Planar Magnetic Loudspeakers and Ribbon Tweeters
Planar magnetic drivers and ribbon tweeters have many advantages over traditional dynamic speakers. Their large diaphragms only require a small amount of movement (excursion), allowing them to create the same sound quality as traditional speakers.
They also exhibit dipolar radiation patterns, meaning they radiate equally in front and behind the speaker.
High-Resolution Sound
Planar and ribbon magnetic speakers are renowned for their ability to deliver precise, clear sound. They are known for delivering high-resolution, revealing subtle details in music that other drivers aren't able to reproduce or even reveal.
Ribbon and planar drivers are not just accurate, but also offer superior soundstages, which allows them to reproduce a huge soundstage with incredible clarity. This makes them a fantastic choice for audiophiles and home theatre enthusiasts who wish to listen to music to the maximum extent possible.
Planar and ribbon drivers can be distinguished by their dipole pattern. This pattern emits equal amounts of energy in front and back in an inverted phase, resulting in an authentic soundstage. This, combined with their broad dispersion, makes them ideal for large spaces, where they can fill the room with an expansive and natural soundstage, without causing unnatural reflections off the walls and furniture.
Planar magnetic drivers also have a rapid response time, which helps to reproduce transients with greater precision and speed than traditional cone drivers. This produces a detailed and crisp sound, even at extremely high frequencies.
Another advantage of planar magnetic drivers is their low distortion. This is due to the fact that they don't use the voice coil, but rather an electrostatic field. This allows the diaphragms to move without causing vibrations that can cause distortion.
A planar driver also has a much greater distance between the magnets than cone speakers. This provides a higher bass and a better frequency response at low amplitudes.
Despite their many advantages, planar magnetic speakers have a few limitations to consider. For instance, they can be expensive and require more power than other kinds of speakers. Also, they can be bulky and difficult to fit into certain spaces. Additionally, they are sensitive to the acoustics of the room and require extensive room treatments to ensure optimal performance. Fortunately, there are ways to reduce these issues for example, by putting an attenuation resistor (provided by your speakers) in the attenuation position, or by applying some kind of room treatment.
Wide Dispersion
Like electrostatic speakers magnetic speakers produce sound by regulating the electrical current that flows through wires suspended between magnets. However, they directly vibrate a flat diaphragm rather than an electrostatic charge, which means they have a larger surface area and better accuracy. This principle of operation also allows for the construction of them into smaller, more affordable speakers and headphones than electrostatic models.
Planar drivers are not only able to disperse sound well, but also deliver a better image and clarity in the higher frequencies. This is an enormous benefit for audiophiles who enjoy listening to their favorite music or movies in a large living room or other open space.
Moreover, planar drivers can produce extremely deep bass as they can be enhanced by boxed woofers which are attached to or separated from the diaphragm that resembles a ribbon. This is in contrast to traditional cone-type speakers, which have woofers located at the bottom of the speaker, which are not able to reproduce bass frequencies due to the physical constraints of enclosures for woofers.
Another advantage of the planar driver is its exceptionally low distortion that is directly related to the size and excursion of the diaphragm, which is shaped like a ribbon. In the end, an acoustic planar speaker produces a huge volume of sound with very little distortion, which is why it can produce such clear and detailed sound.
Dynamic drivers in standard headphones and speakers typically show significant distortion when they are driven to their maximum limit of excursion. In the end, dynamic drivers often produce a boomy or hollow sound.
Finally, planar magnetic gaming headset are also extremely efficient. They are less energy-intensive to drive, which results in lower energy consumption and impact on the environment. Furthermore, their diaphragms typically made of lighter materials than conventional speakers, which in turn reduces the amount of energy needed to propel them to produce a given sound pressure.
While many audiophiles are familiar with planar/ribbon loudspeakers - particularly the ones made by Magnepan, Infinity, and Apogee Acoustics - a new generation of brands are entering the market. For example, new planar loudspeakers from manufacturers like Diptyque and Clarisys Audio are incorporating the most recent advancements in ribbon technology.
Low Distortion
Since planar magnetic speakers do not feature a cone- or dome shaped diaphragm, they produce extremely low distortion. This is the direct result of their unique design, which eliminates the voice coil inductance associated with conventional dynamic speakers (see U.S. Patent 6,353,560). This ensures that the diaphragm is never out of phase with the magnetic field that surrounds it, resulting in an output that is constant. Typically, distortion only occurs when high-amplitude waveforms are reproduced. With a single-ended planar magnet driver, distortion is virtually nonexistent at all frequencies above the bass.
In addition to their low distortion and low distortion, planar magnetic loudspeakers provide extremely high efficiency. This allows the drive to use less power than other types of speakers. This translates into lower operating costs and a lower energy consumption.
Planar magnetic drivers also have significantly lower distortion compared to conventional dynamic speakers and are even less distortion for electrostatic speakers. This is because the diaphragm that is flat in the planar magnetic driver is equipped with a conductor trace that allows it to react to magnetic fields created by the magnets that are on the opposite side of it.
The two magnets have to be placed in a way that the voice element stays in the magnetic field optimally throughout the time. This allows magnetic drivers that are planar to function at a very linear level across all frequencies higher than bass.
Planar magnetic drivers come with a myriad of other advantages, but the most important is that they can be designed as dipoles (radiating in opposite phases and equally behind and in front of the speaker similar to an ESL), or monopoles (radiating in the forward direction similar to traditional dynamic speakers). This opens the door for an array of possible designs, especially when combined with ribbon tweeters.
There are a variety of planar magnetic loudspeakers on the market in the present, from companies like Hifiman Dan Clark Audeze and Fostex. Each brand has their own unique sound that is the result of their own patented driver configurations and other engineering innovations. The commonality of these speakers is their astonishing quality, dynamic and controlled directivity.
High Power Handling
Planar magnetic drivers are capable of handling a lot of power, but without the audible strain or stress that is caused by traditional dynamic speakers with moving coils. The "voice coil" is not squeezed into the small gap between baskets and cones as in traditional dynamic drivers. Instead it is spread over an area larger. This gives the voice coil more surface area to dissipate heat effectively.
Planar drivers can handle such a large amount of power because they are so light in comparison to conventional drivers. Dynamic drivers are made of thick, heavy diaphragms which are a tenth of a pound heavier and thicker than the ultra-light diaphragms found in planar magnetic drives. Due to their high mass, conventional diaphragms require a greater amount of force in order to move forward and backwards (a measurement referred to as excursion) to create an appropriate level of sound pressure.
Therefore they aren't able to be driven as effectively as a planar magnetic driver can because the voice coil could begin to produce significant amounts of distortion. This is why it's important to only purchase loudspeakers that are rated for the amplifier you plan to drive them with.
A planar magnetic driver's large excursion allows it to produce an even larger soundstage than conventional drivers. This is due to the diaphragm's ability to vibrate in a uniform and flat way to create a wavefront, rather than the spherical wavefront that is typical with conventional drivers. The wider soundstage improves the accuracy and details of the speakers and allows them to reproduce subtle nuances and more complex sound effects.
The downside of the superior power handling offered by planar magnetic drives is that they may be more expensive to produce and require more powerful amplifiers to drive them at their full potential. They can be large and heavy, making it difficult to install in certain environments. They also tend to have a low bass response, which means you may need to add a subwoofer to your system in order to get the best results at lower frequencies.