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.

The "aged cheese" woofer never caught on, neither did the overly damped "used catcher's mitt" design...I say stick with paper...or hemp fibre...anything...