management System (SCMS).
Sony's 900MHz wireless headphones all feature a 150-foot transmission range, the AFM Transmission System which resists static and distortion, three selectable transmission channels and automatic power on/off for the transmitter and headphones. The headphones all have a selfadjusting headband, volume control and rechargeable batteries. The MDR-RF975RK transmission system adds noise reduction and automatic tuning for best
reception. The headphones are closed-type with 30mm transducers. The MDR-RF945RK has similar features except that the headphones are open-type. The headphones on the MDR-RF915RK are also open-type, but the system does not have noise reduction or automatic tuning. The MSRPs are $199 US, $129 US and $99 US respectively.
The Koss is following the latest trends in portable headphones with their introduction of the model KSC-50 and KSC-55 headphones. The KSC-50 is a open-type clip-on style with a nylon covered cord to eliminate tangling and improve durability. KSC-50 Specs: 60 ohms impedance, 101dB/mW sens. Retail price is $20 US. The KSC-55 is a neckband version of the KSC-50. KSC-55 Specs: 60 ohms impedance, 101dB/mW sens. The KSC-55 retails for $20 US. Koss has adapted its "The Plug" canal-type headphone to communications headsets. The COMPlug is a single Plug earpiece with a microphone. The noise reduction microphone is mounted on a mini boom that can be extended for optimal pickup. COMPlug specs: 16 ohms impedance, 112dB/mW sens. The MSRP for the COMPlug is $20 US. The CS-15 is similar to the COMPlug except that the microphone is concealed inside the earpiece. CS-15 specs: 16 ohms impedance, 112dB/mW sens. The CS-15 sells for $15 US.
The Stax SR-4070 is a closed electrostatic design with an internal air chamber system that absorbs the rear waves from the diaphragm. Specs: 110pF capacitance, 145K ohms impedance (1kHz), 97dB/100Vrms sens., 118dB max. SPL (at 400Hz), 580VDC bias voltage, 480 gr. w/o cord (625 gr. with cord). It retails for 150,000 Yen or about $1250 US. Stax recommends using these amps with the SR-4070: SRM-313, SRM-006t, SRM-717 or SRM-007t.
Panasonic/Technics has created headphones specifically for listening to the high quality audio of SACDs and DVDs. The model RP-FDA100 has 2-way transducers (57mm woofer and 20mm tweeter) with a frequency response extending well into the ultrasonic range (3Hz to 100kHz). The light weight (11.3 oz) and self-adjusting headband make these headphones comfortable to wear for long periods. The 10-foot, user-replaceable headphone cord will automatically detach if it gets caught on furniture or other objects. Specs: 32 ohms impedance, open-type enclosure, 100dB/mW sens., 1000mW max. power handling. It retails for about $350 US.
Panasonic's new clip-on headphone designs are both stylish and functional. The RP-HS100 incorporates the XBS bass system and an auto-rewind headphone cord. (MSRP $34.95 US.) The RPHS77 is water-resistant and comes in silver, blue and red. (MSRP $24.95 US.) The RP-HS79 is similar to the HS77, except it has interchangable color caps (two pairs of red and blue) and is waterresistant. (MSRP $29.95 US.) The RP-HS9 series headphones have ear frames molded in a spiral shape. They are available in green, orange, blue and silver. (MSRP $14.95 US.)
Antonio Precise Products has released three new headphones with built-in 3D sound processors based on WOW technology from SRS Labs. All are powered by two N-size batteries, have volume controls and surround on/off switches. The SR90 has 50mm transducers mounted in earcups with acoustic air vents and cirumaural earpads for "super bass" sound. The SR20 is a folding, supra-aural headphone with 40mm drivers. The SR10 is smaller and lighter than the SR20. No pricing info available yet.
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The Telex ANR 4105 is an enhanced version of the ANR 4100 headset. It adds extra deep ear cushions, lighter weight (18 oz.), improved active noise reduction performance (17dB) and a passive noise reduction of 20dB. The 4105 will operate off a 9-volt battery for around 40 hrs. Pricing starts at $550. It is avaiable in adult and youth models and comes with its own flight bag.
ACCESSORIES PRODUCT ANNOUNCEMENTS

