Audeze, the USA-based manufacturer of magnetic planar headphones, has released a new edition of its EL-8 audiophile headphones. The EL-8 Titanium offer the same form and function as the standard EL-8 closed-back, but are Apple MFi certified and feature a Cipher cable, which offers a complete 24-bit high-resolution integrated Amp/DSP/DAC with Lightning connector. This exclusive cable streams high-definition audio digitally from any compatible Apple product, such as an iPhone, an iPad, or an iPod touch. Additionally, Audeze has released a free app that allows users to customize their sound with EQ and sound presets. For non-Apple users, the headphones include a standard analog cable compatible with low-powered external headphone amplifiers or portable devices.
Like the standard EL-8s, the Titanium headphones feature the company’s patent-pending single-sided Fluxor magnets to save weight, while achieving a magnetic flux density comparable to the flagship LCD line of headphones to deliver a frequency response of 10 to 50 kHz with an impedance of 30 ohms. Like the LCD series, the EL-8s also feature Fazor elements for focusing the sound, and a new patent-pending uniforce diaphragm to virtually eliminate all the breakup modes common in other headphones.
Magnetic planar technology differs from traditional dynamic cone designs by suspending a thin, lightweight diaphragm within a parallel magnetic plane comprising an array of magnets. The diaphragm is much lighter when compared to a traditional dynamic cone and has a printed circuit spread across a thin film substrate on the surface of the diaphragm, as opposed to a cone attached to a voice coil. When the audio signal from the amplifier reaches the circuit, it magnetizes the diaphragm within the field and produces sound.
The benefits of a magnetic planar design include faster transient response due to the lighter diaphragm, a wide frequency with low distortion, better heat dissipation, fewer moving parts for greater durability without the kind of sonic degradation to which cones are susceptible, and better amplifier compatibility because the circuit functions as an almost entirely restive load.
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