Custom Tuned Drivers: Why Size Doesn't Tell the Whole Story

Quick Answer

A "custom tuned driver" is a speaker built and adjusted specifically for a headset's shape, angle, and use case, instead of dropped in off-the-shelf. The GHS Wireless InfinitePlay uses 40mm custom tuned, angled drivers designed to deliver balanced, detailed sound rather than just loud bass — because driver size alone doesn't decide audio quality.

A driver is just a speaker. What you do with it is the whole game.

Strip away the branding and a "driver" is exactly what it sounds like: a small speaker. It's the part of the headset that actually moves air and makes the sound you hear. Every headset has one (or several). What separates a good one from a forgettable one isn't the spec sheet — it's what the engineers did with it before it shipped.

Here's the shortcut a lot of gaming headset companies take: buy a driver that was designed for something else — music production, consumer earbuds, whatever's cheapest at scale — bolt it into a headset shell, slap on some RGB and a gaming logo, and call it a gaming headset. The driver was never built for gaming in the first place. It was built for someone mixing a track in a studio, then repurposed for someone trying to hear a footstep behind them.

Glorious built the GHS Wireless InfinitePlay around 40mm custom tuned, angled drivers instead — drivers tuned for this headset, this shape, and this use case, not borrowed from somewhere else.

Bigger isn't automatically better

"40mm" sounds like a spec you can rank on — bigger driver, better headset, right? Not really. Independent audio engineering resources back this up directly: Audio-Technica notes that while driver diameter plays a role in sound quality, it's magnet performance and voice-coil material that meaningfully shape the result, not diameter alone. Moon Audio puts it more bluntly: a larger diaphragm can mean punchier bass, "but that's not the entirety of sound quality" — the mass and thinness of the diaphragm affects speed and distortion more than sheer size does.

In other words: driver size is one ingredient, not the recipe. Tuning — how the driver is voiced, dampened, and positioned inside the ear cup — is what actually decides whether audio sounds balanced or blown out.

Why "angled" is doing real work here

The GHS Wireless InfinitePlay's drivers aren't just custom tuned, they're angled. Angling the drivers lets them "fire sound at your ears the way nature intended," aiming for more accurate positional audio, sharper awareness, and cleaner detail so you can pick out a footstep, a roar, or a tire screech before it's too late.

The logic behind angling drivers, rather than pointing them flat at the ear, is a known idea in headphone acoustics: your ears sit at an angle on your head, not flush against the sides of your skull, so a driver angled to roughly match that geometry is aiming sound more directly down the ear canal instead of across it. It's worth noting this is a design philosophy more than a universally standardized measurement — there's no single industry benchmark for "correct" driver angle — but it's the reasoning behind why the GHS Wireless InfinitePlay's drivers sit the way they do, rather than dropped straight into the ear cup like a lot of off-the-shelf options.

Tuning doesn't stop at the hardware

Custom tuning at the driver level is the foundation, but Glorious CORE software adds a second layer on top of it. You get five built-in EQ presets to start from, game-specific EQ presets for faster setup, and a full parametric EQ if you want to build your own curve from scratch. The hardware is tuned out of the box — the software means you're not locked into just one interpretation of "correct" sound.

That's the whole point behind pairing 40mm custom tuned, angled drivers with real EQ control: audio built for gaming from the ground up, adjustable enough that it stays yours.

The bottom line

A spec sheet that just says "40mm driver" doesn't tell you much on its own — plenty of forgettable headsets share that number. What matters is whether that driver was tuned for the headset it's sitting in and the game you're playing on it. On the GHS Wireless InfinitePlay, Glorious built the drivers around angling and tuning first, size second — because size was never the whole story to begin with.

FAQ

What is a "driver" in a gaming headset? A driver is the small speaker inside each ear cup that converts an electrical audio signal into the sound you hear. Every pair of headphones or headset has at least one driver per ear; how that driver is built and tuned determines what the audio actually sounds like.

Does a bigger driver mean better sound? Not by itself. Audio engineering resources note that driver size affects factors like bass output, but diaphragm material, magnet quality, and tuning influence overall sound quality more than diameter alone.

Why are the GHS Wireless InfinitePlay's drivers angled? Glorious angles the 40mm drivers to align more closely with the natural angle of the ear, with the goal of delivering more accurate positional audio and clearer directional detail, like footsteps or off-screen callouts.

What does "custom tuned" mean versus a stock driver? A stock or off-the-shelf driver is typically designed for a different use case, such as music production or consumer earbuds, then reused in a headset. A custom tuned driver is voiced and adjusted specifically for that headset's shell, angle, and intended use.

Can I adjust the sound further after the hardware tuning? Yes. Glorious CORE software includes five EQ presets, game-specific EQ presets, and a full parametric EQ, so you can fine-tune sound on top of the headset's baseline tuning.

Curious what custom tuned, angled drivers sound like in your own setup? Check out the GHS Wireless InfinitePlay and pair it with Glorious CORE to dial in your own EQ.