About

Makerphones is an open reference for designing and building your own headphones: real engineering, explained plainly enough that a first-time builder can follow it and trust it. It’s written and maintained by one person, and it’s free to read.

The author

Jamey Warren has spent 25+ years in professional audio and the headphone industry:

• Grace Design: employee #1 (1997–2001), then consulting through 2003
• HeadRoom: VP of Operations, then President & CEO (2003–2017); relaunched the entire headphone-amplifier line
• Now designing his own open-back headphone, the Daily Driver, in the open, with AI as a design partner

That background is the reason this manual exists: production experience at scale, thousands of headphones tested, and the kind of manufacturer knowledge that’s usually locked behind NDAs, written down for makers instead.

With thanks

Two debts sit behind this manual. I owe my headphone knowledge, specifically, to Tyll Hertsens of HeadRoom — much of what’s here traces back to him. And my real audio-engineering education came from Michael and Eben Grace: the years I spent at Grace Design, working directly under the two brothers, were my true schooling in this craft.

workshop photo, real shot coming

The Daily Driver

The Daily Driver is the process happening in the open: an open-back headphone being designed with the same methods these chapters teach, driver selection, baffle and enclosure design, damping, measurement, voicing, and with AI as a design partner, the workflow the Designing Headphones with AI chapter lays out. The full design spec is published in the build guides, and the source files live in the open at github.com/makerphones/daily-driver. The design story and its measurements will follow here as the build progresses.

The manual

Six parts, 33 chapters, published openly as they’re finished: browse the contents. The manual is the product, and the chapters stay free to read forever. Prefer it as a book? The ebook is out now on Amazon Kindle, with a print edition on the way.