DYNAMIC VS. PLANAR MAGNETIC DRIVERS

Over 99% of all headphones use what is commonly known as dynamic drivers. In a dynamic driver, a metal coil is inserted into a magnetic eld and xed to a suspended driver cone. When a charge is applied to the coil, it reacts with the magnetic eld, causing the driver cone to move and produce sound.

Planar magnetic drivers work very di erently. Here, a thin conductive diaphragm is typically positioned between two magnets. When an electrical charge is applied, the diaphragm reacts to the magnetic eld of the magnets and moves to produce sound.

So instead of focusing force on a small part (the voice coil in a dynamic driver), the motive force is spread across the entire diaphragm. The upsides to this are increased responsiveness, a wider frequency range, and lower distortion. On the other hand, because the magnets need to cover the entire diaphragm, planar magnetic driver headphones can be heavy and bulky. They are usually also quite ine cient and require much more power to drive.