When shopping for gaming earbuds or IEMs, it’s easy to get lost in the numbers and spec sheets. It seems like everyone’s either offering bigger drivers like large 12mm drivers, or offering more, and more varieties of drivers (hybrids).
Soon enough we’re in an arms race where we have an entire orchestra in our IEMs (which doesn’t sound like a bad thing actually)
But audio doesn’t work quite that way.
While driver size and driver count can absolutely influence sound quality, they’re only part of the story. How those drivers are implemented ultimately matters far more than the numbers on the specs sheet.
But first, let’s understand the science behind these things.
How Does a Driver Work?
At its simplest, a driver is the component inside an earbud, a speaker, or over-ear headphone that creates sound. It moves air, and those movements become the music, sound effects, voice speech, and positional cues that you hear.
When manufacturers talk about drivers, they usually focus on these three things: the type of driver, the size of the driver and the number of drivers being used.
We won’t get into driver types because we previously discussed them here. But instead we’ll focus on the size and number of drivers since that’s what this post is about.
When Having Bigger Drivers Help
Generally speaking, larger drivers can move more air. That can help produce stronger bass, greater dynamics, and a sense of effortlessness at higher volumes. This is why you’ll often see earbuds being advertised as better because they have these larger 10mm, 12mm, or even 14mm drivers.
But bigger isn’t automatically better.
A poorly tuned large driver can sound bloated, muddy, or overly bass-heavy. Bigger drivers usually have bigger diaphragms and if those aren’t as rigid as they’re supposed to be, there will be a lot more flexing than you’d want, which can distort your sound or make it feel sluggish. Meanwhile, a well-engineered 8mm driver can sound cleaner, more balanced, and more detailed.
Driver size gives brands and manufacturers certain advantages, but it doesn’t guarantee great results.
Why Manufacturers Use Multiple Drivers
Another approach by companies, especially in the IEM space, is to use multiple drivers. After all, if you can’t use 1 big one, why not use 2 or 3 smaller ones?
The idea is fairly straightforward. Instead of asking one driver to reproduce every single point in the desired frequency range, different drivers are assigned, and can specialize, in different parts of the sound spectrum.
One driver might be tuned specifically to handle all bass, while another focuses on mids and treble.
In theory, this allows each driver to do its one job more very well, potentially improving detail and overall performance.
That’s why you’ll often see dual-driver, triple-driver, or hybrid gaming IEMs appearing on the market; commonly mixing the strengths of one driver to compensate for the weakness of another.
The Secret They Don’t Want You To Know About Multiple Driver IEMs
The catch is that adding drivers also makes things a bit more complicated..
Once multiple drivers are involved, the manufacturer has to ensure they work together flawlessly. Frequencies need to transition smoothly from one driver to another and careful consideration is needed so that there is no overlap, or crossover. Then there’s also the timing that needs to stay consistent. Because if you can’t do it right, you’ll get delays and crossovers, and the overall sound won’t feel cohesive.
But when this is done well, multi-driver designs can sound excellent! The question is, can mass-produced earbuds and IEMs actually keep up, especially with their quality control systems.
Why Sometimes, Single-Driver IEMs Sound Better
This is one reason many respected, and higher end IEMs, still rely on a single driver system – usually sporting a dynamic driver.
With only one driver handling the entire frequency range, there are no crossover concerns or timing/matching issues to manage. Everything comes from a single source, often creating a more natural and coherent presentation.
That’s not to say single-driver designs are always superior. But it highlights a simple truth: more drivers are not automatically an upgrade. Manufacturers need to engineer and fine-tune these things to make them sound great and again, are they always incentivized to spend enough development time to get it right upon release?
What Actually Matters for Gaming
For gaming, driver size or count doesn’t really matter..
What matters more are strong imaging, clear separation, accurate positional cues, and a good tuning. Whether they come from a single-driver design, or a hybrid setup, it doesn’t matter as long as you get all those things.
Driver size can definitely help, as do multiple drivers. But neither guarantees a better gaming experience just because.
The best gaming earbuds aren’t the ones with the biggest drivers, the most drivers, or the most numbers in spec sheets. They’re the ones that are able to put you right in the game and help you perceive the game accurately.
And also ones you can enjoy using for hours at a time.
If you want to see our updated picks for the best gaming earbuds and IEMs we have right now, you can check it out here.
