I used AliExpress parts to build DankPods headphones

[AdamFromLTT]

We went to AliExpress to find parts to create janky headphones. Yep, that’s right. We thought we could compete with the likes of Sennheiser, Apple, Bose and Sony by creating our on 3d printed headphones using materials purchased from the AliBaba marketplace. And naturally, we needed someone impartial to test the cans, so we got our good friend Dankpods to come out and give em a listen!
 

 

[AndreiArgeanu]

I love seeing dankpods.

 

This video does make me wonder what it would take to DIY a good pair of headphones and whether or not you'd be saving money doing it. Can you even source some good headphone drivers from aliexpress or any retailer for that matter at a reasonable price? Would tuning the drivers help fix the sound signature of the headphones or is it pretty much written in stone from the factory?

[Capra Audio]

50 minutes ago, AndreiArgeanu said:

I love seeing dankpods.

 

This video does make me wonder what it would take to DIY a good pair of headphones and whether or not you'd be saving money doing it. Can you even source some good headphone drivers from aliexpress or any retailer for that matter at a reasonable price? Would tuning the drivers help fix the sound signature of the headphones or is it pretty much written in stone from the factory?

If they had actually followed the instructions instead of butchering my designs they would have made good headphones for a reasonable price.

[LinusTech]

51 minutes ago, Capra Audio said:

If they had actually followed the instructions instead of butchering my designs they would have made good headphones for a reasonable price.

That was never the goal. Your design is great and we had a lot of fun building them. We praised the comfort.

 

But the thing is, we set out to troll Dankpods, not to reach the full potential of what can be accomplished with diy headphones. 

 

I don't think any reasonable person watching would imagine the lack of performance is due to your design when we used drivers that cost less than the filament we used printing the parts. 

[Capra Audio]

1 hour ago, LinusTech said:

That was never the goal. Your design is great and we had a lot of fun building them. We praised the comfort.

 

But the thing is, we set out to troll Dankpods, not to reach the full potential of what can be accomplished with diy headphones. 

 

I don't think any reasonable person watching would imagine the lack of performance is due to your design when we used drivers that cost less than the filament we used printing the parts. 

I would like to preface this with the fact that I was not aware of the plan when I initially sent these files. When a representative of LMG reached out to a Discord server I was in for recommendations regarding DIY headphones and parts and brands, I responded saying that I was making a design intended to be entirely DIY’d. I released it, and your representative was sent the link to the project and the files. That was the extent of my interaction.

 

I do realize part of this is on me for not inquiring deeper on the cause of this, and I should have done my due diligence in trying to find out more. When someone reaches out and asks for a DIY headphone project, I am going to try to provide them the best possible one I can find or make. It was my understanding that they would be shown as instructed, possibly in a head to head comparison of multiple DIY headphones.

 

If I had known this was the plan from the beginning, or even what this ended up turning out to be, I wouldn’t have participated in the way I did. If anything I would have been fine making a test bed for this project that was totally separate to goof around on! I’m seeing negative impressions of my passion project from your audience and curious comments about even being able to make these yourself despite having the files linked. I understand that you can’t control your audience, or that all of them will get the intent you had, it’s just a bit hard to see those things about something you worked on for the community, aimed at folks just like them to make themselves.

 

I had all the intent to have these be accessible, and having more visibility helps that, I just had hoped that more would grasp the idea that these are good sounding headphones that you can make yourself from this video. I feel like things could have gone better for all parties involved and I wouldn’t have been upset at all if LMG had asked me for something specifically for this. I guess to me this just feels like a missed opportunity.

[LinusTech]

38 minutes ago, Capra Audio said:

I would like to preface this with the fact that I was not aware of the plan when I initially sent these files. When a representative of LMG reached out to a Discord server I was in for recommendations regarding DIY headphones and parts and brands, I responded saying that I was making a design intended to be entirely DIY’d. I released it, and your representative was sent the link to the project and the files. That was the extent of my interaction.

 

I do realize part of this is on me for not inquiring deeper on the cause of this, and I should have done my due diligence in trying to find out more. When someone reaches out and asks for a DIY headphone project, I am going to try to provide them the best possible one I can find or make. It was my understanding that they would be shown as instructed, possibly in a head to head comparison of multiple DIY headphones.

 

If I had known this was the plan from the beginning, or even what this ended up turning out to be, I wouldn’t have participated in the way I did. If anything I would have been fine making a test bed for this project that was totally separate to goof around on! I’m seeing negative impressions of my passion project from your audience and curious comments about even being able to make these yourself despite having the files linked. I understand that you can’t control your audience, or that all of them will get the intent you had, it’s just a bit hard to see those things about something you worked on for the community, aimed at folks just like them to make themselves.

 

I had all the intent to have these be accessible, and having more visibility helps that, I just had hoped that more would grasp the idea that these are good sounding headphones that you can make yourself from this video. I feel like things could have gone better for all parties involved and I wouldn’t have been upset at all if LMG had asked me for something specifically for this. I guess to me this just feels like a missed opportunity.

This is the first I hearing of us coordinating anything about this project with you directly. I'll inquire about how expectations were set.

 

If it helps at all, I can relate to your frustration. Every comment I see about how bad this review is makes me want to put my fist through the screen and shout "what part of any of this made it sound like a review??" 

 

The thing is, when 1M people watch something, if even 1% completely miss the point, that will be 10,000 people. No getting away from it. 

 

I think most people are pretty clear that we made no attempt to build this properly because it wasn't the point. 

