LOL, you keep mentioning hearing the enemy before they hear you... That is so pointless. That has no relevance on quality. That's just tweaking for gamers. Gamers NEVER have good quality stuff, it's all things pushed by companies with pretty lights on the products. It's like saying a F1 race car is the best car made because it goes fast. No it's not! It's engineered for a specific purpose and can't do much else. Logitech makes some nice gamer style keyboards and mice but they're not meant for durability or comfort, they're meant for looks and speed. Same for sound. Did you even read this thread about Creative's technology:
http://forums.creative.com/showthread.php?t=575067Those sound cards are useless in modern games and since they don't sound good compared to a DAC, why are they around? Because of the misinformation that people like you believe.
I'm not arguing that neodymium aren't powerful. I'm simply saying that they're not immune either. Also, since speakers are moving parts, the style of magnet affects the sound and a lot of people prefer ALNICO's sound. Neodymium is only being used because they're cheaper and stronger but that doesn't always mean better. Just like the size of the headphone drivers you're talking about. 40mm has very little in terms of information about the sound quality. The way it's built is much more important than the size. That was one of the first things I learned about headphones.