How We Research
We compare products from their published specs and features; the verdicts below are our independent editorial opinions.
If you want a ready-to-wear wireless headphone with active noise cancellation and a detachable boom mic, choose Maxell ANC Headphones; if you need a pair of 40mm titanium speaker drivers to repair or build your own headphones, choose Rillpac 1.
• Maxell ANC Headphones – biggest strength: A complete Bluetooth on-ear headphone with roughly 20dB of active noise cancellation, a detachable boom mic and a built-in mic for calls.
• Maxell ANC Headphones – biggest trade-off: Battery life is modest at 10 hours with ANC on (15 hours with it off), and there is no wired jack at all.
• Rillpac 1 – biggest strength: A pair of 32Ω, 40mm titanium dynamic drivers with front covers, tuned for crisp mids and highs and controlled bass, with a 10Hz–27kHz frequency response.
• Rillpac 1 – biggest trade-off: It is not a finished headphone. It is a DIY replacement part that requires disassembly, soldering-level repair skills and a compatible housing.
• Who each pick is for: Maxell is for commuters, students and remote workers who want noise reduction and meeting-ready audio straight out of the box; Rillpac 1 is for tinkerers and repairers who already own — or are building — Onkyo ES-FC300-style headphones.
Maxell's ANC headphone is built around a simple promise: quiet, and a microphone you can actually talk into. The active noise cancellation reduces roughly 20dB of outside noise when you switch it on, which is the kind of reduction that takes the edge off a bus engine, an air conditioner hum or a crowded open-plan office. The 40mm dynamic drivers cover a 20Hz–20,000Hz range, so you get full-range sound rather than a thin, tinny output.
The two features that separate it from most budget wireless cans are the detachable boom mic and the built-in mic. The boom mic clips on for virtual meetings and can be pulled off when you're just listening to music — a genuinely practical design for anyone who bounces between Zoom calls and playlists. Bluetooth 5 with a 10-meter range handles normal room-to-room movement, and touch controls manage media playback without reaching for your phone.
The trade-offs are real, though. Battery life is 10 hours with ANC running and 15 hours with it off, with a 2-hour charge time — fine for a workday, tight for a long-haul flight. There's no headphone jack, so once the battery is empty you're done listening. And at 9.12 ounces with a plastic build and on-ear fit, this is a comfort-and-convenience headphone, not a premium materials statement.
Rillpac 1: Who It's For
Rillpac 1 is a different animal entirely. This is a two-pack of 32Ω, 40mm titanium dynamic drivers with front covers included — essentially the speaker units and mounting hardware you'd need to repair or rebuild a pair of Onkyo ES-FC300 on-ear headphones. The drivers are aluminum-encased in their original form and tuned for crisp, detailed mid and high frequencies, with a 10Hz–27kHz frequency response that reaches well past what most Bluetooth headphones claim.
The engineering story here is about bass control rather than bass quantity. The design uses dual chambers behind the driver to manage low frequencies, and the tuning aims to keep bass tight instead of boomy so it doesn't smear the rest of the mix. Output is rated at 97dB/mW with a maximum input of 1000mW, so these drivers can take real power without falling apart. They're also voiced to handle compressed streaming audio gracefully while staying sensitive enough for lossless and 192/24 playback.
Here's the catch, and it's a big one: nothing about this product works out of the box. You get two speakers, each with a front cover, and the listing is explicit that you need to disassemble the speaker from its plastic cover if you want to mount it in your own housing. If you can't do the work yourself, you need a professional repair shop. There's also a 3-month warranty — short, because this is a component, not a consumer device. And there are no cables, no battery, no Bluetooth, no microphone, and no earcups in the box.
Buy it if you're repairing a broken ES-FC300, restoring an older on-ear headphone, or building a DIY set from scratch and you know your way around a soldering iron. Skip it if you want to unbox something and press play — this isn't that product, and no amount of spec sheet reading changes it.
• Best for noise cancellation → Maxell ANC Headphones. Roughly 20dB of active noise reduction is something Rillpac 1 simply cannot offer, since it has no electronics at all.
• Best for calls and meetings → Maxell ANC Headphones. The detachable boom mic plus built-in mic is a combination Rillpac 1 doesn't include in any form.
• Best for wireless freedom → Maxell ANC Headphones. Bluetooth 5 with a 10-meter range versus a bare driver that needs a wired signal path.
• Best for wide frequency response → Rillpac 1. Its 10Hz–27kHz range extends lower and higher than Maxell's 20Hz–20,000Hz.
• Best for bass quality over bass quantity → Rillpac 1. The dual-chamber, titanium-driver tuning is explicitly aimed at controlled low-end rather than boom.
• Best for repair and DIY projects → Rillpac 1. Two drivers with front covers, sized at 1.57 x 1.57 x 0.39 inches, made to be installed rather than worn as-is.
• Best for long listening sessions → Maxell ANC Headphones, but only within limits: 10 hours with ANC on, 15 hours with it off. If you need more than that in one sitting, neither product solves it.
• Best for low-effort ownership → Maxell ANC Headphones. One-year warranty, a carrying case, touch controls — no tools required.
For most people reading this, I'd buy the Maxell ANC Headphones. It's the only one of the two that functions as a headphone the moment you open the box, and the combination of ~20dB noise cancellation, 40mm drivers, a removable boom mic and Bluetooth 5 covers commuting, studying and work calls in one purchase. The 10-hour ANC battery life is the honest weak point, and I'd flag it to anyone planning long flights. Rillpac 1 is the smarter pick only if you're a repairer or DIY builder with the skills to install bare drivers — for that audience, the titanium 40mm units and their 10Hz–27kHz range are exactly the right tool. Everyone else should start with Maxell.
FAQ
what is 40mm driver in headphones
what are 40mm drivers in headphones
They're the moving-coil speakers that convert the electrical signal into sound. In the Rillpac 1 set they're 32Ω titanium units rated 97dB/mW with a 10Hz–27kHz response; in the Maxell headphone they're dynamic drivers covering 20Hz–20,000Hz, powered by the built-in Bluetooth amp.
which driver is best for headphones
There's no single best size — it depends on tuning and housing. Rillpac 1's titanium 40mm drivers are voiced for detailed mids and highs with controlled, non-boomy bass, while Maxell's 40mm dynamic drivers are tuned for immersive full-range sound in a wireless, noise-cancelling design.
is 40mm driver good for headphones
Yes, 40mm is a common and capable size for on-ear and over-ear headphones, and both products rely on it. Whether it sounds good to you depends on the tuning and the rest of the design — battery, amplification, earcup sealing — rather than the diameter alone.
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
When you buy through links on this page, we may earn a commission from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you.
Amazon and the Amazon logo are trademarks of Amazon or its affiliates. This site is an independent third-party review and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Amazon or the product brands mentioned.
See also: realme Buds Air 7 vs EPOS Impact 400: Hybrid ANC Headphones, Altec Lansing Nanobuds ANC 2.0 vs Gabba Goods Over-Ear Headphones, Creative Zen Air Plus vs Xmenha True: Hybrid ANC Earbuds