Re: How to make home made headphones

Jason,

The short answer to your question is Yes … and No.

However, you must remember that there are headphones that sell for 
$10 - $500 (don't forget the disposables on the airplanes). Which 
type are of interest to you?

Some speakers have an electromagnet (wire wrapped around an 
iron core) and a metal piece to respond to the fluctuations caused by 
the electrical signal). Newer technology uses ceramic or piezoelectric 
devices as a transducer to convert electrical signals to mechanical 
energy. These require less power and produce less waste heat. 

Then there must be a springy material that can move some air in 
response to that variable magnetic field to tickle your ears. The 
springy response of all this will need to be faster than the 
frequencies you're interested in hearing. That feature in particular, 
along with some means of keeping other ambient noise out of your 
ears, is the cost factor we see in the store. 

Making speakers for a room is certainly an interesting engineering 
job for many people. They can be tweaked to deliver the optimum 
fidelity for a specific type of music. I have built several where size and 
weight are often positive features. But to fabricate something to fit into 
your ear or balance on your head and still deliver some quality sound, 
is really out of the realm of homemade projects. 

Sorry to be of little help unless saving you a lot of time is help. If you 
are looking for a type of kit to assemble that has had all of the tricky 
work done for you, you might do a web search for such a source. 

Gene Ewald