Submitted by ShepherdessAnne t3_zz96og in headphones
Super advanced technical question here:
I have a pair of planars that use uncoated ferrite. Assuming I could bodge a safe way to attach neodynium Magnets to the ferrite ones without shattering them in an explosion, what would that do to the performance of the cans?
I don't know! That's why I'm asking! I have things like wooden and plastic tools, so I'm fairly confident with care and a pair of Helping Hands I could reverse the modification as long as it doesn't damage anything.
I have no idea about headphones, but I recall a buddy of mine messing with the magnets in his guitar pickups and it caused some serious issues for him. Signal cutouts galore, and the biggest kicker was that, somehow, some magnets were demagnetized by the other magnets.
Maybe u/oratory1990 can help in this subject, or you can make the question in oratory subreddit.
It's going to change the magnetic field.
This is - theoretically - predictable of course. Electrodynamics is a well understood field. But some of the parameters will be tricky to find out in your situation (magnetic remanence, for example).
> what would that do to the performance of the cans?
Any number of things could happen, but the most likely outcome is that it's not going to "better" in any quantifiable measure.
Would I be able to alter sensitivity in this way?
Planars are somewhat foreign magic to me, I understand that for the same cone on a dynamic driver you could increase windings on the motor or use a bigger magnet to get different amounts of power out of the same cone provided that the cone maintains its stiffness and other materials could handle changes to excursion, but just increasing magnet strength on a planar? Like whaaaa?
What I'm thinking is R&D 3D print some templates to allow sliding the strips into place over the existing magnets. The "have fun and find out what happens" has to be worthwhile though and would need some kind of tangible, non-catastrophic result.
I do this kind of thing a lot. I converted a 1995 Honda CR-V to E-85 just because I could, once, and I learned a ton while doing so. I then also experimented with custom fuel blends. Even mediocre results are worthwhile, educationally.
I would advise against altering magnet system. You will end up having to alter other things & possibly damage diaphragm in process. Planar magnets are very strong. Neodymium magnet normally have a nickel like coating on them but a not so well healed manufacturer could have left them uncoated in which case the could look like ceramic magnets. These magnets if left uncoated will deteriorate over time as Neodymium is sensitive to exposure to atmosphere though it may take years for it to become a problem. There are many different strengths of Neodymium magnets as well strongest being I believe n52. Some Neodymium magnets are not much stronger than sammarium cobalt which is still stronger than ceramic or alnico magnets.
Also separating the diaphragm from front housing to get at front magnets if present can cause diaphragm to be torn if glue is overly strong. There is usually screws holding it together but also a small amount of glue that may have got on diaphragm face that needs to be separated to get to front magnets. If you make magnet polarity mistake on assembly or allow magnet poles to shift even slightly on reassembly the magnet system can go from full repell to full attract causing the magnets to slam into each other damaging the diaphragm in between.
Magnets have to be setup to repell when assembled. All North poles facing each other as well as south poles doing the same if there is magnets front & back of diaphragm. As you look at the side of magnet facing the diaphragm the poles facing the diaphragm go in a north-south-north configuation though bear in mind some manufactueres face the poles to the side instead of facing diaphragm. A method of alignment is needed to prevent shifting as magnet assembly is being pressed together. It is nearly impossible to do by hand as the difference of having magnets repell or slamm together is only the gap between the magnets on either side. 1/8" side shift is all it takes to have magnets slamming into each other.
These are for sure uncoated ferrite magnets. Weird design for the modern era. The thought is not to remove them, but to carefully apply neodynium strips to the magnets in order to increase their power.
The question here is what would that do, acoustically? Just boosting the magnetism that way?
The magnets are fully accessible by removing the ear cups or removing the grill.
pickles55 t1_j2a760w wrote
The system is designed around magnets of a specific power, right? Wouldn't making the magnets stronger just cause problems?