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Stefan AudioArt's Vision 1 replacement cables for Sennheiser Headphones (models HD200, HD270, HD490, HD495, HD500, HD570, HD575, HD590) are braided from high purity copper wire and result in a unique soundstage presentation and improved bass response. The heavy-duty 2.5mm and 3.5mm terminating connectors are gold-plated and are joined to the cable with silver solder. Vision 1 cables come in 6-foot, 8-foot and 10-foot lengths and retail for $69, $69 and $79 respectively. For more information, contact James Serdechny.
Two Sharp consumer products now include Dolby Headphone processing. The Sharp MD-ST880 is the first portable MD player to feature Dolby Headphone virtualization. It measures 2.8" x 0.5" x 3.1", weighs 3.4 oz and will operate for up to 130 hours with the external rechargeable battery pack. Sharp will release the MD-ST880 in Japan on August 8. No pricing info yet.
The DV-L90TC portable DVD player has an 8.7" LCD screen (the largest of any portable to date), an SD (secure digital) card slot for viewing digital photographs stored on SD memory cards, a VHF/UHF television tuner, and Dolby Headphone processing. It has numerous audio/video input/output jacks, two integral 28mm speakers and is available in Japan now for 138,000 Yen (about $1100 US).
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Lake Technology has released a Personal Listening Space Dolby Headphone plugin for the MusicMatch JukeBox, a popular jukebox application that is bundled with over 60 brand name PCs such as Dell, Gateway, Hewlett-Packard and IBM. It retails for $12.95 US. MusicMatch will be announcing the plugin in its next bulletin.
InterVideo has released WinDVD 3.0, a software DVD player with Dolby Headphone virtualization. Other WinDVD 3.0 features include Dolby Digital decoding for 2 to 5.1 channels, S/PDIF digital outputs, time stretching, optional DTS decoding and support for the VR (Video Recording) format for DVD-RW and DVD-RAM media. WinDVD retails for $49 US ($69 with DTS decoding). It can be purchased online from InterVideo. A trial version (limited to 5 minutes of playback per title) is available for download. WinDVD requires Windows 95/98/NT/2000/Me, a DVD drive and a minimum Pentium 350MHz MMX or AMD 450MHz CPU.
The 3-tube Cyber 20 headphone amplifier from Opera Audio can output up to 1W/channel. The entire system weighs about 7kg, with the power supply housed in a separate enclosure. The output impedance of the transformer-coupled output stage is adjustable to drive headphones ranging from 10 ohms to 600 ohms. One 12AU7 and two EL84 make up the tube complement. The Cyber 20 retails for about $300 US.
The Bit88 from 1388 Technology is a tube-based 3D sound enhancer incorporating SRS Labs' WOW and TruBass technologies. The enhancer restores the original dynamics in the audio signal with rich ambience and deep bass. The rear panel includes RCA and miniplug inputs/outputs. There is also a dedicated headphone output with volume control. The tube appears to be a 6JD8/6922 - probably used as an output buffer stage. 1388 Technology is targeting this processor to audio and gaming enthusiasts. Specs: 100K ohms input impedance, 22K ohms min. output loading, 2.2Vp-p max. input, 1.6x gain. The Bit88 retails for $193 Sg (or about $100 US).
HeadRoom has revamped several models in its line of headphone amplifiers. The Supreme, Cosmic, Home, Maxed Out Home and Max amplifiers now have 3-position filter switches and 3position gain switches. All HeadRoom amps have crossfeed filters. The Home, Maxed Out Home and Max amplifiers have a ground lift switch and line outputs. These options are also available: switchable inputs or an input/output loop, stepped attenuator and module upgrades. The Maxed Out Home and Max amplifiers offer dual toroidal transformers and user switchable line voltage. Pricing ranges from $450 to $2065 US. The BlockHead is a new model in the HeadRoom line. It features balanced inputs and outputs, dual power supplies, HeadRoom's "Reference" electronics module with crossfeed filter, a Noble volume control, 3-position filter switch, 3-position gain switch, phase switch and ground lift switch. The BlockHead retails for $3333 US or $3888 US with a stepped attenuator.
Spatializer Labs' Virtual Sound Processor 11 is a software-based 3D sound enhancer for Windows OS computers. It will work with all sound applications that uses the Wave and DirectSound APIs by intercepting the audio stream sent to these APIs or that go through the USB port. The enhancer has settings for headphones and speakers. The Natural Headphone setting provides "a virtual surround sound effect" on stereo source material through headphones. In the current beta version, sound controls are reset every 60 seconds, and the application stops working after 30 days. The VSP can be downloaded here.
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The MusicMatch JukeBox has two new 3D sound processor plug-ins: the Lake Personal Listening Space plugin from Lake Technologies and the QMax plugin from QSound. The PLS plugin is an implementation of the stereo version of the Dolby Headphone virtualizer and retails for $12.95 US. The QMax plugin is based on QSound's "High Definition Audio for the Internet" and can process MP3 files and other downloadable and streamed Internet audio formats. QMax's audio processing can be output to headphones or speakers. It retails for $14.95 US. MusicMatch JukeBox (version 6.1 is the latest) is a full-featured software audio player/recorder that is bundled with various OEM hardware products or can be downloaded from the MusicMatch.com site. MusicMatch JukeBox Basic is free. MusicMatch JukeBox Plus retails for $14.95 US. Plug-ins must be downloaded from within the MusicMatch player.
The RumbleFX 3D Sound Amplifier from Evergreen Technologies uses the WOW 3D sound technology from SRS Labs. It works with headphones and speakers, and has line outputs, a linelevel stereo mini-jack, a headphone mini-jack and a 3W amplified mini-jack. The 3W amplified jack will drive headphones and non-powered speakers. Front panel controls include a WOW dial and a TruBass dial to adjust the focus of the 3D sound and the bass enhancement. The RumbleFX amp retails for $79.99 US.
AM3D's Diesel Power is an interactive 3D audio engine for PC games, which utilizes the Microsoft DirectSound API for audio streaming. It has database of HRTF filters for on-the-fly positioning of sounds from speakers or preferably headphones. For speakers, the engine generates HRTF-based crosstalk cancellation. For headphone listening, there are several preset filters for optimal 3D positional audio. The Diesel Studio is a test application that demonstrates the capabilities of the Diesel Power engine. The minimum platform is Windows 98, Windows ME or Windows 2000 and a 500MHz CPU with MMX. Diesel Studio can be downloaded here.
Tucker-Davis' System 3 is a simple to use, simple to program data acquisition and stimulus presentation environment. The components of the system are: the RP2.1 Real Time Processor, the StingRay Pocket Processor and the RPvdx visual design studio. The RP2.1 and Stingray processors are programmed for data acquisition or spatialized sound generation from the RPvdx studio, a Windows application. Both processors can run programs in real-time. The RP2.1 has a 150 MIP floating point DSP (50 MHz Sharc 21065) and combines the features of complex signal generators, programmable filters, and signal mixers all in one module. It can be programmed to generate any waveform from simple tones and noise to complex stimuli, such as frequency sweeps, amplitude modulation, and ripple noise. The Stingray Pocket Processor is a battery-operated, portable real-time signal processor. Smart data (eg, data that meets certain criteria) can be logged directly to its 16M or 64M of RAM. Like the RP2.1, it can programmed to generate spatialized sounds. It uses a 25 MHz Sharc 26165 DSP and will run on its rechargeable batteries for up to 24 hours. The Stingray's docking station serves as the interface for downloading programs from the PC and for transferring data between it and the PC.
Cyberlink has an official Windows XP upgrade patch for its PowerDVD 3.0. This patch is supposed to upgrade earlier versions of PowerDVD 3.0 to the current retail version. The file is dated August 9, 2001 and the file size is about 4.5M.
The Creative Labs Nomad Jukebox 20G audio player can store over 333 hours of CD quality music in MP3, WMA and WAV formats. The on-board DSP implements fully customizable 3D headphone spatialization effects, advanced EQ, adjustable playback speed, and environmental effects. It retails for $399 US or $649.99 Cdn. Creative Labs' Audigy audio processor is four times more powerful than the EMU10K1 processor in its SoundBlaster Live sound cards. Audigy can generate high-definition audio effects (EAX advanced HD) with next-generation interactive 3D audio for gaming and sophisticated effects for music. For developers, the EAX advanced HD audio library supports Microsoft's Direct Sound API, the OpenAL API, Dolby Digital 5.1 mixing API and EAGLE 3.0 Graphical Librarian Editor. The Audigy processor is available in the new Audigy line of sound cards. In addition to EAX ADVANCED HD effects, the Audigy sound card supports Dolby Digital decoding, CD burning, Time Scaling to slow down or speed up a track while retaining accurate pitch and Audio Clean-Up to
remove hiss and scratches from LP (vinyl discs) and MP3 music. The onboard 24-bit/96kHz DACs have a 100dB S/N ratio. The Audigy sound card line includes the Sound Blaster Audigy Platinum eX, Sound Blaster Audigy Platinum, Sound Blaster Audigy MP3+ and Sound Blaster Audigy X-Gamer. The Home Electronics Show - New York City, May 2001
Two headphone products debuted at T.H.E. Show this year: Grado Cinema headphones and Wheatfield Audio's USB DAC amplifier. The Grado Cinema headphones are meant to complement the anticipated flood of new DVD players with built-in headphone virtualizers such as Dolby Headphone. The new earpads and transducers are designed to image optimally with these sound technologies. Grado has made no official announcement of this product line yet.
The Wheatfield Audio USB DAC amplifier is USB 1.0 compliant, can be powered from the USB port of any computer and is plug-and-play (requires no additional software). It uses a Burr-Brown USB DAC chip, Burr-Brown opamps and a class-A discrete follower that will drive headphones from 32 ohms to 600 ohms. The amp will output 4.9Vrms into a 200 ohm load and measures (W)3.3" x (H)1.1" x (D)4.5". MSRP is estimated at $250 US. Thanks to Skippy in the forums for the pictures! Miscellaneous
