What are Planar Magnetic Headphones?
Headphones are very popular nowadays and are still getting more and more popular with the increasing time. In today’s world, there is a very less chance of knowing someone who does not know what headphones are. Headphones come in different sizes and also different shapes and also there are different kinds of headphones for every purpose. Like there are headphones for gaming, for listening to music and then there are those that are used just for casual use, the ones that you would take out with you on a walk or maybe if you are just sitting on
your sofa chilling and watching movies. And with a headphone for different kinds of things, they also come in at different prices. Mainly headphones are basically of three types: Planar Magnetic, Dynamic and Electrostatic. But today we are not going to be discussing the Dynamic and Electrostatic types but we are only going to be talking about the Planar Magnetic Headphones.
Fun fact, during our review of the K7XX from AKG, the headphone sounded very close to a planar magnetic headphone even though it is a dynamic headphone. Basically what we are trying to say is that with right engineering a company can yield better results even with inferior technology. Anyways, still wondering about planar magnetic headphones? Well, let’s dive straight into the details!
What Are Planar Magnetic Headphones
If you are someone who is not very familiar to the world of audio then you might have never heard about the term “Planar Magnetic Headphones”. Well, 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 headphone there 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. In these type of headphones
instead of the voice coil moving the thin largely flat film which is the part that is charged, then 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 than the normal headphones.
Advantages of Planar Magnetic Headphones
Planar Magnetic Technology is a technology that was originally meant for NASA and it has not been long since this technology has been introduced to the audio world. This is the reason that the technology is fairly new and not many people know about this technology. But the Planar Magnetic Headphones are much better than the traditional headphones. The first and probably the biggest advantage that the Planar Magnetic Headphones have over the Dynamic Headphones is that the Planar Magnetic Headphones sound much better than the regular old headphones. The quality of the sound and the overall quality of the Planar Magnetic Headphone is much better when compared to that of the simple Dynamic Headphones. The reason would be that the Dynamic Headphone Drivers have a coil that is attached to its center but the Planar Magnetic Headphones don’t use the force on just one point, the diaphragms of the Planar Magnetic Drivers move along the whole surface. This allows the diaphragm to move very steadily at different frequencies and also the movement is equal on both the sides that is because of the magnets present on both sides of the diaphragm. Thus a very accurate and clear sound is produced.
Disadvantages of Planar Magnetic Headphones
Although the Planar Magnetic Headphones have many advantages such as better sound quality and all but these headphones certainly have their own disadvantages as well. The downside to the Planar Magnetic Headphones is that the headphones are very wide and are also very heavy this is due to the heavy magnets present inside the Planar Magnetic Headphones that adds to the overall weight of the headphones and also to house the magnets a larger and wider headphone body is needed. That is why the Planar Magnetic Headphones are usually very wide and also feel very heavy when using them.
Conclusion
There is no doubt that the Planar Magnetic headphones sound a lot better than the Dynamic headphones and there is no voice distortion in them, but you must also know that these headphones are a little heavy and they do cost more than the Dynamic headphones. So you should get the Planar Magnetic headphones if you are willing to spend a little more.
