aluminum or copper voice coil?

[CHUCKmfnNORRIS 10+ year member]

plan on getting an ssa icon and have the choice of aluminum and copper. what is the difference?

Click to read more...

 

[VWBobby 10+ year member]

Usually weight and power handling. In general, copper can handle more power but it weighs more. IMO, an aluminum coil sub will respond faster, sound better, but usually can't handle as much power until you get into larger coil diameters or heavier gauge windings.

 

[CHUCKmfnNORRIS 10+ year member]

this is the one i am looking at

 

[loud-n-low 10+ year member]

Usually weight and power handling. In general, copper can handle more power but it weighs more. IMO, an aluminum coil sub will respond faster, sound better, but usually can't handle as much power until you get into larger coil diameters or heavier gauge windings.

Dont more often then not, SQ oriented subs have a copper coil, therefore a lower Fs?

 

[jdawg 5,000+ posts]

aluminum coil subs usaully have a higher fs

 

[CHUCKmfnNORRIS 10+ year member]

"fs"?

 

[denim 5,000+ posts]

Fs is the resonant frequency of the driver. The Aluminum coil option is for people who are going to really abuse the driver and push it too its power limits and want a little more peak in their output.

 

[Haunz 10+ year member]

All things considered, copper is the superior conductor. period.

Aluminum is cheaper //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/fyi.gif.9f1f679348da7204ce960cfc74bca8e0.gif

 

[CHUCKmfnNORRIS 10+ year member]

Fs is the resonant frequency of the driver. The Aluminum coil option is for people who are going to really abuse the driver and push it too its power limits and want a little more peak in their output.

ok i got ya now

 

[hatedonmostly 5,000+ posts]

Fs is the resonant frequency of the driver. The Aluminum coil option is for people who are going to really abuse the driver and push it too its power limits and want a little more peak in their output.

This is the only answer.

 

[SPLaudio 5,000+ posts]

if both coils are = then the alum will be louder. the copper will handle the power betterfordaily though...

 

[denim 5,000+ posts]

if both coils are = then the alum will be louder. the copper will handle the power betterfordaily though...

The coils are not equal in this case, so the aluminum have a little higher thermal limits.

 

[SPLaudio 5,000+ posts]

alum cools faster yes but why its louder is weight.

 

[VWBobby 10+ year member]

Aluminum cools faster but I thought part of the job for the former and the gap is to cool the coil?

A heat conductive former will draw heat out of the coil and cooling vents for the gap, exhaust the heated air.

Aluminum wiring in houses tends to burn, that's why they switched over sometime in the 70's for safety reasons.

I would imagine you would have to have a lot heavier gauge aluminum to equal the power handling of copper?

 

[hispls 5,000+ posts]

alum cools faster yes but why its louder is weight.

X2 MMS is a HUGE factor in efficiency.

 

[sundownz Pro Seller]

Aluminum wiring in houses tends to burn, that's why they switched over sometime in the 70's for safety reasons.

This was due to dis-similar materials on the connectors with varying expansion ratios loosening over time - thus creating heat from the loose connection and eventually fires.

 

[sundownz Pro Seller]

The real factor is the ratio of motor force factor to the MMS and not just MMS... unless you are running a very high frequency where the downward shifting FS will hurt score with the copper.

Example:

Z v.2 Copper ratio is 0.59

Z v.2 Aluminum ratio is 0.62

My testing showed zero SPL difference between the two coils -- in theory the aluminum should have been 0.1 louder based on the ratio but in real life they metered the same... up until over 6kw where copper was a bit louder as power compression was lower.

But on the SA-8 :

Copper : 0.51

Aluminum : 0.54

In this case they are also still very close... but we tested at 68 Hz -- so the much higher FS of the aluminum coil overrode the ratio and gave us a gain of ~0.8 dB or so.

 

[Haunz 10+ year member]

alum cools faster

The thermal conductivity of copper is considerably greater then aluminum... //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/fyi.gif.9f1f679348da7204ce960cfc74bca8e0.gif

This really isn't rocket science.. with one aluminum and one copper coil of equal mass, wind height, adhesive, former, ect, the copper coil will handle slightly more power.. additionally, because the windings of the copper coil will be considerably smaller you can use a tighter gap for increased BL...

The only reason to use aluminum, as far as I am concearned, is to save money.... (same as with house wiring)

 

[SPLaudio 5,000+ posts]

copper takes longer too cool. you wont have a copper and alum coil the same ww and same weight,lol. tighter gap than copper use alum flatwound. are you mad frenchy?

 

[Haunz 10+ year member]

copper takes longer too cool. you wont have a copper and alum coil the same ww and same weight,lol. tighter gap than copper use alum flatwound. are you mad frenchy?

If you want to compare apples to apples you need to compare two coils with the same mass... period... and to be fair in other terms of performance wind height should also be the same... I can get aluminum & copper round in a wide variety of gauges as well as flat, and edge wound, at any wind height... so there is no reason why a direct comparison shouldn't be made...

As far as copper taking longer to cool, try looking up the thermal conductivity... //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/suicide.gif.a649d21efc0d1fd4890a6428166586c1.gif