[mercatorn]

Are there any full sized headphones with more than 1 driver? I see a lot of IEMs with 2,3,4 drivers and it makes a vast improvement for the sound. So why not full size headphones too? If anyone can enlighten me or knows of a headphone  thanks for the info! 

 

[KamijoIsMyHero]

AKG 270, heard it at a meet, it sounded nice

 

[nff]

you have to remember that  the IEM's are not dynamic drivers.  BA drivers take up almost no space  hence why they can cram 8 into a custom earpiece.  i think imaging may be weird with multi driver full sized cans. but until i listen to one that's properly made i wont know.  

 

[kalbee]

Quote:

you have to remember that  the IEM's are not dynamic drivers.

There are quite a few dual dynamic driver IEMs out there, although more than that I don't think I've seen before.
BAs + Dynamic isn't all that rare either.
 
 
 
There ARE in fact some headphones with multiple drivers per side... let's say that in recent days there's only a few cases of them still happening as far as I know:
-Gaming headphones (the surround sound type specially; probably not audiophile approved)
-Dedicated subwoofer type of diaphragm added for extra bass (can't say the result is good; some people might disagree)
 
In other cases, there are some vintage headphones that have multiple drivers per side. Some of them will require more than one set of plugs to run them... which may be a problem with today's equipment, or just needlessly expensive to make work.
Then there was the Beats Solo HD that used something similar as I recall. Not entirely sure if that's still being done.
Surely there are a few odd/special ones here and there within modern headphones but it's not a widespread practice.
 
What you should know though is that IEMs and headphones don't play the same ball game. I'm not really an expert at it either so my explanation may not be completely correct... but just a bit of info for your own reading pleasure.
IEMs with multiple drivers sometimes have dedicated canals for each driver or each driver group, in order not to congest and mix too much the sound coming out of different drivers before it gets to your ears. All this happens inside the IEM, and is doable because the drivers are small.
When it comes to full sized headphones, your drivers are much larger as well so employing the same canal technique may be problematic in size and form, but also might make things sounds more unnatural.

 

[nff]

Quote:

There are quite a few dual dynamic driver IEMs out there, although more than that I don't think I've seen before.
BAs + Dynamic isn't all that rare either.
 
 
 
There ARE in fact some headphones with multiple drivers per side... let's say that in recent days there's only a few cases of them still happening as far as I know:
-Gaming headphones (the surround sound type specially; probably not audiophile approved)
-Dedicated subwoofer type of diaphragm added for extra bass (can't say the result is good; some people might disagree)
 
In other cases, there are some vintage headphones that have multiple drivers per side. Some of them will require more than one set of plugs to run them... which may be a problem with today's equipment, or just needlessly expensive to make work.
Then there was the Beats Solo HD that used something similar as I recall. Not entirely sure if that's still being done.
Surely there are a few odd/special ones here and there within modern headphones but it's not a widespread practice.
 
What you should know though is that IEMs and headphones don't play the same ball game. I'm not really an expert at it either so my explanation may not be completely correct... but just a bit of info for your own reading pleasure.
IEMs with multiple drivers sometimes have dedicated canals for each driver or each driver group, in order not to congest and mix too much the sound coming out of different drivers before it gets to your ears. All this happens inside the IEM, and is doable because the drivers are small.
When it comes to full sized headphones, your drivers are much larger as well so employing the same canal technique may be problematic in size and form, but also might make things sounds more unnatural.

i didn't mean to generalize all iems  i meant BA  iems.  and yes the multi ba (3+) iems usually have tuning canals due to needing different lengths to properly tune the FQ response to what is desired.    and i failed to mention the gaming headphones because they do nothing well.  i did not know about the beats. I've tried them just never known that they were multi driver.  (wasn't impressed either way)   and yes i agree tuning dynamic drivers in such a small space without resulting to something that feels like your being ear raped by an alien (circum aural with IEM like tubes)    the only truly audiophile headphone that uses more than one driver per side is the Take T  which has an external super tweeter.  

 

[blueangel2323]

JVC HA-SZ1000/2000 - 55mm subwoofer + 30mm mid/treble http://www.head-fi.org/t/661129/jvc-ha-sz2000-1000-appreciation-thread
 
And this: http://www.head-fi.org/t/671971/new-monoprice-premium-headphones-10243-10244-10245-10246

 

[DJHeadshot]

Razer, Trittonaudio, and Turtle Beach have headphones with multiple drivers the Razer Tiamat for example has 10 drivers and only $200!!! the HD 800 is $1500 and only has 2 drivers I think its clear which is the better deal and yes this is me being sarcastic before someone takes this seriously.

 

[kalbee]

Quote:

i didn't mean to generalize all iems  i meant BA  iems.  and yes the multi ba (3+) iems usually have tuning canals due to needing different lengths to properly tune the FQ response to what is desired.    and i failed to mention the gaming headphones because they do nothing well.  i did not know about the beats. I've tried them just never known that they were multi driver.  (wasn't impressed either way)   and yes i agree tuning dynamic drivers in such a small space without resulting to something that feels like your being ear raped by an alien (circum aural with IEM like tubes)    the only truly audiophile headphone that uses more than one driver per side is the Take T  which has an external super tweeter.  

Yeah the TakeT was pretty phenomenal in its own rights.
The beats I mentioned--I remember seeing that they had a regular dynamic driver plus a piezzo (same type of thing as used in the TakeT and some old Pioneers).
 
Quote:

JVC HA-SZ1000/2000 - 55mm subwoofer + 30mm mid/treble http://www.head-fi.org/t/661129/jvc-ha-sz2000-1000-appreciation-thread
 
And this: http://www.head-fi.org/t/671971/new-monoprice-premium-headphones-10243-10244-10245-10246

Those JVCs are one of the things I was mentioning about. They're not very good sounding for the asking price. That's another issue though.
 
As for the vintage stuff, here's one example: http://www.head-fi.org/t/420490/show-us-your-vintage-headphones (the first picture)
 
Tweeters as a separate driver inside a full sized headphone seems like it could work well.

 

[mercatorn]

The general opinion it seems is that  BA drivers are faster and provide better treble freq. response among other advantages etc... while Dynamic drivers are generally 'preferred' for their warm sound.
 
Most people think splitting up the driver duties between Low/mid/high freq. in IEMs provide a more accurate, faster, and detailed sound. Hence high end IEMs almost seem to always have multiple drivers.
 
Why isn't this philosophy being tested or applied to larger on ear or over hear headphones is my question i suppose!

 

[GREQ]

 
These vintage headphones have two identical drivers per channel that have different damping schemes so each driver can focus on different frequencies. 

 

[Torac]

I listened to the the technics EAH-T700 not long ago and it uses a separate angled super tweeter. It sounded pretty decent but I wouldn't say it sounded as good as similar priced headphones that used single dynamic, planar or electrostatic drivers.

 

[prescient]

A configuration similar to KEFs Uni-Q driver seems like it could work.

 

[Torac]

I believe that is what some headphones do, like others above have said, where they use an outer diaphram for bass and an inner one for mids and highs, I know the v-moda m100s use this and they manage to separate bass well and leave it defined.

 

[BLACKADDER88]

that look like satolex dh- 4000 2 way headphone that a got at vv 2 day ago ////

 

[SHAMuuu]

UFO China magic x 12