Headphones are actually a particularly large market, and I made a brief classification table of this market. I marked out some kinds of earphones that FiiO have in red. Therefore, some users think that we produce too many new products launched too fast, but strictly speaking, it is not enough.
Of course, it is unrealistic and unnecessary for us to cover every category. However, if there is a will of a earphones/headphones manufacturer that really wants to stand out in the earphone market, several models or even dozens of models are indeed far from enough.
At present, FiiO is still focusing on the earphones market. Today, I will talk about the characteristics of earphones and purchase reference, based on our market feedback, sales data and our talks with audiophiles in recent years.
Open earplugs. The advantage is that it is comfortable to wear and there is no intrusion to our ears. But the disadvantage is that due to its failure to seal well, the bass will leak, and the treble and details will be disturbed by the outside environment. Best for sleeping and enjoying old songs from 2000.
Balanced Armature earplugs. Due to the working principle of the BA driver, it has a strong sense of speed, good transient characterustics and high resolution. However, since the elasticity of its driver edge is weaker than the dynamic driver’s, so it has smaller effective vibration area. Thus it is impossible to form an air cushion in the front and back cavity just like a dynamic driver does, and it loses some charm therefore. BA earplugs are most suitable for listening to electronic percussion, metal rock and other similar styles of song music.
Dynamic driver IEMs. The advantages and disadvantages of DD IEMs are almost the opposite of those of BA IEMs. One feature of dynamic driver is that it is not easy to make bad sounds. So it is also the most widely used and the most suitable for many types of music. If there is no special listening preference, the DD IEMs are the most cost-effective choice. The only thing to note is that, limited to the working principle of the dynamic driver, it is difficult to make the frequency response very wide. Therefore, it may be slightly insufficient to play some new songs using the latest high sampling rate digital recording technology.
Dynamic driver and balanced armature hybrid IEMs. The combination of DD and BA enjoys the advantages of both drivers. And it is easy to do a good job in bass and treble, while the vocal mids is still sweet and smooth. So it is currently the most popular one. Some people will say that it is not easy to do well in terms of phase distortion, the connection is not ideal, and the tone is not consistent. But from a physiological point of view, people are not sensitive to phase distortion and the connection of each range is now mature with various crossover technologies. As for the inconsistency of timbre, I personally think that in real-world music, the timbre of each instrument itself is different. In light of this, the price of DD+BA IEMs are more reasonable. Because bass are generally sounded by all kinds of drums, and it is more reasonable to use dynamic drivers. While high frequency is generally sounded by a variety of metal musical instruments, so it is more suitable to employ balanced armature driver. For some instruments with a wide range, such as the piano, it is indeed more suitable for single dynamic driver IEMs.
Therefore, at this new product launch event, we will present two new DD+BA IEMs for you. I'll talk more about them later.
PS, the above description of the differences between various kinds of earphones is only my personal opinion, if you have different opinions, then you are right.
Of course, it is unrealistic and unnecessary for us to cover every category. However, if there is a will of a earphones/headphones manufacturer that really wants to stand out in the earphone market, several models or even dozens of models are indeed far from enough.
At present, FiiO is still focusing on the earphones market. Today, I will talk about the characteristics of earphones and purchase reference, based on our market feedback, sales data and our talks with audiophiles in recent years.
Open earplugs. The advantage is that it is comfortable to wear and there is no intrusion to our ears. But the disadvantage is that due to its failure to seal well, the bass will leak, and the treble and details will be disturbed by the outside environment. Best for sleeping and enjoying old songs from 2000.
Balanced Armature earplugs. Due to the working principle of the BA driver, it has a strong sense of speed, good transient characterustics and high resolution. However, since the elasticity of its driver edge is weaker than the dynamic driver’s, so it has smaller effective vibration area. Thus it is impossible to form an air cushion in the front and back cavity just like a dynamic driver does, and it loses some charm therefore. BA earplugs are most suitable for listening to electronic percussion, metal rock and other similar styles of song music.
Dynamic driver IEMs. The advantages and disadvantages of DD IEMs are almost the opposite of those of BA IEMs. One feature of dynamic driver is that it is not easy to make bad sounds. So it is also the most widely used and the most suitable for many types of music. If there is no special listening preference, the DD IEMs are the most cost-effective choice. The only thing to note is that, limited to the working principle of the dynamic driver, it is difficult to make the frequency response very wide. Therefore, it may be slightly insufficient to play some new songs using the latest high sampling rate digital recording technology.
Dynamic driver and balanced armature hybrid IEMs. The combination of DD and BA enjoys the advantages of both drivers. And it is easy to do a good job in bass and treble, while the vocal mids is still sweet and smooth. So it is currently the most popular one. Some people will say that it is not easy to do well in terms of phase distortion, the connection is not ideal, and the tone is not consistent. But from a physiological point of view, people are not sensitive to phase distortion and the connection of each range is now mature with various crossover technologies. As for the inconsistency of timbre, I personally think that in real-world music, the timbre of each instrument itself is different. In light of this, the price of DD+BA IEMs are more reasonable. Because bass are generally sounded by all kinds of drums, and it is more reasonable to use dynamic drivers. While high frequency is generally sounded by a variety of metal musical instruments, so it is more suitable to employ balanced armature driver. For some instruments with a wide range, such as the piano, it is indeed more suitable for single dynamic driver IEMs.
Therefore, at this new product launch event, we will present two new DD+BA IEMs for you. I'll talk more about them later.
PS, the above description of the differences between various kinds of earphones is only my personal opinion, if you have different opinions, then you are right.
