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Wood, no Wood??
Are wooden earphones and better than regular earphones? If so then how??
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keyboard_arrow_downLCMusicLover
19
Jul 17, 2018
As usual ... it depends. Cup material is just one ingredient in the headphone construction stew. Drivers, pads, headband, tuning, cables ... all contribute to the sound of the final product. Plus, 'better' is such a subjective term. I could say that my Blackwood Auteur are better than my Utopia because I like the very musical sound better, or I could say the Utopia is better because it delivers more high frequency detail. But whether that is attributable to the wood vs metal/plastic cups, or the Beryllium vs BioCellulose drivers, or the open vs semi-open design, or ... well, I'm sure you get the idea.
phoenixsong
1055
Jul 16, 2018
It really depends. Non-wooden has the advantage of consistency. Wooden ones are a handful- manufacturers have to know their stuff to churn out the right products. It's not just the type of wood; also the part used, the age of the trees, the region where they are grown, the treatment and finish, and the design of the cups themselves (all manner of dimensions, thickness and shape etc.) For something as sensitive as sonic acoustics, even the time/year of harvest could have an impact. Check out the discussions in the THX00 Ebony drop- people were saying that the grain (which identifies the portion of wood and the angle of cut) has a significant impact on the sound. Same wood, same batch, same headphones from the same manufacturer.
ElectronicVices
2940
Jul 17, 2018
I will definitely agree the type of wood impacts the sound but I thought you'd gone off the deep end there for a second :) For guitars (and headphones) the size and shape of the acoustic chamber will be highly influential on the sound. The most notable changes in my experience are when woods of significantly different densities are compared. I don't know if I believe ZMF's stance on "pore size" having an impact but it's possible.
KaranBhasin
2
Jul 19, 2018
ElectronicVicesI shall look into the part where you mentioned different density can have an impact.
Thanks a lot!
erickong
7434
Audiophile Moderator
Jul 14, 2018
Umm. This is a hard question to answer. That is because "better" in terms of sound quality is subjective and people can have different opinions.
IMO, if a headphone has wood ear cups, it does NOT immediately make the headphones better
KaranBhasin
2
Jul 15, 2018
erickongHmmmm. I was searching on the internet and some say both wood and metal are much better than plastic as their material is very much resistant to the sound created by the drivers inside them and by resistant I mean the music doesnt get affected/change unlike plastic ones where they are very delicate and alters the sound. Its just between Metal and Wood, how different does a piece a music sound between them and why.
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