My son, who knows his headphones, sneered dismissively at these bespoke units and said that they look cheap. He wouldn't touch them with a barge pole? There is no pleasing some folk.
When pressed for specifics he (my son) doesn't like the wood.
It is too thick, he then showed me some high-end headphones as an example of what you should be aiming to emulate.
Me personally, I think the metalwork looks like you did it in a shed.
This is provided as constructive criticism.
Tardian
Thank you for taking the time to comment!
If you will excuse the analogy (which admittedly is imperfect, but holds up in more ways than one - both in terms of design philosophy, traditional production techniques, and price differential), some people buy Morgan cars, and they are unlikely to be the same people buying say, an Audi R8 and vice versa. Which is a long way of saying that I feel you may not be the intended target market?
If I am to assume that one of the high-end headphones your son pointed to is the HD820 then that is an ideal case in point - it's a fantastically well engineered headphone that is mass produced in multi-million dollar industrial production facilities using techniques that are way out of my reach. Alas, until I have access to Sennheiser (ie, never) levels of materials technology, I will have to continue making my headphones to the highest possible standard I can, using drill press, lathe, compound table and a couple of saws (and a 3D printer) in a garage workshop, my kitchen and indeed, my shed. Some people appreciate that personal touch and character, while others want the latest in materials technology - in which case, I have to say, Dan Clark's Stealth looks mighty impressive. Not cheap though!
In terms of the thickness of the wood (on the closed back model I assume?) I would love to be able to make them smaller (and lighter too), but a couple of factors precede it: the internal chamber needs to have enough space that energy generated from the back of the driver can be dispersed and absorbed so that it doesn't interfere with the working of the driver, and the wood needs to be thick enough to damp vibrations caused by that energy.
It's worth noting that "closed back headphones have more/better/meatier bass" is, in my experience, a common misconception. I think this is likely caused by a combination of cheap closed backs having boomy bass, and the most popular mid-fi open backs (Sennheiser 6XX, Grado) being somewhat sub-bass shy, which I reckon is mostly down to the size of the drivers used, and pad materials. My experience is that it is far harder to get decent sub-bass (and much of everything else, except for isolation) from a closed back design.
Nice retro look even with the plastic 3D printing.
