An evaluation of 3D printing for the manufacture of a binaural recording device

Abstract With increasing availability of low-cost, high fidelity 3D printers, complex designs which previously proved costly to manufacture can be made readily available for research and public engagement. This work reports on the development of a binaural recording device which is tested for compatibility on 4 commercial 3D printers, each offering different print capabilities. The primary objective is to demonstrate the potential for open access designs that can be reliably 3D printed but maintain a high fidelity on the recorded HRTF. The influence of both the overall manufacturing strategy and pinna print material were investigated. A dummy head was printed and used to generate a database of HRTF’s in the horizontal plane. The HRTF’s are compared per material and relative effects are observed. A numerical simulation for the rigid boundary case provides validation data and serves as verification of the manufacturing strategy and acts as a baseline to inspect influence of pinna print material.