There are a large number of factors that contribute to one’s headphone purchasing decisions. For those looking to purchase headphones, there’s more to headphones than meets the eye. It’s not just about how pretty or appealing they look; it’s more about the technical specifications and how they’re made. In a previous post, we mentioned impedance and how it affects your headphones. In this post, we’ll go over one of the most important specifications of headphones — the driver. If you’d like to watch a video on this topic, you can check out our Dekoni U video below where we discuss the most common types of headphone drivers in the audio space.

What Is A Headphone Driver?

Screen Shot 2021-09-03 at 1.10.18 PM The driver is the most important component of your headphones. This device is what produces the sound you hear when you listen to your music or other forms of audio. The driver, also known as the transducer, converts the electrical signal that gets sent through the cable into sound. Or if you’re using wireless headphones, the electrical signal gets sent through the radio frequency transmission and gets converted into sound. However, not all headphone drivers are the same. They vary in size and style depending on the type of technology used to engineer them. Let’s take a look at some of the most common types of headphone drivers and how they work.

What Are Dynamic Drivers?

Screen Shot 2021-09-03 at 1.10.42 PM Dynamic drivers are the most common type of drivers found in your headphones. This is because they are the most cost-effective and highly functional drivers. The dynamic driver consists of a magnet, a voice coil, and a diaphragm. The magnet is regularly made out of neodymium which produces a powerful magnetic pull, even in small amounts, making it perfect for small electronics. The voice coil is made out of copper or aluminum wire and it circulates around the magnet. The diaphragm is made of a thin membrane (usually made out of plastic or fabric material) and circulates around the edges of the driver. This particular type of driver uses electromagnetism to generate sound in headphones. Once the electrical signal passes through the voice coils, it changes its polarity and creates a magnetic field with the magnet. This allows the diaphragm to move in directions determined by the particular electrical signal. Since dynamic drivers have the ability to use a wide range of materials for the diaphragm, they can create larger and stronger drivers that displace more air. This allows for low-frequency oscillations or bass frequencies to excel with these drivers. However, a downside to dynamic drivers is that they are susceptible to distortion, especially at high volume levels. This distortion is called over-excursion, which is where a driver gets pushed past its mechanical limits. In other words, if the voice coil gets pushed beyond the magnet, it will no longer generate a clear sound. Dynamic drivers are also built heavier and work a bit slower than other drivers. Because of this, they are slower to respond to changes in the magnetic field created when the electrical signal is sent. Although, because it uses a simple mechanism for driving sound, they are very effective, affordable, and do not require excessive power to reach high volume levels. This may allow you to purchase headphones without needing to worry about purchasing an external headphone amp. Some dynamic drivers, however, do require a bit of power depending on their impedance and sensitivity. For example, headphones such as the 600 Ohm Beyerdynamic DT880 will require an additional power source.

What Are Planar Drivers?

Screen Shot 2021-09-03 at 1.11.07 PM Planar drivers operate similarly to dynamic drivers. They both utilize a magnetic field to produce sound. However, the main difference is that planar drivers don’t use voice coils to move the diaphragm. The magnetic field generated by the magnet directly activates the diaphragm to create sound. And in order for this to work, planar drivers use either several magnets or a larger magnet so that the vibrations can be easily distributed to the diaphragm. Because of this, the weight of the headphones is increased and requires more power to drive the headphones. This may require you to purchase a headphone amplifier to increase the power of the audio signal. You’ll notice that headphones that use planar drivers differentiate from the shape of dynamic drivers. They usually sport a rectangular shape as opposed to a circular shape. The main benefits of headphones that use planar drivers are that they provide a great bass response and sound quality with low distortion. However, the drawback of these drivers is that they are a bit larger and heavier and usually require an additional audio power source — such as a headphone amp. An example of headphones that use a planar driver is the Audeze LCD headphones.

What Are Electrostatic Drivers?

Electrostatic headphone driver Electrostatic headphone drivers utilize a different operating system than the other technologies we went over so far. Electrostatic drivers use static electricity to create sound. In an electrostatic driver, you’ll find a thin membrane, or diaphragm, located between two metal plates. The driver works by creating an electric field that produces vibrations that causes the diaphragm in the middle to push and pull against the metal plates. The diaphragm’s movement causes the air to be pushed through the perforations, which are the holes within the metal plates. This will then ultimately produce the sound in your headphones. Also, because of how thin the membrane is, it can react much quicker to shifts in the magnetic field, which allows for a more accurate representation of the audio. You’ll typically find electrostatic drivers in high-end open-back headphones and are more expensive than the traditional dynamic driver headphones. Headphones that use these particular drivers are more suitable for audiophiles seeking exceptional sound quality in their headphones. The downsides to these types of headphones are that they are bulky, more expensive, aren’t portable, and require a lot of power to drive the headphones. Because of this, they require special headphone energizers — which can be quite expensive — to power the headphones. Electrostatic drivers also have trouble producing low frequencies so they are sometimes paired with a dynamic driver as well.

What Are Balanced Armature Drivers?

Balanced armature headphone driver Balanced armature headphone drivers are much smaller than the other drivers we mentioned. You’ll find these drivers in smaller devices — such as in-ear monitors (shortened to IEMs), and hearing aids. Similar to dynamic and planar drivers, this driver uses a magnetic field to produce sound. This driver has a magnetic armature, or a long rod-looking device, resting on a pivot. The balanced armature then pivots between two magnets once the electric current is sent through the coil. The motion of the balanced armature causes the diaphragm to move and create sound. However, because balanced armature drivers cannot displace a good amount of air, it lacks in delivering a wide range of frequencies — such as bass. Because of this, many IEMs and other devices use multiple balanced armature drivers in order to reach a wide range of frequencies. Each driver is delegated to a certain range of frequencies and they’ll often have an individual driver — which is often a dynamic driver — included to reach lower frequencies. The main benefits armature drivers give are that they give an excellent treble response, can use multiple drivers to reach a wide range of frequencies, and are small and efficient.

Conclusion

Hopefully, you were able to gain a better understanding of the most common headphone drivers in the audio space. You’ll find that some of the drivers we mentioned in this post are also used in speakers, which operate very similarly to headphones. Again, you’ll typically find dynamic drivers in most headphones because they are the cheapest and simplest to make. However, just because they’re the cheapest, that doesn’t make them the worst out of the bunch. Each driver has its benefits and downsides, depending on the headphones and how you plan to use them. If you’re someone looking to improve the sound and comfort of your headphones, we have a variety of headphone accessories — including attenuation kits and upgraded ear pads — that can allow you to modify your headphones as you pursue the perfect listening experience. For more information on this, check us out at Dekoniaudio.com.

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