Planar Magnetic has always been a relatively unknown term with the casual audio gear buyers. The more common term made popular by Yamaha was Orthodynamic and isodynamic which is again used rarely. These are less common and mostly you will only get dynamic headphones (will explain in later post) in the market to purchase as planar magnetic headphones are relatively expensive. There are very few manufacturers of Best Planar magnetic headphones in the world; namely HiFiMAN, Audeze, MrSpeakers and Oppo primarily.

let’s dive into the basic structure and technicalities of the Planar Magnetic drivers and why they are a big deal:

Planar Magnetic driver:

• Unlike the dynamic headphone which has magnet behind the cone-shaped diaphragm in the voice coil, which helps converts the electrical signal to the audio output, the planar has a slightly different structure

• Here we have two BIG magnets together and in-between them we have a diaphragm or voice coil which is incredibly thin and flat and very lightweight, almost 1/10^th of the size of human hair. Here the flat sheet or the diaphragm carries the electrical signal and when it interacts with the big magnets which cause it to move, the sound is produced. This makes a planar magnetic headphone very sensitive and helps produce even a tiny sound signature very clear and produces audio across all frequencies accurately

Pros:

• Extremely clear sound
• Low, Mid and Highs are clearly defined
• Very sensitive and extremely accurate

Cons:

• Very expensive
• Big in size (its changing nowadays)
• Need lot of power/amp

We have listed a few very popular Planar headphones in the market for you to look at:

1. Audeze LCD-XC, BL, BB, TC Bubinga Planar Magnetic Headphones
2. Audeze SINE On-Ear Planar Magnetic Headphones with Integrated Lightning Cable for Apple iPhone/iPod/iPad
3. HiFiMan – HE-400 Headphones
4. OPPO PM-3 Closed-Back Planar Magnetic Headphones

Happy listening!!!!