 

Maybe there will be an opportunity to do a DIY headphone project where we build the Satyr 1 for real. I was very impressed by many aspects of the design and I think it could be a cool topic. It just wasn't the topic today and I'm sorry if you felt misled

[R3tr0--]

 

6 hours ago, AdamFromLTT said:

We went to AliExpress to find parts to create janky headphones. Yep, that’s right. We thought we could compete with the likes of Sennheiser, Apple, Bose and Sony by creating our on 3d printed headphones using materials purchased from the AliBaba marketplace. And naturally, we needed someone impartial to test the cans, so we got our good friend Dankpods to come out and give em a listen!
 

 

Awesome Video!!, It would be good to have some of the parts linked though incase people wanted to follow along at home from aliexpress because those headphone pads look better then what was in the original!!  the design and all the content made from LMG! Thanks guys for a entertaining video

[Capra Audio]

51 minutes ago, LinusTech said:

This is the first I hearing of us coordinating anything about this project with you directly. I'll inquire about how expectations were set.

 

If it helps at all, I can relate to your frustration. Every comment I see about how bad this review is makes me want to put my fist through the screen and shout "what part of any of this made it sound like a review??" 

 

The thing is, when 1M people watch something, if even 1% completely miss the point, that will be 10,000 people. No getting away from it. 

 

I think most people are pretty clear that we made no attempt to build this properly because it wasn't the point. 

 

Maybe there will be an opportunity to do a DIY headphone project where we build the Satyr 1 for real. I was very impressed by many aspects of the design and I think it could be a cool topic. It just wasn't the topic today and I'm sorry if you felt misled

Linus, I appreciate your response. I am glad you can relate to the misinterpretation, and I agree that it’s unfortunate to have some inevitably miss the gist of the video along the way. Just the nature of the internet I suppose. I’m sure you already considered it, but maybe something along the lines of a pinned comment might help your end as well with letting people know it wasn't a review of our project.

In any case, I am very glad you enjoyed the design, comfort was something I worked pretty hard on to get right. If you would ever like to talk about the design with me more, I am happy to discuss it. We have many more DIY headphone and headphone mod designs in the works.

[GoStormPlays]

this is the last video i expected to bring drama

 

Frank's smells must've done it

[GoStormPlays]

8 hours ago, LinusTech said:

If it helps at all, I can relate to your frustration. Every comment I see about how bad this review is makes me want to put my fist through the screen and shout "what part of any of this made it sound like a review??" 

I can relate to some of these comments.

 

It's almost like these people watch the first fifteen seconds and then just make a comment saying whatever random crap comes to their minds first. 

[headamame]

11 hours ago, LinusTech said:

This is the first I hearing of us coordinating anything about this project with you directly. I'll inquire about how expectations were set.

 

If it helps at all, I can relate to your frustration. Every comment I see about how bad this review is makes me want to put my fist through the screen and shout "what part of any of this made it sound like a review??" 

 

The thing is, when 1M people watch something, if even 1% completely miss the point, that will be 10,000 people. No getting away from it. 

 

I think most people are pretty clear that we made no attempt to build this properly because it wasn't the point. 

 

Maybe there will be an opportunity to do a DIY headphone project where we build the Satyr 1 for real. I was very impressed by many aspects of the design and I think it could be a cool topic. It just wasn't the topic today and I'm sorry if you felt misled

Thanks for having us on the set as well, if only for a moment!

 

Your video led us to Capra and we are working on doing some tuning of head(amame) together, so I'm counting that as a win! Perhaps this spells the opportunity to do a "state of the nation" in 3DP audio some time in 2024?

 

Companies like Capra, Deposition Sound, and ourselves are really starting to bring high end audio into a different price bracket if you are capable of running a 3D Printer and doing some assembly yourself.

 

Thanks also for your candid response. 

 

All the best, 

Morgan 

[AdamFromLTT]

We've posted a pinned comment to clarify that our flawed creations don't reflect the quality of the Satyr 1 project. The pinned comment text is as follows.
 

Quote

 

Heads up: The Satyr 1 design by Capra Audio is a really fun project that can be printed and assembled in a weekend and will leave you with a truly capable set high-quality headphones (when you follow their instructions and use the recommended materials, Capra Audio makes that very clear).

We decided to use parts from AliExpress and no instructions to troll Dankpods.

 

Check out the Satyr 1 by Capra Audio at their Cults3D page. https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/gadget/satyr-1-headphones"

 

 

[Cocococo]

On 12/14/2023 at 6:04 AM, Capra Audio said:

We have many more DIY headphone and headphone mod designs in the works.

Love your stuff, importing to my country is pretty expensive but omg your suspension headbands are among the very best i've ever used. Can't go back to normal HD6x0 chassis after trying your headband mod. Sorry to hear about the negative feedback, think it could all have been avoided with just a short sentence being like "We are just goofing around, Capra makes some amazing stuff, check them out with the link in the description" towards the start of the video. I'm interested in getting more into DIY headphones (my experience is mainly pad swapping and occasional headband changes when Hifiman products break) hope you guys keep killing it in the DIY scene.

[Capra Audio]

4 hours ago, Cocococo said:

I'm interested in getting more into DIY headphones (my experience is mainly pad swapping and occasional headband changes when Hifiman products break) 

You're on the right path! Pad swapping is like 75% of the tuning process. I've got several boxes full of pads from tuning various designs, too much money spend on leather wrapped foam 

[05032-Mendicant-Bias]

This was a fun video to watch! Surprisingly, Adam pulled a W against Linus' cheating! Those 5$ drivers really let the Linus down.

 

I would have loved having a model done right for comparison against Linus and Adam redneck versions. Also think of adding some B-Roll of the 3D printing of the parts.