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Longtime HeadWizer Jude has started his own headphone forum: head-fi.org. The Head-Fi forums run a version of the vBulletin software (the HeadWize forums run a custom application written by your friendly HeadWize webmaster. :) It's getting lots of new members, so be sure to visit head-fi.
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A freebie: Sennheiser USA is giving away copies of its Ignite Your Dreams poster (aka the "Veronica Poster"). Get one while you can! New Project - New Lights for the LightBoy Advance by Chu Moy. [Note: This project has nothing to do with headphones. However, many HeadWizers own the GameBoy Advanced gaming console. I thought they would be interested to see the project.] New Project - Kumisa III Headphone Amplifier by Benny Jrgensen. New Project - A Pure Class A Dynamic Headphone Amplifier by Kevin Gilmore. Project Update - The Lindesberg Portable Headphone Amplifier With Crossfeed Project Update - A Current-Domain Electrostatic Amplifier for Stax Omega II Headphones by Kevin Gilmore. Project Update - All-Triode Direct-Drive Amps for Electrostatic and Electret Headphones by Kevin Gilmore. Project Update - Revisiting Koss "The Plug" Headphones. New Patent - High Fidelity Insert Headphones by Iseberg et al. (issued March 23, 1999). This is the patent for the Etymotic Canalphones. News Archives Go to the 2000 Announcements Archive Go to the 1999 Announcements Archive Go to the 1998 Announcements Archive
Chu Moy, 2001.
HeadWize Library
A Headphone Resource Site
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HeadWize welcomes contributions for its library. Before submitting to or using this library, please read the legal notice below.
The following legal notice basically says that HeadWize authors keep their copyrights, even after HeadWize publishes their works, and that HeadWize is not responsibile for any damages arising from the use of any information or facilities of this site. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of these terms and conditions: HeadWize is a non-profit site which exists to disseminate information about headphones and headphone listening. HeadWize does not recommend specific brands or models. All images and mention in HeadWize-authored articles of brands and models of equipment are for illustration only and do NOT constitute endorsement. The contents of this site are for informational purposes ONLY. They are offered AS-IS and without warranty. HeadWize accepts no responsibility for any consequential damages arising from their use. Works that were previously published are published here with the express permission of their copyright holders or fall under the Fair Use Doctrine. If you believe that any work appears on this site without appropriate authorization, please notify the webmaster. No work on site may be reproduced without the permission of the copyright holder. Please contact the copyright holder to discuss commercial use of a copyrighted work. HeadWize Forums are NOT monitored regularly for the purposes of censorship,
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HeadWize Library
BUT HeadWize reserves the right to remove any message from the boards. HeadWize is not responsible for any damages arising from the use of a forum or the postings contained therein, REGARDLESS of any notification of potential or actual damages. Forum participants must register in order to post messages. The Registration database is not shared with any other individuals, companies, groups or services. Submitters: Please feel free to submit any original work to the webmaster for consideration. If the work has been published elsewhere, you must have the copyright or the right to grant permission to HeadWize to publish the work on this site. Materials submitted to HeadWize become the property of HeadWize, BUT authors retain their copyrights and grant HeadWize permission to publish submissions.
Chu Moy, 2001.
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HeadWize Library - Articles and Multimedia
Library
Articles and Multimedia The e-mail addresses of HeadWize authors appear at the end of the articles. Please do not hesitate to contact them with questions or post questions in the HeadWize Discussion Forums. Archives last updated: u
Articles
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Headwize Headphone Guides Title: A Quick Guide to Headphones Author: HeadWize A comprehesive survey of headphones - covering all major technology types and styles of wear. Includes tips for evaluating headphones with special considerations for hard-of-hearing people and audio professionals. Title: A Quick Guide to Headphone Accessories Author: HeadWize Anyone who listens to headphones regularly will likely purchase headphone accessories, which range from the common (headphone amplifiers, cables, cases and acoustic simulators) to the esoteric (vibration transducers). The accessories market has reached staggering proportions. This guide examines headphone accessories in detail and includes a hyperlinked index for easy referencing. Title: Judging Headphones for Accuracy Author: HeadWize Evaluating headphones can require a different perspective than evaluating loudspeakers. Listeners must take into account the unique characteristics of headphone soundfields. This article examines various methods for, and the pitfalls of, judging headphones for accuracy and now includes discussion of using acoustic simulators in the evaluation process.
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Title: The Art of Monitoring and Mixing With Headphones Author: HeadWize Musicians and recording engineers increasingly rely on headphones during concerts and in the studio. As technologies improve, headphones are replacing loudspeaker monitors in many applications. Herewith, a guide for sound professionals discussing the use of headphones in various aspects of the music-making process. Title: Preventing Hearing Damage When Listening With Headphones Author: HeadWize Hearing damage from headphones is probably more common than from loudspeakers, because many people exploit the acoustic isolation by listening at higher volumes. Moreover, the risk of hearing damage from headphones is higher than with loudspeakers, even at comparable volumes, due to the close coupling of the transducers to the ears.
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General Interest Title: Earbuds, Equalization and Headphones Author: Michael Hoffman A survey and review of earbud (and some non-earbud) headphones and their features with tips on improving sound. Title: Taking Audio in Another Direction Author: John Sunier Sunier takes on the Audio Police to champion binaural recordings and equalization for headphone listening. Title: A Dialectic of Audible Space Author: Ian Stevenson A free ranging discussion of some aspects of the use of space in musical performance. There is a strong belief on the behalf of contemporary composers that space can be effectively and meaningfully employed as a composition tool. Title: Seven Darn Fine Reasons to Own a Headphone System Too! Author: Doug Schneider Although some people use headphones exclusively, this article is for those people who have a full home system, because a supplementary headphone system can add enjoyment to the music-listening experience and take you places your home system won't allow. Title: Headsets Improve Productivity Author: Karl Leif Bates Employees who are allowed to wear personal stereo headsets show higher productivity, better attitudes and greater satisfaction with the workplace.
Title: A Bicyclist's Sense Of Hearing: How Important? Author: John S. Allen Laws banning headphone use by bicyclists are based on inaccurate ideas about headphone design. These laws outlaw the special advantages of headphones for bicyclists, particularly for two-way communication. Furthermore, the bicyclist is unusual among vehicle operators in having good use of the sense of hearing. Title: Spatial Sound - An Overview (1996) Author: Kimmo Vennonen Spatial sound is at the point now of a having sufficient technological tools to solve most of the problems. Title: Thoughts And Processes Relating To Recording And Mixing With Headphones Author: LXH2 How to make final mixes in headphones so that they sound accurate on a variety of playback systems. The advantages to mixing in headphones are many, but can result in mixes with poor sound when played back over loudspeakers, if not done correctly. The author gives tips and techniques for successful mixing in headphones and details the construction and use of a binaural "roving mike" for the tracking process and a tunable bass filter for recording different sources with strong bass content. Title: Binaural In-Depth Author: John Sunier A primer on binaural recordings. The author discusses the history of binaural recordings, the current status of the binaural industry, d-i-y binaural recordings and audio equipment for binaural listening. Title: Depth Perception in Headphones Author: Ron Soh The author discusses how to identify depth cues in music heard through headphones (without the use of a virtualizer). Even though the soundstage in headphones is apparently in a direct line between the ears, good recordings often contain enough acoustic information for the listener to locate audio sources spatially. The article also provides an ear-training tutorial using selections from commercially available CDs.
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Expository Prose Title: December 19, update: a thought from Greg Roggeman's Point of View Author: Greg Roggeman "The deal was to call him with a 'sob story,' and the best sob story would win the phones."
Title: A Headphone in the House Author: Clee Simmons "Now I was a rising buck, much like yourself, in the seventies. That's when I couldn't hear nothin but the sound in my 'head phones' except of course all the babes callin my name." Title: Commentary: HEADPHONES (To Graham) Author: HeadWize, lyrics by Bjrk Gudmundsdttir "My headphones they saved my life...." Excerpt from Bjrk CD called POST. Title: Commentary: Statue With a Walkman Author: HeadWize, lyrics by Robyn Hitchcock "Pretty boy, pretty rooster, pretty sound...." Excerpt from Hitchcock CD called ROBYN HITCHCOCK. Title: Aunt Visit Author: Jeff Chapman "Before I could stop her, mainly because I was still wearing my headphones, she opened up the closet door and found all those corpses left over from my weekend down south, and the plates and cutlery and so on." Title: You Know You're Addicted To Headphones When... Author: (Adapted from an audiobook listserver list) Headphone addicts: there's no use denying it - here is a checklist of symptoms. Title: The Headphone Story Author: Jeff Justice "Conversations went as follows: 'Yes, Bob about the national sales meeting you have coming' (hit the mute button) Ahemmm, hack, ahhummmm. (Hit button again to release it) 'Oh, you already have someone. OK, maybe next year....'"
