FiiO FT7 Planar Magnetic Headphones

They are largely explained by the full title FiiO gives the FT7: Gold Diaphragm Open-Back Planar Headphones. “Open-Back”, in contrast to closed, means that there’s no air cushioning resisting the movement of the sound-generating diaphragm. That can allow an extended high frequency response. In practice, what it usually means is a more “open”, airy sound than is typical from closed-back headphones. It also means virtually no isolation from outside noise – so they aren’t much good in noisy environments. And what you’re listening to is also broadcast into the space around you.

I for one prefer open back, except when in noisy environments.

“Planar” means planar magnetic drivers, rather than dynamic ones. For a detailed explanation of these, check out our article. But, in short, rather than having a coil attached to the back of the driver diaphragm, inserted into a magnet, planar magnetic drivers use a conductive trace covering a very fine diaphragm which is placed between two sets of magnets. That support across its entire surface means a very light and thin diaphragm can be used. One micrometre in this case. That is one thousandth of a millimetre! FiiO describes the conductive trace as being multi-layered gold and silver, thus “Gold Diaphragm”. The diaphragms are much larger than you find in most dynamic headphones: 106mm. One very practical advantage of this design is that planar magnetic headphones have a consistent impedance across their full bandwidth, eliminating colourations caused by high output impedances on some source devices. This is particularly important given that their low impedance – 25 ohms – would make similar dynamic headphones very susceptible to such colourations.

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Author: Stephen Dawson ; From:addictedtoaudio

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