Paper cone woofers died in 1962 .... a look back


Stereophile re-published an article from 1962 by Irving Fried predicting the death of the paper cone driver was soon upon us.


https://www.stereophile.com/content/farewell-paper-cone

Though much did not come to pass, it is an interesting read, which includes discussions of the near predecessor to Focal’s W sandwich cones.



Enjoy!

Erik
erik_squires
I heard a Leak loudspeaker with a "sandwich" cone woofer in 1971---it was excellent, the best speaker I had heard until hearing my first ESL later in the year. That year I also heard the ESS Transtatic I, which had three RTR ESL tweeters and the legendary (with good reason) KEF B139 woofer, itself having a sandwich cone with a flat front face of Styrofoam and a butyl surround. I currently own a pair of the Transtatics, and their B139’s are still operating perfectly, as are the KEF 5" B110 Bextrene midrange drivers (the first commercially available Bextrene-coned driver) and the RTR tweeters.
I’m a big fan of composite construction, @bdp24 , from Focal’s W, to Rohacell to ... paper! :)


I’m currently listening to Scanspeak’s Revelator mid-woofers, which are two paper layers with an epoxy bonding them together. really pretty marvelous.