materials

[fyrspray 10+ year member]

alright I would have asked a question like this in all of the different speaker/sub threads but then i'd feel like i was spamming.... that and i'm too lazy XD lol anyhoo I was wonder about the different materials like for subs, tweeter dome, woofer cone, etc. like whats the best and why and whats the difference? there are a ton that i was noticing in the car audio mag, specially for subs, all kinds of materials I've never even heard of! lol and yes I'm new to all the car audio stuff... well.... car stuff in general, but I've decided to learn how to build 1 so i can rice out my car XD and I am rambling, OK anyhoo, if anyone can answer that for me I would be SOOOOO thankful, thanks! cya

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[Tungsten 10+ year member]

It's considered very bad etiquette to post the same thing in multiple forums or multiple times in the same forum //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/rolleyes.gif.c1fef805e9d1464d377451cd5bc18bfb.gif

 

[paikiah 5,000+ posts]

tweeters are usually offered with either a silk dome (smoother, gentle tones) and titanium domes (sharp, crsip tones)

mids and subs, they require very stiff cone materials, and at the same time needs to be light. Papercones are the most ocmmonly found element for sub cone material, I should think. Paper, treated with special layers of stiffening thingy (i dunno)

I think that's why ED has designed the subs as they are right now. No cone flex whatsoever, says Ben in the website. ( or at least I think that's what he said) I dunno if there can be such a thing is NO flexingon ANy material in this world, but I think it's safe to assume that Ben meant that his sub cones are stiff as hell.

Focals use something called polyglass or something. I don't think that material is that important so long as it is light and rigid.

(If I'm wrong, and there is a high chance of it), please be gentle, for this is what I understand if it right now. I've stocked up on a lot of books about speakers andamplifier designing in general. Currently trying to attempt building vacuum tube power amps.

 

[maylar 10+ year member]

There are dozens of different materials used in speaker construction. It would take a book to list and compare their properties. What paikiah said is as much as anyone can give you unless you have a specfic question.

Speaker mfgrs like to advertise their technologies to make them sound hi-tech. Rather than trying to understand what all the materials are, you'd be better off just asking about the brands and models you're looking at. Folks here may not know what polykevlar is, but they can tell you how it sounds...

 

[swimfreak26 10+ year member]

Tube amps are awesome man...let me know how it goes. The only problem with them is, they're heavy as a b**** but hey, perfect sound quality is worth it.

Any ways, about the speaker material:

From what I know he hit it straight on the head as far as tweeters.

Subs...yes, from what i understand light and rigid is the goal. Most of the subs out there use paper cones, but if you notice a lot of the high end subs are going out of that department. There are aluminum, plastic, all kinds of subs out there right now. I think that the more rigid, the better it sounds (SQ). Now...elemental's new subs have Nomex cones I believe, supposedly very very light and rigid, so who really knows what the "best" is, but most of the higher end subs (and even some of the not so high end) are not using paper anymore, so i am going to say...paper is not king, but I don't know what is for sure.

 

[fyrspray 10+ year member]

okv so i guess my question is who makes best stuff? what sounds the best?

 

[paikiah 5,000+ posts]

mmmm, nomex....

I use to WEAR nomex-fabric (sparco)...btw, check out Fila's racing shoes with real carbon fiber heel covers. It's the closest you can get to real racing boots.

it means that you won't be able to burn ED subs till you try for a long~~~ time.

So long as the cone is light and rigid, I think an average person won't be able to hear a difference just on cone material alone.

Brax uses grahite or something... to me, kevlar interwoven threads look the best. Had a kicker impulse once, i think those had that pattern. Dunno if it was authentic kevlar, just looked like it.

 

[azngurlbaybee 10+ year member]

Here you go:

http://www.snippets.org/ldsg/sect-1.php3

 

[ss3079 5,000+ posts]

Originally posted by azngurlbaybee Here you go:

 

http://www.snippets.org/ldsg/sect-1.php3

Very informative site. Good find.

- Steve

 

[Steven Kephart 10+ year member]

I would say that there is no "better" material. It just depends on what the design calls for. Engineering is making the best possible compromises for your design. As an example, I will use a sub already mentioned in this thread. The ED sub design called for dual spiders. Because of this, they had to use a flat cone. This meant that they needed a stiffer material to keep the cone rigid, which has the added effect of increasing the mass. So their design had to account for that so as the efficiency of the sub doesn't get too low and the Fs doesn' t skyrocket.

Now as for who makes the best stuff, I would say that this is rather subjective since they make quite a few different products. But I will say that the top SQ subs out on the market are the JL W7 and Adire Brahma since they have designs that give them less distorion than anyone else, and both supply flat frequency responses within the intended application (in vehicle).

 

[ss3079 5,000+ posts]

Steven,

I just wanted to mention before I forget...nice install in your Integra...you do some fine work

- Steve

 

[Steven Kephart 10+ year member]

Originally posted by ss3079 Steven,

 

I just wanted to mention before I forget...nice install in your Integra...you do some fine work

 

- Steve

Thank you very much. I really do appreciate it. I'm finishing off the roll of film right now that will show a lot of the body work done on the sub enclosure, plus the sub actually mounted under the dash. So hopefully I will have some updates soon.

I'm lucky to have Delmar, our other installer to learn from. He built the head unit enclosure in the old Caddy, plus did the metal work in the S-10 (that install was a group effort). He has taught me a lot about working with fiberglass.

If you ever go down to cali for a competition, please feel free to stop on by. We are just off of I-5 which you will probably take to get down there.

Oh and btw, nice name. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/cool.gif.3bcaf8f141236c00f8044d07150e34f7.gif

 

[fyrspray 10+ year member]

awesome! thanks guys! thanks azn ^_^, i got a couple other questions but they don't really have anything to do with speakers n stuff so I'll just start a new thread for that, you guys are great!