What is a Headphones made of?
What is a Headphones made of?
A neodymium magnet, a coil of copper wire and a thin plastic diaphragm — a loudspeaker shrunk to fit an ear.
Nearly all headphones are miniature moving-coil loudspeakers working on exactly the same principle as a hi-fi driver. The alternatives are genuinely different: planar magnetic designs stretch a film with a printed conductor between magnet arrays so the whole surface is driven evenly, and electrostatic ones charge a film between perforated plates. Ear pads are the usual reason a pair sounds worse after a few years — the foam compresses, the seal breaks, and bass leaks away, which a replacement set of pads fixes for a fraction of the price of new headphones. Active noise cancellation adds a microphone and a processor generating an inverted waveform, effective against steady low-frequency noise and much less so against speech.
Component by component
| Part | Material | Why that material |
|---|---|---|
| magnet | sintered neodymium-iron-boron | Neodymium magnets are several times stronger than ferrite for their size, which is what made powerful drivers small enough to fit in an ear. |
| voice coil | enamelled copper, or copper-clad aluminium wire | Current in the coil pushes against the magnet; aluminium-cored wire is lighter and moves faster, at the cost of resistance. |
| diaphragm | PET film, PEEK, biocellulose or beryllium-coated polymer | It must be stiff enough not to flex into its own resonances and light enough to be moved by a tiny coil. |
| earpads | polyurethane foam under protein leather or velour | The seal at the ear determines bass response entirely — a leaking pad loses low frequencies before it loses anything else. |
| cable | oxygen-free copper strands in a TPE or rubber jacket | Cables fail from flexing at the strain relief, not from conductor quality, which is why detachable cables outlast fixed ones. |
Other electronics objects
- Alkaline battery Zinc powder and manganese dioxide either side of a potassium hydroxide paste, in a steel can.
- Smartphone screen Chemically strengthened aluminosilicate glass over a touch layer and an OLED or LCD panel, with an oil-shedding coating on top.
- Solar panel Doped silicon wafers with silver contacts, sealed between low-iron glass and a plastic backsheet in an aluminium frame.
- LED bulb Blue LED chips under a yellow phosphor, plus a driver circuit and a heat sink — and it is the driver that dies.
- Touchscreen A grid of transparent electrodes measuring the tiny capacitance your finger adds — which is why gloves fail.
- Computer keyboard ABS or PBT keycaps over either a silicone rubber dome on printed film, or individual mechanical switches.
- Loudspeaker A paper or plastic cone hung on a rubber surround, driven by a coil in a magnet gap.
- Computer mouse An ABS shell around a tiny camera taking thousands of pictures a second, plus two clicky microswitches and PTFE feet.
Common questions
- What is a Headphones made of?
- A neodymium magnet, a coil of copper wire and a thin plastic diaphragm — a loudspeaker shrunk to fit an ear.
- What is the magnet of a Headphones made of?
- Sintered neodymium-iron-boron. Neodymium magnets are several times stronger than ferrite for their size, which is what made powerful drivers small enough to fit in an ear.
- What is the voice coil of a Headphones made of?
- Enamelled copper, or copper-clad aluminium wire. Current in the coil pushes against the magnet; aluminium-cored wire is lighter and moves faster, at the cost of resistance.
Related pages
- Alkaline battery Zinc powder and manganese dioxide either side of a potassium hydroxide paste, in a steel can.
- Smartphone screen Chemically strengthened aluminosilicate glass over a touch layer and an OLED or LCD panel, with an oil-shedding coating on top.
- Solar panel Doped silicon wafers with silver contacts, sealed between low-iron glass and a plastic backsheet in an aluminium frame.
- LED bulb Blue LED chips under a yellow phosphor, plus a driver circuit and a heat sink — and it is the driver that dies.
- Touchscreen A grid of transparent electrodes measuring the tiny capacitance your finger adds — which is why gloves fail.
- Computer keyboard ABS or PBT keycaps over either a silicone rubber dome on printed film, or individual mechanical switches.
- Loudspeaker A paper or plastic cone hung on a rubber surround, driven by a coil in a magnet gap.
- Computer mouse An ABS shell around a tiny camera taking thousands of pictures a second, plus two clicky microswitches and PTFE feet.
- Pencil Stationery and paper
- Tennis ball Sport and games
- Banknote Around the house
- Golf ball Sport and games
- Paper Stationery and paper
- Glass Building materials
Sources
- Typical range compiled from manufacturer specifications — At One Place