Which One is better for You:10mm or 12mm Driver Earphones? Learn More

Headphones are essential for us in various ways nowadays. But to find the right headphone is the one thing that causes trouble. Any headphone user goes deep into the specs and looks for recommendations that would suit their setup. 

For this reason, you need to understand more about headphone drivers, and how they are important to determine sound quality and loudness. 

10mm Earphones

10mm driver

The most common range of drivers includes 8 to 15mm. So, one of the widely used earphones contains a 10mm driver alone, or as part of dual drivers. A 10mm driver provides rich bass and crisp vocals or treble. But it works within a definite frequency, and might not focus always on noise distortion.

However, this limited frequency range allows for lesser bass, making your audio very clear. Your earphones also experience lower energy loss. All these features make this driver suitable for communication or listening to music.

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12mm Earphones

A 12 mm driver is larger than a 10mm and closer to a medium-sized driver. Since the diameter here is larger, the audio output also comes larger. It can pull in more air from the surrounding. So, you will receive a better frequency range of a cleaner bass.

But contrary to the 10mm driver, this one doesn’t offer the same quality treble in higher frequencies. Yet, you can experience better loudness with a 12mm driver due to the larger size.   size output is larger than the 9 mm one. 

This also means that this is a better earphone driver for communication or music.

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Which mm driver is best for earphones?

This depends on the design and type of headsets. Usually, for earphones, the best range is from 8mm to 15mm, whereas for headphones this is 20mm to 50mm. 

While you will want to pick out larger drivers for loud and clear sounds, this isn’t evident. A good overall size for earphones can be 10mm or slightly lower. But this will depend on your earphone compatibility. 

Graphene Driver vs Dynamic Driver

Graphene DriverDynamic Driver
Greater strength-weight ratio Requires more electric charge to move coils
Efficient in moving coilsCauses more energy loss
Earphones are lightweight and compactHeavier earpieces
Better audio experiencesLower audio quality 

Big Driver Earphones

Usually big drivers have the diameter range from 20mm to 35mm. This is used for bigger headphones. Earphones that use drivers of 13mm size are also considered big. When you use bigger drivers, this means more air passes, so clearer and louder audio. 

But this is better for headphones than earphones since headphones are over-the-ear devices, so, sound doesn’t pass directly to the eardrums. Earphones with larger drivers can lead to serious damage. 

Summary 

Drivers do contribute to sound quality, regardless of size. But do remember that the driver alone doesn’t define loudness, but the size of different drivers contributes to helping find the right type of headphones. 

A 10mm driver is better with sound than a 12mm driver, despite the latter being larger. This is because of the bass difference. Besides, larger diameters for earphones are risky for the eardrums. So, you can easily work better with a 10mm driver earphone.

Vitaly Fedorov

Vitaly Fedorov is a seasoned audio technician and writer. After spending ten years in a studio team, I have decided to spread my knowledge to people in this domain. On this site, I work for headphone fixing or repair issues, that you’re thinking about fixing. Click on any article on my site and read the complete answer about that issue. I am excited to read your feedback.

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