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Speaker cone material pro's and con's

Are any of you aware of well-written general discussions of the pro's and cons of various speaker cone materials, for example, paper cone, metal cone (and various metals), polypropylene, ceramic, Mylar, etc.? I am not interested in propaganda for various technologies found on speaker manufacturer websites or opinions offered by audiophiles based upon something they read in an audio magazine, but rather, seek a good, general discussion that is written by a person qualified to speak to such issues (e.g., an engineer or physicist) and that is accessible to a reasonably technology-savvy layman.

I understand that the implementation of a particular cone material is crucial to performance and that it is thus difficult to discuss materials in a vacuum (e.g., how a cone's vibrational mode is dealt with dramatically affects performance), but a good discussion would presumably assume certain standard implementations and still arrive at conclusions.

Any links or recommended readings? Again, I am not looking for audio forum blather derived, for example, from someone's trip to Wilson or (mis)understanding of something written in TAS, but the serious observations of qualified authors.

Thanks in advance.
dearing
gregm
3,397 posts
 
Mechans:
If its the sonics you are interested in then a discussion (...) is meaningless
You are wrong. The cone & its material influence the sound you get -- and as such, are part of the parametres (along with T/S which I assume you;re alluding to) one takes into account when designing loudspeakers.

All the guy's asking is for some refs... :)
donbellphd
205 posts
 
AES articles are unlikely to meet his intelligble-to-layman criterion, unless he could find a general review article. In my experience, peer reviewed articles in professional journals are aimed at readers active in the field.

db
mechans
3,048 posts
 
Let me apologize for the rushed post. That first sentence makes no sense to me either. My point is you can make general staement in isolation about the material used. For instance so many mill of a known alloy of aluminum will weigh a certain amount and be stiffer than many doped papers. The question is what parameters are vital. Do you think calling our non phyical engineers or non compound chemist's contributions blather? Speakers are tricky to get right. The materials used make a contribution but in the end it is the sum of the parts. Good speakers obey the fundamental rules and then the builder, who is on a path of good intentions hears them and spends a lot of time voicing them. It is an imprecise science.
In order to give this fellow a reference that is truly helpful you have to ask what does he ultimately want to know. The early speaker design books tell you more about what the resultant sonics are likely to be. I personally don't think dustings of diamond on a cone or Be or Ti fundamental.
bartokfan
664 posts
 
Cone material is only one part of the driver. Look at the Seas Excel driver with its magnesium material, seems to be something in between a paper and poly. But also hold the driver in your hands and ck out the craftmanship of the driver, the copper phase plug/magnet, the entire construction is something to behold. dang near work of art. Sounds good too!
I've never liked poly (plastic!!) cones. I had a great paper cone speaker until I came across the Excel. Next best cone material I ever heard is the french line called Cabasse, its a white 'form" material, not sure if they make it anymore. I heard their midprice line and thought it was OK, it was poly I believe. Also mention goes to B&W for their Kevlar, not bad, but I don't like the midrange that comes out the driver, too boxy/warm/muddy/attacking/fatiguing.
eldartford
4,262 posts
 
I come from a time when all speaker cones were paper. We were hands-on audiophiles and we spent a lot of time "doping" cones in an effort to change the sound. We glued on balsa wood (lightweight) strips to stiffen the cone and prevent breakup. Then we glued on weights to lower the resonant frequency (go figure). We did things to loosen up the cone suspension.

Nowadays driver manufacturers use various cone materials and they address the issues which we audiophile sought to deal with aftermarket. I see no reason for an audiophile, or a high end speaker manufacturer to dope a cone. I suspect they do this just to say that they have some proprietary secret that makes their product sound better. In truth, they have simply selected the wrong driver (maybe because it is cheap) or they have screwed up the crossover network and are applying a band aid.
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