There’s no doubt it’ll improve isolation at least, . I was just wondering because I think they sound pretty good. I’m not bothering with external earphones even i skyrim.
It’s pretty awesome you’re using your time and talent to help people with this project.
I would agree that they arent too bad. They are useable & convenient, but lack of isolation is probably the main downside of them.
With using the standard smas I struggle to forget that I’m sat in my front room. But with these cups, that changes for me at least & i feel more immersed.
Hopefully it helps others with a 3d printer.
When you buy a 3d printer, imo you need to justify its price tag by having things to print for free
& as I’ve started a small 3d print business on eBay & etsy (still very small printing my own mods),
It helps me a little also to make a small profit & get back some of the money I spent on 3d printers
Totally agree. I feel I lose a ton of immersion with the SMAS. I much prefer to be lost in the sound of the game.
different strokes for different folks I guess. for isolation i absolutely agree something like this should help. but as someone living alone I actually prefer not to be shut out from the, admittedly quiet, world around me because there’s no one else to answer the door or hear the fire alarm. also there’s really no distracting noise.
Yep I agree.
I’ve heard some say they prefer to use a room sound system for vr with no headphones on at all.
For me I’d only feel I was half in vr
Yeah, i spend a few hours in Skyrim with them last night.
I printed them in petg because that was the spool i had on the printer, so it ended up being a bit of a tight fit.
For the print itself I really think you overbuilt them, i mean you’re not trying to hold up a bridge. I don’t think it would be an issue if the shroud part was reduced down to like 1mm, and it would save weight and printing time.
It does improve the volume a little and it might improve the sound quality a little but it feels like a very subtle effect. I’m not sure if there’s maybe a better shape to guide the sound.
I used them as off ear headphones like the index and I have to say that I did not find any improvement in isolation at all. I know this is different from your experience so I may be using them wrong.
Ok thanks for the feedback.
I intentionally made them quite tight so they are a snug fit & can’t wobble.
But this could vary from printer to printer I guess.
I’ll look into loosening them a bit.
The reason I did a 2mm wall thickness was because I didn’t want them to be flimsy so they could get broken easily, or if I sell them, get broken in the post which they almost certainly would at 1mm.
But for those who print at home you could reduce the wall thickness to take some weight off & save plastic.
Or maybe I will make a thinner version.
Generally i like to make sure what i make lasts & 2mm thickness @ 27g per clip seemed good, but maybe a little overbuilt I guess.
Probably a silly question but did you center them over your ears properly?
Have you taken them on & off when sound is playing?
It’s only me, my misses & step daughter who have tried them so far, but to us the difference seems big.
Taking them on & off should show you the biggest difference.
It’s possible head size, shape & ear position plays a part in what you experience & something i already thought of is those who are living with the faulty headstrap hinge design may not actually get them centred over their ears due to the strap being too high.
Although not totally inline with my/our experiences, i thank you for your feedback & will have a think on if any positive changes can be made
I’ll try to reprint them in pla, i may have overextruded a bit because my walls ended up at 2.5mm.
I believe I had them centered correctly, the fit seemed good, but i didn’t want to fiddle too much with them since they had a tendency to take the cover of the speakers off (i think that’s a smas issue combined with the extra tight fit), I played for a while with just one side mounted which made the difference in volume obvious.
I’ll give it another try later with a pla version that should be easier to mount / dismount.
I have myself only printed them in petg.
They are a tight fit but I haven’t had them pull the cover off the smas. But I could see how they could if it wasn’t too secure as they are very snug.
Maybe I will take a tiny bit off to make them slightly looser to avoid that possibility.
Also i might take your advice & maybe take a little of the overall outer wall thickness ie… 0.5mm.
I’ll also have a think on if a slight shape change would help.
I think something which could give a further improvement is bringing them in closer to the ears but I’m reluctant to do that as people have different head shapes & if I reduce that gap further they might end up touching someone’s ears.