Multimedia
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Image Gallery Title: Cartoon: Employees Who Listen To Headphones Author: Daryl Cagle From Cagles TRUE! Business Cartoon series. Title: Commentary: Listen To Your Head (Advertisement Graphic) Author: Sony Corporation Ad for Sony Studio Monitor Series headphones - Easter Island theme (1993).
Title: Commentary: Be The Music (Advertisement Graphic) Author: TDK Corporation Ad for TDK cassette tapes - male silouette (1995). Title: Commentary: Two Classic Open-Air Marvels of German Engineering (Advertisement Graphic) Author: Sennheiser Corporation Ad for Sennheiser HD414 Headphones - Contest for Volkswagon Beetle Convertible (1995). Title: Commentary: Vanessa On The Make (Advertisement Graphic) Author: Sony Corporation Ad for Sony Minidisc - woman at diner (1998).
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Sound Gallery
Title: Introduction to 3D Audio Author: AM:3D Contains various binaural sound samples and excerpts from several audiobooks, which have been processed through the AM:3D DieselPower audio engine. A very nice introduction to 3D headphone sound. Full-length and higher quality sound files can be found on the AM:3D site. [MP3 | 4.5Megs | Headphone 3D]
Chu Moy, 2001
HeadWize Library - Projects
Library
Projects The e-mail addresses of HeadWize authors appear at the end of the articles. Please do not hesitate to contact them with DIY questions or post questions in the HeadWize Discussion Forums. Whenever HeadWize receives an update to a project, it is usually posted within 24 hours and is identified in the index with an UPDATED tag. The UPDATED tag remains in the index for four weeks. The date and description of the update will appear at the end of the article in the "ADDENDUM" section.
Headphone Amplifiers
Discrete Solid-State Amplifiers Title: Class A MOSFET Headphone Driver Author: Greg J. Szekeres You can't get much simpler than this classic class-A MOSFET driver. It's a single-ended design that is ideal for the electronics beginner, as well as for the audiophile who wants class-A MOSFET sound without the fuss. Build it in an evening and enjoy! Title: A Current-Domain Electrostatic Amplifier for Stax Omega II Headphones Author: Kevin Gilmore Designed and built for the author's Stax Omega II headphones, this amplifier can be used with other Stax models. It is fully DC-coupled, uses inexpensive semiconductors and operates primarily in the current domain for best speed and extended frequency response. Title: A JFET-MOSFET Headphone Driver Author: Richard Murdey This amplifier is based on the MOSFET headphone driver by Greg Szekeres.
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It has a JFET impedance buffer front-end and a choke-input power supply. The sound characteristic of the amplifier can be tuned by adjusting the low pass filter formed with the input capacitance of the MOSFET.
Title: A Pure Class A Dynamic Headphone Amplifier ( ) Author: Kevin Gilmore A high-current output amplifier for low-impedance dynamic headphones such as the Grados. The amplifier features an new servo biasing circuit which operates entirely outside the audio feedback loop. The author includes a balanced-bridge version of the amp for headphones that are wired in dual-mono as well as instructions for converting a Grado SR80 to dual-mono operation. The bridged amp will output 4 times the power of the standard amp.
Title: The Kumisa III Headphone Amplifier ( 11/23/2001) Author: Benny Jrgensen A discrete all-bipolar, zero feedback class A amplifier with a new opampbased servo. The servo operates outside the audio feedback loop by controlling a pair of current mirrors at the input stage. Glass Amplifiers (Tubes) Title: Output Transformerless Tube Headphone Amplifier Author: Kurt Strain This OTL mu-follower design uses paralleled tubes (2 per channel) to minimize noise. It also makes an excellent preamplifier. Title: Brute Force In A Line Stage (100% Tube!) Author: Eric Barbour An OTL mu follower design. "One, often forgotten, purpose of the preamp is to drive headphones. I listen with a pair of AKG K240s, which is a relatively easy load to drive. This all-tube line stage and driver can power them, without resorting to output transformers." Title: All-Triode Direct-Drive Tube Amps for Electrostatic and Electret Headphones Author: Kevin Gilmore Two electrostatic headphone driver designs: the second is DC-coupled and uses high voltage Apex op-amps as DC regulators. They will drive Stax and Sennheiser electrostatic phones, and the author includes directions for adapting the designs to other models. These are "the best electrostatic headphone amplifiers currently available, anywhere in the world." Will also drive electret headphones. Recommended only for intermediateadvanced builders familiar with high-voltage safety!
Title: Designing an OpAmp Headphone Amplifier (Solid State and Tubes) Author: HeadWize Design principles and circuits for building opamp-based headphone amplifiers. This article reviews selection criteria, feedback configurations, capacitor coupling, RF shielding, output stage topology, short circuit protection, equalization, acoustic simulation, headphone distribution amplifiers and power supply options. Also discusses design with tube ampblocks (AC feedback amplifiers and tube and tube-MOSFET hybrid opamps) as well techniques for interfacing tube amp-blocks with solid state output stages. Title: Top-Level OTL Tube Headphone Amplifier Author: Andrea Ciuffoli This OTL amp features a single-ended class A input stage and a paralleledtube cathode follower output stage with 33 ohms output impedance. It can drive any headphone from 300 to 600 ohms. Now includes two "high-end" versions based on the 6SN7 and the 3A5 direct-heated triode. Title: No-Compromise OTL Tube Headphone Amplifier Author: Andrea Ciuffoli The author achieves his quest for the ultimate headphone amplifier that offers the best possible sound without any compromises. Based on the same circuit topology as his "Top-Level" amplifiers, this version uses a Raytheon 5842 at the input and a new power supply with tube rectifiers. The article includes photographs of the completed project. Title: A SSRP-Input Tube Amplifier For Headphones And Loudspeakers Author: Tony Frazer This transformer-coupled design uses a series regulated push-pull input stage and a parallel-triode cathode bias output stage. The audio output transformer is hand-wound from a kit. The amp will drive both headphones and speakers. Title: A Zero-Feedback SSRP-Input Headphone Amplifier Author: Simon Busbridge Features a series regulated push-pull input stage and transformer-coupled output stage with an output impedance of about 2.5 ohms. It has zero global feedback for open, natural sound without any harshness. Title: A Single-Ended OTL Amplifier for Dynamic Headphones Author: Aren van Waarde A simple OTL design that uses just two tubes (dual triodes) for stereo. It has a common cathode input stage direct-coupled to a cathode follower output stage.
Title: Hi-End Transformer-Coupled Headphone Amplifier With Digital Input Author: Andrea Ciuffoli A 2-stage transformer-coupled tube headphone amplifier with a DAC frontend. The amplifier can drive headphones of 300 - 600 ohms impedance. The DAC is from a Crystal Semiconductor CS4390 evaluation board and has been modified to use a transformer-based output stage instead of the on-board active filter.
Title: The SESS Tube Headphone Amplifier ( 11/18/2001) Author: Andrea Ciuffoli The author describes the construction of a very simple single-ended, singlestage, single-tube (SESS) tube headphone amplifier with a reference power supply that uses a tube rectifier in a hybrid Graetz bridge configuration. Title: The Morgan Jones Mini Tube Headphone Amplifier Author: Chu Moy This reverse-engineered version of the famous EarMax headphone amplifier has just 3 tubes, uses no global feedback, and is powered from an 19VAC wall-wart. Title: The 6N1P Morgan Jones Headphone Amplifier Author: Bruce Bender This version of the Morgan Jones headphone amplifier uses 6N1P dual triode tubes and a standard power supply. The author provides extensive construction details. Opamp-based Amplifiers Title: Designing an OpAmp Headphone Amplifier (Solid State and Tubes) Author: HeadWize Design principles and circuits for building opamp-based headphone amplifiers. This article reviews selection criteria, feedback configurations, capacitor coupling, RF shielding, output stage topology, short circuit protection, equalization, acoustic simulation, headphone distribution amplifiers and power supply options. Also discusses design with tube ampblocks (AC feedback amplifiers and tube and tube-MOSFET hybrid opamps) as well techniques for interfacing tube amp-blocks with solid state output stages. Title: Buffered Headphone Driver/Preamplifier Author: Eldon Pawliw With a fast Motorola buffer as its only active circuitry, this design specifies the highest quality parts and careful construction to avoid signal coloration.
The author includes instructions for substituting other buffer ICs. Title: Build This High Quality Headphone Amplifier Author: Earle Eaton Especially good for listening to digital recordings, this headphone amplifier features an opamp front-end with complementary bipolar outputs for excellent linearity and high-drive capability. It exhibits low noise, can drive headphones of any impedance and protects against shorts. Title: SDS Labs Headphone Amplifier Author: Sheldon D. Stokes This headphone amplifier can output 4W - enough to drive some loudspeakers. It has a FET opamp front-end with complementary MOSFET outputs and a toroidal transformer-based regulated power supply. This version "biases" the opamp into class A operation by tying its output to one of the MOSFET gates for best sound with headphones, but the article includes an update for balanced biasing to obtain the highest output when driving loudspeakers. Title: A Pocket Headphone Amplifier Author: Chu Moy A simple yet high performance design using two Burr-Brown OPA132 FET input opamps. This project is ideal as a booster for power-conserving stereo sources such as portable CD players and for interfacing with passive EQ networks such as tone controls or a headphone acoustic simulator. It is powered by a single 9V battery configured as a virtually-grounded dual supply and is small enough to fit in a shirt pocket. Now includes a balanced input and audio limiter option for turning the pocket amp into a personal monitor. Title: A DC-Coupled, Selectable-Gain Headphone Amplifier Author: Chester Simpson This design uses two opamp gain stages per channel for superior input buffering and a discrete bipolar output stage with thermal tracking current mirrors. The amplifier's overall gain can be adjusted to match the efficiency and impedance characteristic of any headphone. The author provides detailed instructions for optimizing the performance of the output stage. Title: A DIY Headphone Amplifier With Natural Crossfeed Author: Jan Meier Some crossfeed acoustic simulators suffer from frequency-response anomalies (called Comb-filter effects) because they use a fixed, frequencyindependent delay in the crossfeed signal. The author has developed a crossfeed filter/headphone amplifier with frequency-dependent delay that eliminates the Comb-filter effect. It is constructed with National Semiconductor LM6171 opamps, which are capable of delivering high currents into low impedance loads. In the latest update, the author has added an enhanced-bass version of this filter.
