^By that argument, speaker cones should be made of doped skin, like an Ed Gein lampshade.
Speakers are not musical instruments. Their purpose is to create a perfect replication of the recording through air movement, with minimal influence on the signal from the cabinet or diaphragm materials. Anything that resonates during this process is a coloration, an alteration of the original sound. If you use a spruce horn to project the sound of a recorded violin, essentially what you’ll get is the sound of a violin that’s been altered by further wood resonance. One might as well encapsule the violin within another violin. It will no longer sound like a Stradivari, but will sound like a violin made of that cheap, new-growth spruce that the builder got from their local lumber yard. This still might be pleasing to the ear, but if it resonates more (or at a higher frequency where our ears are more sensitive) vs the plastic horn, it is a greater alteration of the recording.
This is why speaker manufacturers tend to use self-damping materials: plastic/ paper/ceramic cones, fabric tweeters and MDF cabinets. Their resonance tends to be of lower amplitude for a given SPL and therefore, they have less of an impact on the original signal. The perfect speaker would be one that produces sound waves while imparting absolutely zero resonance of its own. A solid wood enclosure won’t get anywhere close to that ideal, because it’s highly resonant by nature - great for instruments, not for speakers.
Speakers are not musical instruments. Their purpose is to create a perfect replication of the recording through air movement, with minimal influence on the signal from the cabinet or diaphragm materials. Anything that resonates during this process is a coloration, an alteration of the original sound. If you use a spruce horn to project the sound of a recorded violin, essentially what you’ll get is the sound of a violin that’s been altered by further wood resonance. One might as well encapsule the violin within another violin. It will no longer sound like a Stradivari, but will sound like a violin made of that cheap, new-growth spruce that the builder got from their local lumber yard. This still might be pleasing to the ear, but if it resonates more (or at a higher frequency where our ears are more sensitive) vs the plastic horn, it is a greater alteration of the recording.
This is why speaker manufacturers tend to use self-damping materials: plastic/ paper/ceramic cones, fabric tweeters and MDF cabinets. Their resonance tends to be of lower amplitude for a given SPL and therefore, they have less of an impact on the original signal. The perfect speaker would be one that produces sound waves while imparting absolutely zero resonance of its own. A solid wood enclosure won’t get anywhere close to that ideal, because it’s highly resonant by nature - great for instruments, not for speakers.