Aluminum Coils vs Copper Coils pricing?

[Toxic Tuan 10+ year member]

I actually don't think flatwire handles much more power if any, in fact they are if anything more fragile than the round wire for one obvious reason. When you increase the voltage across the coil, we start to create enough of a voltage difference between the layers to potentially create arcing or shorting. This is going to be much more sensitive to flatwire because the contact is much higher AND (more importantly) the ceramic insulation that is used on the wire is weaker because of the process in how they make flatwire. Unless its anodized wire, the wire is coated, then flattened. I think the best you can do is about 4:1 and that is pushing it, anything more will likely crack the insulation. Round wire just avoids those issues but does have as much packing density. So you might get about 5-10% more BL with flatwire because of the extra conductor, of course there will be more mass with that BL do, but the point is you fill the air gap better which is always good. I don't believe flatwire it is as durable as round.
As far as AL vs Cu, AL wins out in just about every category. If you're just doing SPL burps at tuning, the contest might be a lot closer because we don't care about mass as much, but i have not done tests myself. If you're talking about full range "daily" - hate that stupid word, then AL is what you want. It has 60% the conductivity of copper with 1/3rd the weight.

I think you meant "doesn't have."

Tuan

 

[Haunz 10+ year member]

As far as AL vs Cu, AL wins out in just about every category. It has 60% the conductivity of copper with 1/3rd the weight.

60% the electrical & thermal conductivity and aluminum wins in every category ?

no, i was suggesting AL for better sensitivity, that's all

This sounds more like it.. Don't discount that copper can hold significantly more heat energy then aluminum... or that it has a lower thermal expansion coefficient either (which has other implications)

Clearly copper is the better conductor, but the trade off is indeed weight...

 

[sundownz Pro Seller]

oh, Jeez...I guess me and sundownz were off! Lol Thanks for clearing that up.
So would round alums be better than both copper and flat alums?

You can't just say one is "better" than the other... it all comes down to the overall design of the speaker.

 

[iamamp3pimp 5,000+ posts]

but i can say that the alum flatwound coils that were in my MT's, DC level 5's, DP, and the Wardens are far better than the sheet metal in my car.

one could only wonder why.

 

[Notloud00 10+ year member]

i broke the spiders and tore the tinsels on my coppers way way before i burned the coils. i think the new copers with the new susp will be alot better on music than the old ones. mltrass u tried both what u think?

 

[Smigletat]

the argument is tho that raw copper cost a lot more than aluminum. so why do aluminum coils end up costing more?

The only thing I can come up with is "Lighter is better and copper weighs a lot more than alumnium. When demmanding high power SPL from a subwoofer with precise performance and a high high BL!" However, on the other hand, if your coil is copper and not alumnium when you run comps and 20,000 watts to this bohemith for a very short period of time, you might end up with $1.50 of usable coppe in recycling?

 

[mlstrass 5,000+ posts]

i broke the spiders and tore the tinsels on my coppers way way before i burned the coils. i think the new copers with the new susp will be alot better on music than the old ones. mltrass u tried both what u think?

Well I ended up going back to alum coils as they work best in MY application.

Started with alum, went to new coppers at 1ohm, then new coppers at .25ohm (tore the spiders), and back to alum.

I prefer the sound of the alum coils, but the diff is pretty subtle. I never noticed more low end with the coppers and actually thought on "trunk bang" which drops to around 31Hz that the alum coils hit harder down low.

HDC's will hit the lows with authority, but they are not a bottom heavy sub, so you really won't have a bloated/muddy/boomy bottom end unless you crank up some bass boost or EQ down low. Not that I recommend doing that, but for those that like that sound this can help to achieve it.

I like how they get very loud, yet still remain pretty musical. I can do mid/upper 50's on music and it actually sounds pretty good at those levels for the few minutes I can take it.

If I had 2200's I'd go with copper for sure, but with 3500's that's a little much for the coppers in a daily set up IMO...

 

[Notloud00 10+ year member]

how much more efficient were the coppers on low power than the aluminum? ill prolly be running a 3500 at .5 per sub and ive already tried it with coppers and well //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/crap.gif.7f4dd41e3e9b23fbd170a1ee6f65cecc.gif im thinking either team psi or aluminum recones. i wanna try the team psi one but i cant find anyone with a recone to see if its worth it.

 

[mlstrass 5,000+ posts]

I was louder with the alum coils at 1ohm vs the coppers, and 1 sub let go at .25ohm.

For your power the AQ alum recones will be fine, might have to back down the gain a fuzz for daily, but for metering you'll be fine.

I plan to run 2 amps per sub this year strapped at 1ohm, so .5 per amp...