FiiO announce the FT5: planar magnetic open-back hi-fi headphones
Featuring 90mm Drivers; 3.5mm Singled-ended, 4.4mm & XLR Balanced Audio Plugs; Interchangeable Suede and Leather Earpads; and 392-wire Silver-plated Monocrystalline Copper Cable for £429/$499.
October 31, 2023
Utilising the in-house audio expertise that has produced its highly respected range of Digital Audio Players (DAPs), Headphone DACs, and Desktop Headphone Amplifiers, acclaimed audio manufacturer FiiO has launched its first pair of over-ear open-back Planar Magnetic headphones, the FT5.
The FT5 build upon the success of the award-winning FT3 Dynamic Driver headphones, and FiiO's engineers have delivered a pair of outstanding headphones that offer an incredibly musical sound with a dynamic, balanced soundstage.
The FT5 adopt a nanoscale diaphragm coating process — the coils of the driver are printed onto the diaphragm using high-end technology from the semiconductor industry. This ensures that not only the thickness of the coils are more consistent, but the weight of the coils are far more evenly distributed – resulting in a far more consistent and accurate sound.
Following extensive testing, FiiO's engineering team have designed the FT5 with 20 N52 neodymium magnets per driver. 11 magnets are placed on the inside of the FT5’s planar magnetic driver and 9 magnets are placed on the outside – leading to 20 magnets per channel and 40 in total for the entire headphone. The balanced placement of magnets ensures the aluminum alloy coils are evenly distributed in the magnetic field, and it also allows the driver diaphragm to be balanced between the forces of the inner and outer magnets — guaranteeing consistent movement of the driver and reduced distortion, for a higher fidelity sound.
One of the things FiiO wanted to achieve with their first pair of Planar Magnetic headphones was high sensitivity, whilst ensuring they were easy to power. Traditionally, Planar Magnetic headphones have featured low-sensitivity, meaning often powerful desktop audio amplification is required to drive them to their full potential. The FT5 is not like a traditional planar magnetic headphone. Thanks to 20 neodymium magnets with a high magnetic density of up to 1.5T, 6μm thin diaphragm, and nano-level aluminum alloy coating technology, the FT5’s driver is both light and strong, allowing for a high sensitivity of 110dB/1Vrms@1kHz i.e. 96dB/mW@1kHz. This means the FT5 can be easily driven — even by portable players — allowing them to be used in number of different scenario.
Large 90mm planar magnetic driver
The FiiO FT5 employs a large 90mm planar magnetic driver. Compared to a traditional dynamic driver, a planar magnetic driver converts sound energy to sound waves in a more balanced way, by vibrating in a much more even way. The vibrations are distributed across the entire driver diaphragm and there is little distortion caused by the rigidity of the diaphragm material. Thus, the FIIO FT5 can truly and accurately express audio signals, faithfully reproducing every last note and truly providing you with lossless hi-fi sound.
Open-backed design
To achieve its great sound, the FT5 features a large 90mm planar magnetic driver with 20 magnets on a single side of each driver. To further reach its max potential, the FT5 also contains a specially-designed open-backed acoustic structure. The rear of the driver housing is carefully designed to act as a sound wave baffle to isolate the sound waves in the front and rear of the driver housing. The grille of the FT5 is scientifically designed to control and precisely accelerate the air flow when the driver is moving. This not only allows the FT5 to have treble resolution unmatched by dynamic driver headphones, but also allows it to have a wide and vast soundstage to better immerse you in the symphony.
Joseph, Chief Engineer of FIIO IEMs R&D Centre says
“In a dynamic driver, the voice coil vibrates which vibrates the entire diaphragm to make sound. However, in doing so it is easy to produce uneven vibrations across different parts of the diaphragm and thus leads to distortion when producing higher frequencies. The diaphragm of a planar magnetic driver is a large flat surface, with coils spread throughout and being moved by a uniform magnetic field. Thus, unlike a dynamic driver, sound from a planar magnetic driver is produced by a more even movement across the entire diaphragm, leading to less uneven vibrations across different parts and thus reduced distortion.
The principle of how planar magnetic drivers generate sound is closest to that of electrostatic drivers. Compared to dynamic drivers, the biggest advantage of planar magnetic drivers is their excellent high-frequency performance, thanks to the driver’s extremely thin diaphragm. With the FT5’s only 6um thick driver diaphragm being driven by many parallel magnets, its planar magnetic driver is extremely responsive and dynamic, providing a truly satisfying level of detail.”
The FiiO FT5 are available in late November, priced £449 / $499.
Review samples are available now.
Starscream Communications
FT5 SPECIFICATION
Headphone Type | Open-back Planar Magnetic |
Driver Type | 90mm Planar Magnetic |
Driver Material | PAR Diaphragm + Aluminum Coils |
Frequency Response | 7Hz — 40kHz |
Impedance | 36Ω |
Sensitivity | 110dB/Vrms (@1kHz) 96dB/mW (@1kHz) |
Maximum Power Input | 2000mW |
Earpad Pressure | 4.0N±0.3N |
Cable Length | 1.5m |
Cable Material | 392-wire High-purity Silver-plated Monocrystalline Copper |
Cable Connectors | Dual 3.5mm Plugs (Headphone) + Swappable Audio Plugs |
Weight | 456g (Excluding Cable) |
Supplied Cable Plugs/Adaptors | 1 x 3.5mm Single-ended Interchangeable Jack Plug 1 x 4.4mm Balanced Interchangeable Plug 1 x XLR-4 Male to 4.4mm Female Balanced Adapter 1 x 6.35mm Male to 3.5mm Female Adapter |
Supplied Accessories | 1 x Leather Storage Case 1 x Velvet Bag 1 x Protein Leather Earpads (Pair) 1 x Suede Earpads (Pair) 1 x Headphone Cable 1 x User Manual |
FT5 HI-RES IMAGE DOWNLOADS
