Do headphones have the same issues as full range speaker drivers? Full range driver have issues, to overcome issues(Doppler distortion, limited high and low range) speaker designers have split the frequency to dedicated drivers. When a driver is playing low frequencies and high frequencies at the same time, there is interference between frequencies. Even tweeters distort at its lowest frequency and it is about the size of a headphone driver, so wondering if, yes if single driver headphones have the same issues as full range speaker drivers.
depends on the driver and design of the headphone, if it is open design with dynamic driver usually they have higher distortions in the low FR and roll of there
but if it is planar or electrostatic the distortions are very low from top to bottom on well designed drivers with wide FR range without roll of
My understanding (which is not massive) is that the full range driver in dynamic headphones has a much easier time than a full range driver in a loudspeaker.
In a headphone a small driver can be used to produce a lot of bass because it is such a tiny environment. As the speaker is so small then it is more capable of doing the higher frequencies without so many of the problems that you see with large speakers trying to do high frequencies.
Not having a crossover is, I think, a great thing about headphones.
(Note the pinna gain may be slightly too forward as a generalization in this specific graph.)
Basically speakers are way way a different thing. The fact that you have room response with speakers then add in the torso shape as well as pinna gain and that’s just the start of 100’s of variables. While tweeters are 100% directional the whole rest of the reproduction factors are enormous. Headphones have the pinna gain as well as head-shape issues even before actual ear canal resonance points.
If you look closely......headphones fit each person way way different. So it’s the shape of the outside of the head that the audio coupler (cup) comes in contact with. The fact that if there is even the smallest lack of air tight fit it dramatically changes the distortion levels perceived! Once you start to truly factor in the variables in full-size headphones you almost wonder how they even get close to sounding near the same on two different people using the same model. The pads are at a completely different angle for each person not to mention the airtight fit. Each person’s ear drums are even a different distance between the IEM or full size driver. Still above and beyond these variables speakers are way more of a hornets nest of issues.
The human hearing physiology has distortion as an absolute response internally anyway. THD figures will most likely be on the downplay in the next 20 years in audio understanding. But there is internal distortion and coupler driver distortion.
IEMs are 1000 times easier to get right than full-size. Still as far as THD; it may not be as important as once thought? IMO
The golden age of headphones and IEMs could be their ability to add a specific room response factored in. Different papers since 2010 have gone over the fact that headphones need one style of room response and IEMs need another to sound like speakers in a room.
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