If you want to talk about easily available headphones any of the hifiman ananda, edition xx, arya, he1000, edition x have pretty large drivers. The audeze lcd 2 and up also have big drivers. I’m sure there are larger drivers in some very boutique headphone but I don’t really want to go dig through something to find it
I beg to differ. I think all things being equal a larger driver is always better. Listen to Z Reviews, His most favorite end game headphone? Stax. He once said he tries to forget his Stax because if he didnt he wouldnt bother with his other headphones. Look at the reviews of the large ear speakers in this thread. Everyone says they sound fantastic. I believe everything is better in a larger driver, everything being equal. There’s certainly more immersion.
I mean I guess if you feel that way sure, but I would seriously try some flagship headphones with average sized drivers and see
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Things are pretty much never equal, either.
And I think Zs comment on the Stax has more to do with the electrostac aspect of the driver… that it doesn’t rely on a magnet. I know he made that argument as to why he liked the L700 over the higher-end flagship Stax. But then look at his recent Micca OoO review where he says the OoO (3" driver) sounds better than the RB42C (4" driver).
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Most of my experience is with Speaker drivers, rather than headphones.
But I assume much of it applies.
It’s not just about size, moving mass matters when it comes to reproducing higher frequencies and the stiffness of the driven material matters when it comes to reproducing Bass frequencies.
Electrostatics like the Stax minimize the moving mass allowing them to give very good response at frequencies higher than Dynamic drivers, but the lack of stiffness makes controlling Bass response challenging.
Now I say that having never listened to High end Stax headphones, but I have listened to a lot of Electrostatic speaker drivers,
It’s like everything else in life it’s all about trade offs, and I don’t think any one aspect of a drivers design is likely to tell the entire story.
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Listening and owning a fair amount of headphones, it really depends on the headphone itself more then the driver size tbh. I really don’t think driver size plays a huge role overall but it can be beneficial for some aspects and not for others.
The largest dynamic driver I ever heard of is the Stanton dynaphase. Theirs a 40,50 and 60 version I know of. They have 90mm drivers and stupid bass. I’ve seen pictures of them.
Omg, i found a 75 lol, i think i’m in love:
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So you have one. I heard all they got is huge base.
i dont have one, this is a picture i found from someone on the internet. they modded it by covering the vents, they claim the sound and bass got much better after
Oh, I read that actually but didn’t see that picture.
Gonna just leave that one right there.
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Yeah I said it, what about it. It’s the overall package that counts
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Largest I’ve tried is 106mm LCD-x planars and they are huge on my head, and have amazing Dynamics and extension. I can’t imagine wearing bigger drivers on my head and being comfortable.
Also I’m glad at least someone got the therac 25 joke
I had to look it up. Wow. Now I understand (even more) why insulin pump manufacturers have been cautious about automating their devices.
The less things to break and the simpler it is the better lol (for some things)
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Horn speakers can get kinda crazy lol…
I’ve always been a fan (from afar) of the B&W Nautilus. Those things are.nuts.
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looks like something out of flash gordon