Title: The Kumisa II Headphone Amplifier Author: Benny P. Jrgensen A DC-coupled headphone amplifier based on the Analog Devices AD844 opamp. This design employs a temperature-sensitive biasing system on the bipolar output stage to prevent thermal runaway. Both the opamp and the output stage are biased to run predominantly in class A. Title: A Precision Preamplifier-Power Amplifier System with Natural Crossfeed Processing Author: Jan Meier This article presents a preamplifier design with natural crossfeed processing for headphone listening and a novel ALL-OPAMP power amplifier design. The preamplifier is a major revision of the original DIY Headphone Amplifier With Natural Crossfeed. Both the preamp and power amp are fully regulated and feature opamps that are biased to operate in semi-class A mode. The power amplifier can output 32W per channel into a 4 ohm load or can be converted into a mono amp with 4x the output power. It uses 46 opamps per channel and does not require any heatsinking! Title: The Lindesberg Portable Headphone Amplifier With Crossfeed ( 10/22/2001) Author: Toni Kemhagen This state-of-the-art portable headphone amplifier is based on the AD823 and AD812 opamps and employs several techniques to minimize opamp input errors such as balancing input impedances and composite amp output stages. It also features separate power supplies for the voltage gain and output stages. The crossfeed network is from a design by Ingvar Ohman.
Headphone Systems
Title: Build These Noise-Canceling Headphones (plus: Binaural Mike Headset, Audio Probe and Parabolic Mike) Author: Jules Ryckebusch Muzzle the din and relax to the sound of silence with headphones that combat the uproar with "anti-noise." The author includes modifications for a binaural microphone headset, an audio probe and a parabolic microphone. Title: Make Cordless Headphones Author: Dan Clark Build these inexpensive cordless headphones using a pair of Radio Shack FM transceivers (the techniques are adaptable to other brands and models). These are mono headphones (for use with a metal detector), but the author has added
instructions for quality stereo cordless phones. Title: Poor Man's Surround Headphones Author: Steve Connors Make surround headphones from a pair of circumaural headphones and earbuds. The author uses these headphones with the SB Live PC soundcard, but they will also work with any 4-channel surround recording. "The surround effect is excellent... You can tell back from front easily." Title: How To Remagnetize Old Headphones Author: Tom Provost and Gary D'Amico The magnets in old-style high impedance headphones can gradually lose their potency resulting in diminished output volume. The authors describe two methods for restoring de-magnetized headphones. Title: An Equalization Circuit for the beyerdynamic DT990 Pro Headphones Author: LXH2 This passive EQ corrects a rising characteristic in the frequency response of the beyerdynamic DT990 Pros and turns them into one of the most natural and accurate sounding headphones on the market. Title: Notes on DIY Electrostatic Headphones Author: Chu Moy The principles of electrostatic headphone design and a study of the DIY projects by J.P. Wilson, Philip Harvey and Neil Pollock from a series of Wireless World articles published between 1968 and 1979. For advanced DIYers experienced with high-voltage construction techniques only! Title: Troubleshooting Electrostatic Headphones Author: Mark Rehorst Tips for troubleshooting and repairing electrostatic headphones.
8/8/2001) Title: Revisiting Koss "The Plug" Headphones ( Author: Chu Moy Koss' The Plugs are inexpensive canal-type headphones that suffer from a "peaky" frequency response, weak acoustic isolation and a lightweight sound due to inadequate acoustic damping and poor ear cushion design. The author describes a series of modifications for The Plugs that allow this product to reach its full potential. The techniques shown in this article may work for other canaltype headphones that have a construction similar to The Plugs. Title: Modifying the Sennheiser HD500 Headphones Author: Charles Miller The author details modifications for the HD500 headphones that correct their bright and "phased" sound. The result is an extended frequency response and
better dynamic range that make these headphones among the "best headphones on the planet." Title: DIY Electrostatic Headphones Author: Andrew Radford Electrostatic headphone built in the enclosure of an old pair of dynamic headphones. The author gives detailed instructions for constructing the electrostatic transducers and a high voltage amplifier from PA transformers. Title: Measuring the Effective Impedance and Sensitivity of Headphones ( ) Author: Ben H. Tongue The author describes the construction and use of a FILVORA (Fixed Insertion Loss Variable Output Resistance Attenuator) and DFILVORA (Dual Fixed Insertion Loss Variable Output Resistance Attenuator) for measuring the impedance and sensitivity of headphones, including modern stereo headphones, magnetic headsets and piezo-electric ceramic headsets.
Title: The Collected Grado Headphone Mods ( ) Author: Skippy et al. This collection of Grado headphone modifications comes from posts by Skippy, Beagle, TimD, Voyager, Neruda, Chych and Squirt in the HeadWize forums. The mods are grouped into 3 categories: Transducer, Earcups and Headband, Earpads, Cables. There are even instructions for how to fix the infamous Grado "grattle." The article specifically mentions the Grado SR-60, SR-325 or the Alessandro-Grado MS-1, but the mods may be adaptable for other Grado models (and for other brands of headphones).
PC Applications
Title: Graphic Equalizer Pro ( 11/23/2001) Author: ANWIDA Soft A shareware graphic equalizer program that operates in real-time. Can adjust any sound source (such as the CD player) available on the PC's soundcard mixer menu. See A Quick Guide To Headphone Accessories for tips on using an equalizer with headphones. Requires Windows 9x/Me/NT/2000/XP. Title: Acoustic Simulation Plug-in for Winamp (MP3) Players Author: Vladimir Kopjov A freeware plug-in called "Speakers Simulator" for the Winamp MP3 player that simulates a natural soundfield in headphones. The program employs a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) filter which is compensated to avoid Comb effects. The crossfeed delay is user-adjustable. With the "CD Reader" plug-in, the simulator
will also work with CDs played from the computer's CD-ROM drive. Title: WaveSong Author: Jim Sells (Sagebrush Systems) A shareware PC application that generates nature sounds (rain, surf, crickets, thunder, pink noise, white noise) which are relaxing to hear and help mask ambient noise when played through headphones or loudspeakers. Requires Windows 98/95/NT4.0/2000/ME.
Signal Processors
Title: An Acoustic Simulator For Headphone Amplifiers ( 11/24/2001) Author: Chu Moy A simple acoustic simulator that uses shaded crossfeed to create a more realistic sound image in headphones. Based on a design published over 20 years ago by Siegfried Linkwitz in Audio magazine, this update has better sound and is tailored for use with headphone amplifiers. It has a "perspective" switch to adjust the level of crossfeed and can feed a headphone amplifier input or drive headphones directly. The author provides suggestions for further modifications. Title: Designing A Pocket Equalizer for Headphone Listening (Solid State and Tubes) ( 12/22/2001) Author: HeadWize Unlike loudspeakers, headphones generally require some equalization to achieve the most balanced sound. This article examines several passive and active equalizer designs that frequently appear in circuit compendiums. All of them are portable, and the active versions can be powered from batteries. Also includes a section on tube-based equalizers (not pocket-sized though). Title: A DIY Headphone Amplifier With Natural Crossfeed Author: Jan Meier Some crossfeed acoustic simulators suffer from frequency-response anomalies (called Comb-filter effects) because they use a fixed, frequency-independent delay in the crossfeed signal. The author has developed a crossfeed filter/headphone amplifier with frequency-dependent delay that eliminates the Comb-filter effect. It is constructed with National Semiconductor LM6171 opamps, which are capable of delivering high currents into low impedance loads. In the latest update, the author has added an enhanced-bass version of this filter. Title: An Enhanced-Bass Natural Crossfeed Filter Author: Jan Meier This project is a follow-up to the article A DIY Headphone Amplifier With Natural Crossfeed. The author shows a natural crossfeed filter design with a bass
emphasis (similar to the Linkwitz circuit - see An Acoustic Simulator For Headphone Amplifiers) to compensate for low-frequency cancellation effects. Title: A Soundfield Simulator for Stereo Headphones Author: Chester Simpson An adaptation of the Linkwitz acoustic simulator (see An Acoustic Simulator for Headphone Amplifiers by Chu Moy above) as a front-end for headphone amplifiers with very high input impedance - such as the author's own headphone amp project (see A DC-Coupled, Selectable-Gain Headphone Amplifier). This circuit features a continuously adjustable Soundfield control. Title: The Analoguer Author: Jan Meier The Analoguer is an audio filter that mitigates the harshness of CD recordings using a signal processing technique called "windowing." As in the author's Precision Preamplifier-Power Amplifier System, the opamps in this project are also biased to operate in class A.
Musicians and Audio Professionals

