- Knowles has found a way for headphones to use balanced armature drivers
- This could let future headphones offer greatly improved sonic qualities
- Currently, no headphones offer this tech, only earbuds — but they will
While earbuds makers have been tripping over themselves to bundle more and more drivers in their buds — the Soundpeats H3 have three and they cost less than the AirPods Pro 3 (which don’t have three), while the Status Between 3ANC pictured below sport dual Balanced armature drivers and one 10mm dynamic driver — it’s a race that’s not yet reached the best headphones.
Hold the phone: it has now reached them, thanks to Knowles’ new design. The company, best known for its Balanced Armature (BA) driver because in 1955, Hugh Knowles invented it for the hearing aid market, thinks it’s finally ready to revolutionize the headphone game.
Knowles has unveiled a new hybrid design for headphones, which allows its small and light BA drivers to sit alongside the much bigger dynamic drivers typical in over-ear designs. While the dynamic driver would handle the same frequencies as always (typically lower-end ones), the BA driver would add a bit of high-end sparkle.
Basically, headphones might soon sound a lot better, and have a lot more room under the ear cups to add extra features.
At the time of writing, no headphones have been unveiled with this tech, but hopefully, we’ll start seeing cans which benefit from it roll out very soon.
Knowling Me, Knowling You (ah haaa)
Traditionally, most headphone makers have believed that multi-driver systems in headphones is a bad idea. It’s a shame, because in earbuds, each driver can focus on a different range of frequencies, instead of relying on one to do as much as possible. And when done well, (see Campfire Audio’s lineup for several gorgeous examples) it can sound utterly sublime.
For a combination of reasons like phase…