I’m messing with them now, taking them on & off in a fairly noisy room with my kids & although I’m definitely seeing an improvement in sound isolation, there is only so much they help for that.
They aren’t to the level of index. But I guess that’s would be a big ask.
Think I’ll try it with flex filament, when I get around to it - might make the sound a bit less “harsh”…
…also perhaps a more invasive version, that replaces the whole cap/sound chamber, and integrates a mount that faces the driver down toward the ear…
I’ve been messing about & have tested a few different designs with mixed results.
This one I thought would sound better due to having more curve but it actually probably sounded a bit quieter.
I also tried adding more of a slope on the way down but I didn’t notice any benefit at all & the print ended up being harder to print one way & heavier the other way.
Taking a small amount off of the inside of the bit which goes over the mas cover was a positive thing as it’s still secure but not as tight now.
So for now I’ve stayed with the original design but tweaked to be not as tight & I’m just test printing a version where I thinned it out a little.
I think I’ve taken about 5 -7 grams off of each one & taken about an hour print time off of a pair.
If it’s good I’ll update the file on thingiverse.
i’ve printed a pair of the original in pla with 1 (0.4mm) wall and 5 percent infill, it works pretty well and they fit rather well on the headstrap. you probably wouldn’t want to ship them without a lot of cushioning though. Not had time to spend time to play with them though.
edit: forgot to mention it took off a fair bit of the time and weight.
It would make a more complicated design. However if you could create it with a more enclosed design so the opening at the headset funnels out to the ear opening ports.
Good idea & this was an idea I was already playing with but there are a few potential problems with it.
Printing will be a lot more difficut as it will need to be bridged &/or built with a lot of supports.
A gap will need to be left at the top as the speaker hole is further in & there needs to be clearance for when you turn the ear cup.
Also if someone wears the headstrap higher or lower & even their own ear position could affect how much of a hole I need to leave at the bottom.
It could end up barely worth it if I am only able to enclose an inch.
Also there is not an easy way I can make the current design slide up & down to let me leave a smaller hole at the ear end.
Although this is something I’ve thought about possibly designing.
I will likely try when I have more spare time, maybe for a future second version along side this one
Indeed. Only thing can maybe think of would be a 2 piece back side cap for enclosing that can maybe have a couple of different caps for possible ear positions. But yeah not easy to come up with a universal design.
Alternatively you could also have say 3 models based smas speaker to ear height with instructions how to determine best model fit.
Printed and tested these myself. Can confirm they do not ever substantially impact the frequency response, with no significant change to frequency response while tilted forward (instead of tilted back out of the way to disable).
Mostly, these seem to just increase volume. Enabling ‘Loudness Equalization’ in the MSW OS is still a good idea though.
Just to let you guys know, I updated the sound cups to a v2 on thingiverse.
No real changes to the way they sound, but I addressed a few minor issues.
I thinned the design out a little as they were a bit thick & overengineered. Will save a bit of plastic & shave some time off of printing.
I angled them inwards a little & changed the slope. This is just ergonomics & helped save a bit of plastic.
I made the fit on the smas ear cup slightly looser by a fraction of a mm so they hopefully won’t dislodge the smas cap when taken off.
If you’re already happy with them, this offers no change in how they work, only how they look. So no need to reprint.
Also if anyone wants any but doesn’t have a 3d printer, I’m selling them on ebay & etsy for £10.95 + postage
I made myself one pair, and this is a night and day difference in volume. Also direction of sound is now different, it is much more immersive.
Sometimes I play while my family watch movie at same room. That was not possible without those ear covers, but now no more problems.
With cups I can wait until my Deluxe/Super - MAS real headphones come to me.
PS: I saw similar solutions for celphone speakers, and I taught it was something bad. I was wrong. Great job mr virtual 
!
Thanks for the great feedback.
I personally use them whenever I use my 8kx & wouldn’t be without them. At least until I get my kdmas if they ever send the backer box to me.
I have sold 3 sets of these on ebay so far & have had item specific very positive feedback from 2, & a very positive ebay message
