Headphone components

A headphone driver combines a diaphragm, voice coil and magnet to create sound. Many drivers use neodymium magnets, which provide a strong magnetic field in a small space.

The magnet, copper coil, steel parts and housing are separate material streams. Understanding how they fit together is the first step toward recovering their value.

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Small magnet. Powerful sound.

The magnet supplies a steady magnetic field. Current in the voice coil moves the diaphragm, creating the vibrations we hear as sound.

Many headphone drivers use neodymium magnets for their strength and compact size. Recovering these magnets starts with separating them from the surrounding copper, steel and electronics.

Cutaway drawing of a representative 40 mm headphone driver: a disc magnet and steel pole plate inside a steel cup, a copper voice coil in the narrow gap between them, and a domed diaphragm clamped at its edge. — A representative 40 mm dynamic driver. The dashed line traces the magnet’s field through the gap where the copper coil sits. Current in the coil moves the coil and diaphragm; the motion is exaggerated here.