Earphones/Headphones are essential part of our life. But what are earphones? Small speakers buzzing into your ears? Yeah! They are pretty much that. But what makes them expensive? Expensive ones have better sound quality , agreed. Expensive ones are more comfortable , agreed. But are expensive ones really expensive? What makes them expensive? You cannot change basic electronics it’s same for all. Let’s find out what really makes these things expensive.
What’s inside?
All speakers work on a basic concept of converting the current coming from the source into sound energy. Sound energy can easily be produced by moment of air. Different types of sounds move the air differently. Earphones are made up of 3 major parts. One that receives current. Another that creates disturbances in air and finally the one that moves to produce different sounds that we hear.
PART 1:- If I open the first layer of the earphone. We get a plastic sheet called as diaphragm or popularly called as “cone” in manufacturing industry. Diaphragm is that final part which vibrates in different ways with different intensities to produce sound.
PART 2:- If I open the earphone further more that is remove plastic sheet or diaphragm. What I get is a brown color circle like structure which is actually a collection of copper wires tightly threaded into each other by machine. This part is called “Voice Coil”. This is the part that receives current directly from the source.
PART 3:- Magnet! Yes the third part is Magnet. Empty space in between copper wires contains a magnet. Magnet is responsible for creating disturbance in the air. When current passes through voice coil it polarizes the magnetic field produced by the magnet. The movement of the magnetic field due to current signal makes the diaphragm move in the similar fashion producing the desired sound waves.
What is the difference?
A Cone , A Voice coil , A Magnet are ultimately the only things which are inside every earphones/headphones. What makes the expensive ones have better sound quality than cheaper ones. Is it a strong magnet? Is it more number of turns in the voice coil or Is it a more sensitive diaphragm?
Let us start from magnets. Stronger the magnet means better sound quality. Stronger magnets produce strong magnetic fields which in turn makes the diaphragm vibrate at a higher intensity. Higher intensity means production of Bass , clearer beats and better sound quality. Neodymium is the strongest magnet to be used in headphones and yes it’s expensive! That what makes these little speakers buzzing into your ears expensive.
Earpiece Disc 
Neodymium Magnet
What about the voice coil? Well, the larger you make the voice coil, the more power it can handle but at the same time, it also generates more heat. Smaller coils can be a little more resonant, but larger coils tend to have better control. More resonant means high frequency resulting in louder sound. Larger coil can receive almost all the current coming from the source (meaning leakage current is less) thus improving sound clarity making words more clearer coming out of the speaker. Larger the speaker ; larger the voice coil. This is the reason why large speakers sound better than headphones and latter sound better than earphones.
Larger diaphragms produce more accurate sounds. But size of diaphragm usually doesn’t matter much in terms of earphones or headphones. Most of them have same size of diaphragm in it.
consumer consumption
Lot’s of technical talking. Lot’s of knowledge. Let’s move ahead.
Consumer is usually not worried about how a thing is made or technical aspects of a product to be precise. We are worried about features that a product is going to deliver us. We are worried at what price these features we can buy and of which brand. Lastly we always look for VFM. VFM? Value for Money!. Let’s see which brand makes the best Cone , best Voice coil and best magnets that is best Speakers!.
Harman International – One of the best speakers producing company. Not many people know them by that name. Well JBL , heard of it? Harman is the parent origination of JBL. Samsung a more renowned name is the owner of Harman International. End of the family tree. Surprise! Samsung makes best speakers in the world.
When it comes to producing nano tech it’s not that easy. If you can make good speakers it doesn’t mean your good in making good earphones/headphones. Bringing that same technology to nano scale isn’t that simple because JBL headphones aren’t that good. Here is where Sony comes into picture. Sony not only makes excellent headphones but it makes them at all price ranges.
Manufacturing cheap headphones can be tricky. Cheap headphone can sound as good as expensive ones because this is electronics. It is not about using expensive stuff , it is about the that combination, that combination of turns in voice coil , type of magnet , size of diaphragm which can produce a better sound quality even by using cheap stuff. It’s an art! Electronics specially at nano scale is an art! But talking again in terms of consumer . Money brings comfort. More money you are willing to spend more comfortable product you are buying , that is such a simple concept.
DAILY USAGE
You have bought pair of speakers that goes into your ears almost daily. You definitely don’t want these to burst in your ears because ears are essential part of your body. There has always been major health concerns regarding excess use of earphones. Earphones were largely designed to give everyone there personal space. So that one can listen to music or watch movies without disturbing it’s surroundings. They were never made to always sit on your ears.
There is only one concern with these little speakers that they convert the current incoming from source into sound. This means if an earphone draws excess amount of current from source , more current means more sound that may damage your ears. This danger only exist in wired headsets because wired ones use current to send signals. Most of the wired headsets become useless because of loose wiring. Inner tech never gets disturbed. Hardly ever you will find any technical issues with your earphones it’s just the wiring that goes off. You can’t even do anything with it because they are just soldered. You can just try not to manhandle them. It doesn’t matter how expensive earphones you buy , if you manhandle them they will end up being of no use. Don’t try to re-solder the wires it is of no use, you will end up increasing the risk of damaging your ears. Just a buy a new one! And if you are sure of breaking them then just buy cheap ones and keep breaking them rather than buying expensive ones and repairing it.
is Bluetooth safer than wired ones?
No Wires. No Current. No Risk. More Comfort. Everything is great about Bluetooth technology right now. Bluetooth works on radio frequency tech and not on infra red ray so it’s safer also. Signals are transferred in form of radio waves which is not as accurate as current but works fine and does the job. So answer is YES Bluetooth is safer than wired ones and much more comfortable also. Plus you can manhandle them! Yes! No wires to break. Much more easy to carry. Yes they are little expensive than wired ones but it’s better to buy one expensive Bluetooth headset than to buy multiple cheap wired ones.
Quality of sound is always the issue with Bluetooth headsets. But with every next generation Bluetooth technology it’s just getting better and better.
If you did ask me what should we buy right now:wireless or wired one? I would say if you are die hard music lover who never want to miss a beat than wired ones should be your preference.
If your buying for causal work or watching movies and what not. I would go with a comfy wired headset to be kept at your home and wireless earphones or better known as earbuds for travelling purposes or maybe for carrying them at your work space or educational place.
Mitul Tandon 