[sugarkang]

There has to be a reason for why all headphones seem to max out at 50mm drivers. 

 

[Doorbell]

I was wondering this too haha.

 

[sugarkang]

Maybe it's because 50mm already looks ridiculous just trying to make that comfortable.
Just the way surface area works, 60mm would also be considerably heavier.
 
That said, I still don't know why a manufacturer hasn't tried. 

 

[K2e2vin]

There's not much 2-way/multi-driver setups either.  IEMs are already at, what, around 3 drivers(technically 6 for the double armatures)?  Home and car audio also use multiple drivers so full-size headphones are pretty much the gap.
 
Though, it's probably all about packaging.  Maybe if the driver is large the padding would have to be even larger, etc.  May even need more power to drive properly.

 

[yifu]

Im pretyt sure the HD800 have got 56mm drivers. But i would say 56 mm seems to be the max because a typical ear is like 70mm? diameter? So any bigger and it would just be way to heavy and uncomfortable. Imagine a headphone that covers your whole head! That would be bad.

 

[sugarkang]

Wonder what size the T1 has?  Searched, but couldn't find anything.

 

[nickchen]

We've had a visit at Sennheiser last year and uttered the same question. We've been told that bigger conventional diaphragms start wobbling at certain frequencies, which has a severe decrease in SQ as result. That was the reason they built that ring driver, which has a higher stability of its own.
 
I personally think it's also the greater driver size of many orthos and stats is what makes them sound so incredibly coherent in comparison to conventional dynamic systems.

 

[DefectiveAudioComponent]

The vintage Pioneer Monitor 10 has a 57mm (mylar cone) driver.

 

[Ham Sandwich]

Quote:

 Imagine a headphone that covers your whole head! That would be bad.

Imagine a Jecklin Float. 

 
 
The LCD-2 ortho driver has a surface area of 6.17 square inches.  That works out to be about a 71mm driver.  It's also heavy due to the magnets necessary for an ortho.

 

[majestic12]

I'm content with the 53mm drivers in my ATs...

 

[sugarkang]

Interesting.  Except your answer only leads to another question:
Why are we able to produce loudspeakers that may range
between 2" for bookshelf type and up to 20" drivers for concert/club settings?
 
Perhaps it has to do with range?  Maybe the bigger the driver gets,
it loses ability to do higher frequencies, and thus we'd lose too much treble?
Otherwise, I don't get it.
 
Quote:

We've had a visit at Sennheiser last year and uttered the same question. We've been told that bigger conventional diaphragms start wobbling at certain frequencies, which has a severe decrease in SQ as result. That was the reason they built that ring driver, which has a higher stability of its own.

 

[Xymordos]

I have a feeling that when you get huge drivers you're just gonna hear bass...

 

[K2e2vin]

Yeah; I mean just look at how many car and home audio speakers are set up: tweeters for the highs(I believe many are even smaller than headphone drivers), mids which are a little bigger, and the biggest, subwoofers, are for bass.
 
Many speakers at concerts and such are usually at least 2-way or part of some sort of component setup.

 

[nickchen]

Quote:

Interesting.  Except your answer only leads to another question:
Why are we able to produce loudspeakers that may range
between 2" for bookshelf type and up to 20" drivers for concert/club settings?
 
Perhaps it has to do with range?  Maybe the bigger the driver gets,
it loses ability to do higher frequencies, and thus we'd lose too much treble?
Otherwise, I don't get it.
 

Loudspeaker systems are much more solid compared to those transparent tiny thin high res diaphragms that get used in today's HPs. I remember the time when they were built similar to loudspeakers, man, that old Telefunken thing of my childhood with its big and stiff cardboard drivers didn't sound exactly overwhelming...

 

[jmb777]

i just picked up a pair of these this week, 
apparently they have 2 speakers per earcup, a 30mm tweeter and a.................wait for it.................  90mm subwoofer
may need a bigger amp to actually get these to work