How headphones are made
Inside each ear cup a coil of wire between magnets pushes a thin plastic sheet to make sound.
- stations
- 6
- things upstream
- 37
- raw sources
- 14
- steps from the ground
- 7
The short version
Most headphones are tiny loudspeakers. A permanent magnet of ferrite or neodymium holds a steady field. A voice coil of fine wire is attached to a thin diaphragm of polymer, cellulose or paper. When audio current flows through the coil, it moves the diaphragm. The drivers are fitted into plastic ear cups with cushions and a cable.
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Shape the magnet
A permanent magnet, usually ferrite or neodymium, is formed to fit the driver frame. It sets up a static magnetic field.
Goes in -
Wind the voice coil
Very fine copper wire is wound into a light coil that is suspended inside the magnetic field.
Goes in -
Form the diaphragm
A diaphragm is made from a lightweight, stiff material such as cellulose, polymer, carbon or paper. The coil is attached to it.
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Assemble the driver
Magnet, coil and diaphragm are fixed inside a frame. A signal current through the coil changes the force against the magnet's field and moves the diaphragm back and forth.
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Fit the ear cups and cable
Drivers go into molded plastic housings with cushions, a headband and a cable.
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Check each pair
Left and right drivers are measured to match in loudness and frequency response.
Worth repeating
- Low-impedance headphones are 16 to 32 ohms, while high-impedance ones run 100 to 600.
- Headphones for early radio were often 1,000 to 2,000 ohms, which suited crystal sets and triode receivers.
- The 3.5 mm connector has been used at least since the Sony EFM-117J transistor radio of 1964.
Back to the ground
Follow every input upstream and headphones starts as these 14 raw sources.
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Sources
Cite this page: "How headphones are made." Assembly Line, 2026-11-03. https://assemblyline.org/make/headphones