Title: Headphone Monitor Switch Author: Rudy Trubitt For use in field recording. Has provisions for stereo, left-only mono, right-only mono, left+right mono and even left-right reversed. Title: Not Just Another Headphone Amp (Guitar Practice) Author: Alan Gary Campbell A battery-powered musician's practice and monitoring amplifier. Based on the classic LM386 low voltage power amplifier, it is compact and sturdy with excellent sound, and has optional equalization for use with guitars. Title: Designing an OpAmp Headphone Amplifier (Solid State and Tubes) Author: HeadWize Design principles and circuits for building opamp-based headphone amplifiers. This article reviews selection criteria, feedback configurations, capacitor coupling, RF shielding, output stage topology, short circuit protection, equalization, acoustic simulation, headphone distribution amplifiers and power supply options. Also discusses design with tube amp-blocks (AC feedback amplifiers and tube and tubeMOSFET hybrid opamps) as well techniques for interfacing tube amp-blocks with solid state output stages. Title: Using A Headphone Console As A Balanced Line Distribution Amplifier Author: Dennis Bohn The author details a special input jack assembly for converting a headphone
console into a balanced line distribution amplifier. Note: this article specifies the Rane HC6 Headphone Console, but is applicable to other similar products. Title: Creating a 2nd Headphone Feed When Only One Is Available Author: George Kourounis Simple steps for using a power amplifier as a second cue system. Title: An Equalization Circuit for the beyerdynamic DT990 Pro Headphones Author: LXH2 This passive EQ corrects a rising characteristic in the frequency response of the beyerdynamic DT990 Pros and turns them into one of the most natural and accurate sounding headphones on the market. Title: Thoughts And Processes Relating To Recording And Mixing With Headphones Author: LXH2 How to make final mixes in headphones so that they sound accurate on a variety of playback systems. The advantages to mixing in headphones are many, but can result in mixes with poor sound when played back over loudspeakers, if not done correctly. The author gives tips and techniques for successful mixing in headphones and details the construction and use of a binaural "roving mike" for the tracking process and a tunable bass filter for recording different sources with strong bass content. Title: A Pocket Headphone Amplifier Author: Chu Moy A simple yet high performance design using two Burr-Brown OPA132 FET input opamps. This project is ideal as a booster for power-conserving stereo sources such as portable CD players and for interfacing with passive EQ networks such as tone controls or a headphone acoustic simulator. It is powered by a single 9V battery configured as a virtually-grounded dual supply and is small enough to fit in a shirt pocket. Now includes a balanced input and audio limiter option for turning the pocket amp into a personal monitor. Title: Designing A Limiter For Headphone Amplifiers Author: HeadWize Design Paper A review of diode-based limiter design. Includes discussion of hard and soft limiters, the differences between diode types as clipping elements, variable limiters and multiband limiters.
DIY Showcase
Title: The Delta Preamplifier Author: Tim Harrison The author has created a preamplifier with a headphone output based on Jan Meier's natural crossfeed filter and Greg Szekeres' MOSFET headphone driver.
The preamp features OPA275 opamp gain stages, buffered inputs and a ground loop breaker topology. Title: Apheared's Project Scrapbook Author: Michael Shelton A compilation of the author's numerous project postings in the DIY Workshop forum. The projects include portable headphone amps with current-boosted output stages, amps with VU meters, amps in mint box enclosures. "Apheared" is the author's username in the forums.
) Title: New Lights for the Light Boy Advance ( Author: Chu Moy This project is for HeadWizers who own the Nintendo Game Boy Advance. It describes how to modify the Light Boy Advance (a magnifier/lighting accessory for the GBA) to use white LEDs for brighter, clearer illumination of the GBA screen. The LED mod eliminates the "yellowish" glow cast by the incandescent bulbs in the original Light Boy.
) Title: The Collected Grado Headphone Mods ( Author: Skippy et al. This collection of Grado headphone modifications comes from posts by Skippy, Beagle, TimD, Voyager, Neruda, Chych and Squirt in the HeadWize forums. The mods are grouped into 3 categories: Transducer, Earcups and Headband, Earpads, Cables. There are even instructions for how to fix the infamous Grado "grattle." The article specifically mentions the Grado SR-60, SR-325 or the Alessandro-Grado MS-1, but the mods may be adaptable for other Grado models (and for other brands of headphones).
Chu Moy, 2001
HeadWize Library - Technical Papers
Library
Technical Papers The e-mail addresses of HeadWize authors appear at the end of the articles. Please do not hesitate to contact them with questions or post questions in the HeadWize Discussion Forums. Archives last updated: u
Acoustics and Psychoacoustics

