Get all your news in one place.
100's of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
TechRadar
TechRadar
Tom Bedford

Someone built headphones made from Scrub Daddy sponges, and that's not even the surprising part — they delivered 'godly' audiophile-level measurement results

A pair of headphones with Scrub Daddy sponges on the outside of the earcups.
  • An audio engineer has built headphones using Scrub Daddy sponges
  • The cans offer frequency response akin to top-end models…
  • ...yet these were sold online for just $100, though you won't be able to buy one

If you've ever thought that headphones all look too similar nowadays, then here's something you'll love to see. An audio engineer has built headphones using yellow smiley-face sponges — I'm assured Scrub Daddy is a household name — and they're apparently surprisingly good.

On Reddit, a well-known sound engineer called Pud — u/pudjam667 (who often shares their creations on the platform, and at Pud.com) — has revealed their latest concoction: open-back headphones with the internals housed within Scrub Daddy sponges.

The headphones, which bear 50mm drivers and were tuned to cater for the spongey material (with some other materials used to complete the acoustic design), were put to the test and performed shockingly well.

As per the frequency response graphs, the cans have surprisingly flat bass response, with the curve likely making owners of the best headphones green with envy for how flat it is. One could say they soak up the bass.

The creator themselves referred to its "godly frequency response", comparing them to HiFiman HE1000s, and commenters have compared them to various top-end products. Even Sennheiser itself got involved, complimenting the creator for his work via their Reddit account.

I made Scrub Daddy headphones [swipe for godly frequency response measurement] from r/headphones

Time to buy a pair?

The Scrub Daddy headphones are a one-and-done type product. I'm sorry to say, you'll never be able to buy them yourself.

In comments under the post, u/pudjam667 described how they made the pair with their son, "to help teach him about commerce", and the pair was put on sale on the engineer's website once done.

The price was just $100, which could land them on our list of the best cheap headphones, if Scrub Daddy decided to get involved and help make these things a reality.

Pud has a wide range of various headphone inventions, and the Scrub Daddy cans are probably the most regularly-looking ones, perhaps surprisingly. Next on the list is probably the pair made from Croc shoes (well, a mimicry of them, at least), which also tested shockingly well.

Both sets of headphones are certainly much more practical than Pud's ultra-bassy headphones, called Ol' Thumpy, which make you look like a human barbell.

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100's of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.