John Darko
“In a dynamic driver, the voice coil vibrates which vibrates the entire diaphragm to make sound. However, in doing so it is easy to produce uneven vibrations across different parts of the diaphragm and thus leads to distortion when producing higher frequencies. The diaphragm of a planar magnetic driver is a large flat surface, with coils spread throughout and being moved by a uniform magnetic field. Thus, unlike a dynamic driver, sound from a planar magnetic driver is produced by a more even movement across the entire diaphragm, leading to less uneven vibrations across different parts and thus reduced distortion.”
That’s FiiO’s Chief R&D engineer Joseph on the difference between dynamic driver headphones and their planar magnetic brethren. 2023 has already seen the Chinese manufacturer give us the FT3 dynamic – in 32 Ohm and 350 Ohm variants and for under €300 – and today, FiiO is announcing the FT5, a planar magnetic open-back headphone that adds its cousin’s interchangeable cable terminations (3.5mm, 4.4mm and XLR) to a 1.5m length of “392-wire High-purity Silver-plated Monocrystalline Copper” whilst also carrying over the FT3’s swappable suede and ‘protein leather’ earpads and a leather carry case.
On driver specs, say hello to a 90mm, 6μm thin planar driver with eleven magnets sitting earside and nine on the outside.
From the press materials: “The FT5 adopts a nanoscale diaphragm coating process — the coils of the driver are printed onto the diaphragm using high-end technology from the semiconductor industry. This ensures that not only the thickness of the coils are more consistent, but the weight of the coils is far more evenly distributed – resulting in a far more consistent and accurate sound. The balanced placement of magnets ensures the aluminum alloy coils are evenly distributed in the magnetic field, and it also allows the driver diaphragm to be balanced between the forces of the inner and outer magnets — guaranteeing consistent movement of the driver and reduced distortion, for a higher fidelity sound.”
The rear of the driver’s housing has, according to FiiO, been designed to “act as a sound wave baffle to isolate the sound waves in the front and rear of the driver housing.” And to ensure that this planar-magnetic model makes good on the promise of superior top-end resolution (compared to dynamic driver models), the FT5’s grille has been specifically designed to manage airflow and its acceleration.
Think you need a baller amp to get the most out of the FT5? Think again. This planar models marries 36 Ohm nominal impedance with 110dB/1Vrms@1kHz sensitivity for portable player and dongle DAC agreeability.
The FiiO FT5 begins shipping at the end of November and will sell for £449 or US$499.
Further information: FiiO
