A single end planar magnetic speaker system having at least one thin film, flexible diaphragm (72, 90) having a front side and a rear side for converting an input electrical signal into a corresponding acoustic output, the at least one diaphragm including a predetermined conductive region (76) and a predetermined non-conductive region; a magnetic structure (92) utilizing nonferite high energy magnets of a predetermined thickness wherein the magnets are each at least as wide as they are deep; the magnets having a magnetic strength wherein when compared to magnets of a ferrite type of same width as the nonferite high energy magnets but which have increased depth to yield at least nearly the same magnetic strength as the high energy magnets in the magnetic structure, doubling the depth of the high energy magnets in the magnetic structure, doubling the depth of the high energy magnets in the magnetic structure yields an increase in speaker sensitivity of at least 3 dB while the doubling the depth of the ferrite type magnet will yield a gain of less than 3 dB, and the system further includes a mounting structure coupled to the diaphragm to capture the diaphragm, to hold it in a predetermined state of tension and space it at a predetermined distance from the magnetic structure.