[terrymx]

i read a discussion awhile ago about the differences between 40mm and 50mm drivers. apparently, even some of the most expensive headphones only use 40mm drivers. i heard how there is more uncontrolled bass and voltage consumption problem with bigger dynamic drivers. i have no idea though. there are very few headphones that does have 50mm drivers. please educate me more on this.

 

[Zuerst]

Doesn't the R10, CD3000 and most AT cans use 50mm+ drivers?

 

[pedxing]

There are many other factors besides the size of the driver that will affect quality such as the acoustic enclosure. Frankly, I don't even think about the size of the drivers when I buy headphones.

Edit: I didn't mean to sound like this discussion was pointless. In fact, I am kinda interested what people have to say about this, but I have a feeling most cases would end up comparing apples to oranges unless someone was willing enough to swap drivers between headphones.

 

[Edwood]

The R10's use 50mm drivers.

-Ed

 

[lini]

terrymx: It's like with speakers. On one hand, a larger diameter will result in a higher efficiency and in theory also less distortion due to less movement. On the other hand, you'll also get more bundling effects in the highs and possible distortion by the diaphragm moving in itself (= not being perfectly rigid).

Conclusion is, that there probably is no ideal size...

Greetings from Hannover!

Manfred / lini

 

[markl]

IIRC, the better Audio Technicas use 55mm drivers. With speaker cones, the larger the cone, the better the bass response, the more air it can move. I would *imagine* that might translate to headphones, but I really don't know?

If forced to choose between two unknown cans where all I knew was one had 50mm drivers and the other had 25mm drivers, I'd pick the one with the bigger drivers for fear the smaller ones mght have that typical puny micro-sized sound field/soundstage that typical portable cans have. My *guess* would be the larger drivers would help create a larger sense of scale and space to the imaging, but who knows?