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Planar Magnetic Headphones vs Dynamic Headphones

Not every one of us is an audiophile or a sound master as people would call it, and thus not every one of us knows that there are actually three types of headphones. Because generally we would only go to a shop and buy a headset that is according to our tastes and sounds good and we never really felt the need to know if there are any more type of headphones that are being manufactured. Well, worry not because today we will tell about these types of headphones. The three types of headphones are Dynamic, Planar Magnetic and the very high-end ones The Electrostatic. We will be differencing between the Dynamic and The Planar Magnetic Headphones.

Dynamic Headphones

Dynamic Headphones are the most common type of headphones available in the market. If you have a headphone then the chances are that the very headset that you own is also a dynamic headphone. These headphones are easy to manufacture and thus are easily available in the market for anyone, these headphones don’t cost a lot either and almost everyone can afford these headphones and hence their popularity. Every headset has a driver inside it, the Dynamic Headphones have a Dynamic driver inside them and hence the name of the headphones.

A glimpse of the famous Sennheiser HD800s Dynamic Headphones

The Dynamic driver that is found in these headphones is a really standard type of driver that is used in the headphones. The dynamic driver can be found in almost all the headphones, whether it be cheap or expensive. The reason for their popularity is that they are very simple in design and also in working. The dynamic drivers work with the help of an electromagnet, the electromagnet is attached to a coil which is attached to the diaphragm. The coil of wire that is present in the dynamic drivers is extremely thin. The electric signal from the device passes through this thin coil which in turn produces a magnetic field around the wire, which then results in this magnetic field reacting with the electromagnet’s magnetic field. This makes the coil to move in a to and fro motion and because of the movement of the coil, the diaphragm also vibrates because the coil is attached to the diaphragm. The vibration of the diaphragm then results in the production of the sound.

If you are someone who has had the privilege to use both, Dynamic and the Planar Magnetic headphones then you might have noticed that the bass in the Dynamic headphones sounded a lot better than it did in the Planar Magnetic ones. This is because of the reason that the diaphragm vibrates in the Dynamic headphones and the harder the diaphragm will vibrate the higher the sound will be produced and hence we can hear a heavier bass in the Dynamic headphones. But we can feel that the sound is distorted at higher levels.

Planar Magnetic Headphones

Planar Magnetic Headphones are the type of headphones that are not commonly known and most of the people don’t even know that if headphones of this type even exist. If you are one of those persons who don’t know if these headphones are even real or not then you don’t have to worry about anything because these type of headphones are not really common and you might have never heard of these headphones being made by any company, that is because there are very few companies that actually produce Planar Magnetic Headphones. Now we all know that in a basic headphone there is a voice coil that has a cone-shaped diaphragm with it and also that there is a magnet behind all of these things. Well like all the other headphones, the Planar Magnetic Headphones also have a magnet inside them but unlike the dynamic headphones, the magnetic force that is present in the Planar Magnetic Drivers is equally distributed throughout every zone immersed by the electrical conductors.

The Audeze LCD-2 Planar Magnetic Headphones

In these type of headphones instead of the voice coil moving, the thin largely flat film which is also the charged part here is spread all over the drivers so it doesn’t focus the force on just one small part but what it does is that it spreads all across the diaphragm. For this to happen large magnets are needed on both sides of the diaphragm which can be found inside the Planar Magnetic Headphones and thus we can feel that the Planar Magnetic Headphones are heavier and bulkier than the normal Dynamic headphones.

This type of headphones consume a little more power than the Dynamic headphones and are usually more expensive as this technology is still relatively new. The bass may not feel very heavy as it does in the Dynamic headphones but the sound isn’t distorted in the Planar Magnetic headphones even at higher levels.

Which is better?

Well, both of these headphones have their own pros and their own cons like the sound quality of the Dynamic headphones is not better than the sound quality of the Planar Magnetic ones, although the bass is stronger in the Dynamic headphones. The Planar Magnetic headphones sound very good and the audio isn’t distorted even at higher volume levels while the audio feels distorted at a higher volume in the Dynamic headphones. But we know that the Planar Magnetic headphones are very heavy and bulky as compared to the regular Dynamic headphones.

Coming to the conclusion we cannot say who the real winner among the two of them is because both of them have their advantages and disadvantages. However, if you are a basic user and you want to go for something cheap then you should consider getting the Dynamic headphones. On the other hand, if you are a person who wants the perfect crisp and clear sound and is willing to pay a little more then you should go for the Planar Magnetic headphones.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Bill Wilson


Bill is a certified Microsoft Professional providing assistance to over 500 remotely connected employees and managing Windows 2008 to 2016 servers.