Title: The Elements of Musical Perception Author: HeadWize An introduction to acoustics and psychoacoustics with a section on 3D hearing. Examples are selected for relevance to audiophiles. Title: 3-D Audio Primer Author: Aureal Corporation This paper compares different 3D audio technologies (extended stereo, surround sound, positional 3D audio) and includes a section on the basics of 3D hearing. Title: The Psychoacoustics of Headphone Listening Author: HeadRoom Corporation Why headphones sound different from loudspeakers and how crossfeed processing can improve headphone sound.
Acoustic Simulation
Title: Technologies for Surround-Sound Presentation in Headphones Author: HeadWize Tracing the development of 4-channel headphone and acoustic simulators for playback of 3-D sound in headphones. Includes discussion of the inventions of Ohta; Knig; Bauer; Asahi; Brungart; Lowe; Tucker and Green; McGrath; Turner; Cohen; Iwahara and Klayman - from patent disclosures and technical papers.
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Title: Surround Enhancement Processing for Stereo Loudspeakers Author: Mike Sokol A look at Spatializer, a single-ended enhancement processor for recording and playback of 3D sound from 2 channels. The author discusses its theory of operation and its effects. Title: High Resolution Simulation of Acoustic Environments Author: David McGrath, Lake DSP Pty, Ltd. An overview of issues for high quality audio simulation of Virtual Reality. Computer synthesis of room acoustic responses is reviewed with emphasis on Virtual Reality. Title: Creation, Manipulation and Playback of Soundfields Author: Andrew Reilly and David McGrath (Lake DSP Pty, Ltd.) This paper explains basic methods used in soundfield recording and playback (BFormat Ambisonics). The research merges technologies from Architectural Acoustics (Auralization) and Virtual Reality (head-tracking and 3D simulation). Title: Convolution Processing for Realistic Reverberation Author: Andrew Reilly and David McGrath (Lake DSP Pty, Ltd.) Arbitrary reverberation impulse responses may be applied to real time audio data by the use of long convolution. This paper outlines the techniques for measuring, generating and manipulating reverberation functions. In addition, some less traditional functions are proposed as reverberation impulse responses for use as musical effects. Title: Dolby Pro Logic Surround Decoder: Principles Of Operation Author: Roger Dressler (Dolby Labs) A discussion of theory and operation of Dolby Surround and Dolby Pro Logic decoders. Title: Dolby Digital: The Sound Of The Future-Here Today Author: Dolby Labs This paper outlines the theory and operation of Dolby Digital (AC-3). Title: 3D Audio and Acoustic Environment Modeling Author: William G. Gardner A discussion of 3D audio reproduction over loudspeakers and in headphones with special focus on the acoustic environment modeling technology developed by Wave Arts, Inc. and Dr. William Gardner. General 3D audio topics include: binaural synthesis, crosstalk cancellation, and reverberation algorithms. Title: Virtual Audio For Headphones Author: Alastair Sibbald This paper examines the role of HRTFs in headphone virtualization with special attention to the differences between 3D audio reproduction from loudspeakers and in headphones.
Title: Chaotic Waves for 3D Audio ( ) Author: Alastair Sibbald In spatial hearing, the indirect sounds (which arrive at the ears after the direct sounds) are reflected and scattered in a complex pattern and are called chaotic waves. This paper discusses the importance of chaotic waves to spatial hearing and synthesis of chaotic waves in interactive acoustic simulation environments in headphones.
Audio Electronics
Title: Understanding Headphone Power Requirements Author: Dennis Bohn, Rane Corporation Much confusion abounds regarding headphone power requirements. How much power is really needed for your application? Title: Sound System Interconnection Author: Rane Corporation Technical Staff How to hook up audio equipment without suffering through all sorts of bizarre noises, hums, buzzes, whistles, etc. Title: Signal Processing Fundamentals Author: Dennis Bohn, Rane Corporation The basics of crossover networks, equalizers and dynamic controllers (compressors, expanders, etc.). Title: Why Not Wye Author: Dennis Bohn, Rane Corporation Tips for using Y-connectors to split and sum signals. Has plans for balanced and unbalanced summing boxes - with section on summing low signals to drive subwoofers. Title: Setting Sound System Level Controls Author: Dennis Bohn, Rane Corporation Correctly setting a sound system's gain structure is one of the most important contributors to creating an excellent sounding system. A dozen possible procedures exist for correctly setting the gain structure of any system. The fundamental principles are applicable to different system configurations. Title: Digital Dharma of Audio A/D Converters Author: Dennis Bohn, Rane Corporation A primer on digital audio and the workings of analog-to-digital converters.
Headphone Systems
Title: HeadWize Design Showcase A selection of important and/or unusual patents issued by the US Patent and Trademark Office involving headphone design and acoustic simulation. Although these technical documents are written in an intellectual property patois, most are intelligible with just a bit of effort and are a valuable resource for researchers and DIYers alike. Title: Technologies for Surround-Sound Presentation in Headphones Author: HeadWize Traces the development of 4-channel headphone and acoustic simulators for playback of 3-D sound in headphones. Includes discussion of the inventions of Ohta; Knig; Bauer; Asahi; Brungart; Lowe; Tucker and Green; McGrath; Turner; Cohen; Iwahara and Klayman - from patent disclosures and technical papers. Title: In-Ear Monitoring Author: Garwood Communications The concepts, operation and applications of in-ear monitoring systems. Includes a FAQ and discussion of hearing conservation issues. Title: Active Noise Reduction Headphone Systems Author: A HeadWize Design Paper Theory and implementation of noise cancellation headphones with attention to open-loop, closed-loop and adaptive systems. Includes discussion of the inventions of Williams, Kyle, Bose, Sapiejewski, Bartels, Eriksson, Feintuck and Lo - from patent disclosures and technical papers. Title: Adaptive Active Noise Control for Headphones Using the TMS320C30 DSP Author: Angela Kuo Wang and Benedict Tse Adaptive noise controller for headphones implemented on a Texas Instruments DSP. Superior performance over fixed noise control due to the tracking capabilities of the controller in response to surrounding noise. Text Browsers Note: This document is currently available in PDF format only (courtesy of Texas Instruments). Title: High Impedance Headsets for Crystal Radios Author: Alan R. Klase A spec comparison of various old-style high impedance headsets with specific application to use with crystal radios. Text Browsers Note: This document contains a small table.
Chu Moy, 2001
HeadWize Library - Design Showcase
Library
Design Showcase The HeadWize Design Showcase features a selection of patents granted by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office involving headphone design and acoustic simulation in headphones. They are arranged in reverse chronological order by issuance date. Archives last updated: u
Acoustic Simulation
Title: Method And Device For Processing A Multichannel Signal For Use With A Headphone Inventor: Timothy J. Tucker and David M. Green Patent Number: 5,742,689 Date Issued: 4/28/1998 Description: Simulating a virtual room with virtual loudspeakers through headphones. Title: Audio Signal Reproducing Apparatus Inventor: Kiyofumi Inanaga et al. Patent Number: 5,495,534 Date Issued: 2/27/1996 Description: An acoustic simulator with a head motion detector. Title: Stereo Headphone Sound Source Localization System Inventor: Danny D. Lowe et al. Patent Number: 5,371,799 Date Issued: 12/6/1994 Description: A sound positioning system for headphones. Title: Stereo Enhancement System Inventor: Arnold Klayman Patent Number: 4,748,669 Date Issued: 5/31/1988 Description: A virtualizer based on ambience-recovery. Includes both the enhancement system and a perspective correction system for 3D sound in headphones and from stereo loudspeakers.
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Title: Method And Apparatus For Imparting To Headphones The Sound Reproducing Characteristics Of Loudspeakers Inventor: Jens Blauert et al. Patent Number: 3,920,904 Date Issued: 11/18/1975 Description: An active crossfeed filter with a response equal to the loudspeakerto-eardrum transfer function divided by the headphone-to-eardrum transfer function. Includes a 4-channel design.
Headphone Design
Title: System for the Frontal Localization of Auditory Events Produced by Stereo Headphones Inventor: Florian M. Knig Patent Number: 5,784,477 Date Issued: 7/21/1998 Description: Headphone design with improved in-front localization. Title: Headphoning Inventor: Amar Bose Patent Number: 4,455,675 Date Issued: 6/19/1984 Description: A noise cancellation headphone with a compensatory filter of arbitrary phase to maximize open loop gain and extend effectiveness of ANR. Title: Four-Channel Headphone Inventor: Kazuho Ohta Patent Number: 3,796,840 Date Issued: 12/2/1971 Description: A 4-channel headphone with spatializer that inverts rear channel signals.
Transducer Design
Title: Auricle Insertion Headphone With Improved Grill Inventor: Ikuo Shinohara (Sony) Patent Number: 5,206,914 Date Issued: 5/30/1995 Description: Earbud with improved grill design that minimizes manufacturing defects. Title: Electrodynamic Acoustic Transducer Inventor: Ernst Schutter Patent Number: 5,471,437 Date Issued: 8/30/1994 Description: A compact, dynamic transducer having two parts - an acoustically active part and an annular part having an annular width for an ideal resilient suspension. Title: Electrostatic Acoustic Transducer Having Extremely Thin Diaphragm Substrate Inventor: Neil K. Fortney (Koss)
Patent Number: 5,206,914 Date Issued: 4/27/1993 Description: Electrostatic transducer design employing a diaphragm coated with infrared-transparent material for high performance. Title: Electracoustic Transducer Inventor: Werner Fidi Patent Number: 4,447,678 Date Issued: 5/8/1984 Description: A two-way headphone transducer with a dynamic bass unit and electrostatic treble system. Title: Electret Earphone Inventor: Freeman Frahm Patent Number: 3,896,274 Date Issued: 7/23/1975 Description: Electret transducer design with improved polarization stability. Title: Electrostatic Acoustic Transducer Inventor: N. Atoji Patent Number: 3,833,770 Date Issued: 9/3/1974 Description: An electrostatic headphone transducer employing an electret diaphragm.
Title: High Fidelity Insert Headphones Inventor: Steven Iseberg and Donald Wilson Patent Number: 5,887,070 Date Issued: 3/23/1999 Description: A canal-type headphone with acoustic damping to compensate for the loss of external ear resonance and an electronic filter to extend the high frequency response. This patent is for the Etymotic Canalphones.
Miscellaneous
Title: Device Of The Dummy Head Type For Recording Sound Inventor: Josee M. van den Berg Patent Number: 5,583,942 Date Issued: 12/10/1996 Description: A dummy head construction with an "open organ pipe" channel simulating the auditory meatus. Title: Process For Forming An Acoustic Monitoring Device Inventor: Hugo Zuccarelli Patent Number: 4,680,856 Date Issued: 7/21/1987 Description: A dummy head construction that is anatomically faithful to the human head. Title: Earphone Mountings in Safety Helmets for Motorcycle Riders Inventor: Richard J. Von Statton, Jr. Patent Number: 4,109,105 Date Issued: 8/22/1978
Description: A motorcycle helmet with stereo headphones that are built into the lining of helmet. Questions or comments? Visit the HeadWize Discussion Forums.
Chu Moy, 2001

