Graphene in speakers/subwoofers?

[supereikenator 10+ year member]

So I just read an article that Berkeley has created a speaker out of graphene, literally threw it together, no development or tuning and it performed better than some Sennheiser MX400s, now these are only $20 earbuds, but for a speaker that has not been developed at all, that's impressive. On top of that, graphene is the fastest/most efficient conductor of electricity known to man currently and it is thermally resistant to thousands of degrees, plus, It is extremely light and supposed to be stronger than diamond. So my thoughts are, insane power handling plus crazy good control? I'm not expert, but graphene could be used to make extremely powerful, efficient, and quality speakers/subs capable of handling tens of thousands of watts thermally. With graphene capable of being flexible as well you could even make the spiders out of the stuff as well as a strong cone and surround capable of handling it mechanically. Any thoughts? If I'm wrong please don't be rude, haha, I'm not claiming to be right, just spitballing.

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[T3mpest 10+ year member]

Graphene is a fairly new material, it'll be several years before we see it in useage like that. It'll probably start with very high end home speakers, or very high end pro audio before it trickles down enough that car audio guys can get a hold of some.

 

[hispls 5,000+ posts]

Check the cost to manufacture. We're a LONG way out from that material being mass produced to where we will see practical applications for normal consumers.

 

[fatboytyler]

Good thing about cost and graphene is that it wouldn't require that much at all.

 

[n8skow 10+ year member]

Berkeley creates the first graphene earphones, and (unsurprisingly) they’re awesome | ExtremeTech

 

[supereikenator 10+ year member]

As far as cost, graphene is super cheap to make and same with the materials associated. It's just a waiting period now until it's developed to a point that we can all have access.

 

[Sub Woofin 10+ year member]

from the article in yahoo. Graphene is stronger than steel, not diamond.

 

[n8skow 10+ year member]

I could see this being a break-through in diaphragm based tweeters, and earbuds/headphones, but doesn't seem very applicable to a situation where you would want a high-displacement transducer (for bass frequencies).

In other words - I wouldn't hold my breath for the traditional woofer designs to be going away anytime soon...

As far as cost, graphene is super cheap to make and same with the materials associated. It's just a waiting period now until it's developed to a point that we can all have access.

 

[SounDrive Pro Seller]

I used to be a Materials Science major. Graphene is cool stuff, hopefully it'll be mass produced soon.

 

[SounDrive Pro Seller]

I could see this being a break-through in diaphragm based tweeters, and earbuds/headphones, but doesn't seem very applicable to a situation where you would want a high-displacement transducer (for bass frequencies).
In other words - I wouldn't hold my breath for the traditional woofer designs to be going away anytime soon...

I think we're pretty far off from mass producing on the scale required for larger speakers

 

[n8skow 10+ year member]

Nanoparticles in general are Cool Stuff...

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I used to be a Materials Science major. Graphene is cool stuff, hopefully it'll be mass produced soon.

 

[supereikenator 10+ year member]

I could see this being a break-through in diaphragm based tweeters, and earbuds/headphones, but doesn't seem very applicable to a situation where you would want a high-displacement transducer (for bass frequencies).
In other words - I wouldn't hold my breath for the traditional woofer designs to be going away anytime soon...

I would think maybe a voice coil replacement? Maybe not the whole woofer.

 

[supereikenator 10+ year member]

from the article in yahoo. Graphene is stronger than steel, not diamond.

I read one, I can't remember which, that said it was stronger than diamond and 200 times stronger than steel. I just said "supposed to be stronger than diamond because I saw it claimed but that does seem outlandish. Both are derivatives of carbon so maybe it's possible.

 

[Vertex Audio Pro Seller]

Apparently it is also going to be fairly inexpensive to produce!

 

[n8skow 10+ year member]

As long as we're speaking speculatively - Graphene will be just a stepping stone...

There's already materials in development that supersede Graphene's physical and electrical properties (such as Carbyne and Stanene).

I would think maybe a voice coil replacement? Maybe not the whole woofer.