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HeadBanger Headphone Amp Construction Kit

HeadBanger Headphone Amp Construction Kit

Making Your Own HeadBanger

The Sound Professionals offer a commercial version of this headphone amplifier.

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HeadBanger Headphone Amp Construction Kit

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HeadBanger Headphone Amp Construction Kit

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HeadBanger Headphone Amp Construction Kit

Precharging the Battery

Left and Right Reference

Drilling the Case

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HeadBanger Headphone Amp Construction Kit

Mounting the Chassis parts

HeadBanger Headphone Amp Construction Kit

About the Hookup Wire

Wiring the Chassis

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HeadBanger Headphone Amp Construction Kit

HeadBanger Headphone Amp Construction Kit

Building the Amp Board

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HeadBanger Headphone Amp Construction Kit

C9. R3/C1. at place pointed as GND-I. Connect to gnd.

Installing the Amp Board

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HeadBanger Headphone Amp Construction Kit

Charging the Battery

Testing the HeadBanger

HeadBanger Headphone Amp Construction Kit

Debugging the Sick Puppy

If You Can't Get Any Output

Is There a Short Under the Amp Board?

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HeadBanger Headphone Amp Construction Kit

Checking Current Consumption

If All Else Fails

Parts List for HeadBanger Headphone Amp

HeadBanger Headphone Amp Construction Kit

HeadBanger Headphone Amp Construction Kit

Adding the Shield

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HeadBanger Headphone Amp Construction Kit

If You Encounter More Interference

FAQs about HeadBanger grounding:

HeadBanger Headphone Amp Construction Kit

Modified Koss Earplugs Instead of HeadBanger

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HeadBanger Headphone Amp Construction Kit

User Questions & Comments

HeadBanger Headphone Amp Construction Kit

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HeadBanger Headphone Amp Construction Kit

HeadBanger Headphone Amp Construction Kit

HeadBanger Headphone Amp Construction Kit

HeadBanger Headphone Amp Construction Kit

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HeadBanger Headphone Amp Construction Kit

HeadBanger Headphone Amp Construction Kit

Comments on the NoiseBuster(R) NB-DX

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HeadBanger Headphone Amp Construction Kit