Metal drivers

[Tomorrow]

I'm still trying to learn, here, so pardon yet another noob question.

Are there any generalizations that can be made regarding the sound output of metal drivers (not the golf kind, please, sweet tho' they may be) versus non-metal?

T'anx.

 

[Sheep]

I have been wondering the same thing myself, and after looking at different speakers, I think I have compiled a difference.


My speakers use treated-paper drivers and silk dome tweeters. I like the sound they produce. Yes theres better, and i have heard better, but for the price its alright. I think inorder to have a good sounding metal driver setup, you need to pay a little more. Metal tweeters seem to be shrillish (gah?) unless they are more expensive, and of better quality. As for midrange and bass drivers, I think the are more neutral. I perfer warming sounding speakers myself. But, I don't like metal subwoofers. I don't know what it is, but they seem to be....weaker sound-wise, I can explain it, but id rather have kelvar or another driver.


The Sheep

 

[Buckeyefan 1]

Here's a few articles on tweeters. There is quite a difference in sound from one to the other. Go down about half way in the first url, and you'll see a graph of a metal dome vs a soft mylar dome.

http://www.roger-russell.com/driverst.htm

http://speakers.lifetips.com/cat/61233/tweeters/

 

[3db]

I'm still trying to learn, here, so pardon yet another noob question.

Are there any generalizations that can be made regarding the sound output of metal drivers (not the golf kind, please, sweet tho' they may be) versus non-metal?

T'anx.

Different materials used in the construction of drivers does make a difference in its sound. Its up to the manufacturer to design around these difference. Here's a review of PSB Image series that use metal dome tweeters and metalized woofers. The review summarized the speakers as sounding warm. Who would have thought, metal drivers could be designed into a speaker system and made to sound warm?

http://www.audiorevolution.com/equip/psbimage/


The moral of the story is....with reputable speakers, don't go by what the speakers are made off. Go by what they sound like

 

[j_garcia]

Prior to hearing my 902s, I would have generalized metal dome tweeters as a bit brigher, and in particular aluminum tweeters. Both drivers in my 902s are aluminum, and they sound warm to me as well. I'm a big fan of soft dome tweeters, but the 902s don't sound like your typical metal driver speaker. B&W's 600 and 700 (an former CDM) series are also similar (British too) in that respect - they use metal domes but don't sound bright.

On the other side, soft domes usually sound a bit smoother to me, but the Athena Audition series use some kind of soft dome that sounds brighter, almost like a metal dome to my ears. I think it's some kind of plastic rather than textile, or a treated textile.

Paper midbasses are often considered to be the most neutral.

The crossover also plays a big part in how the tweeter sounds, as the tone of the driver can be modified somewhat via the x-over.

 

[NetGeek]

Athena uses "Teteron" tweeters

I agree they are a bit brighter than silk. Teteron is a "synthetic silk" and is impervious to moisture so it will not change over time and I guess that is a good advantage, expecially if you live in a high-humidity area like I do.

As far as the "Metal Drivers" go I have the origional Audition Series and was sent a AS-R1.2 bipolar speaker by mistake, which has the metalic driver, and I can tell absoultly no difference in it's sound from the origional Injection Molded Polypropylene drivers used in the origional Audition Series.

 

[aarond]

This is from a conversation with my father a few weeks ago. He worked for jbl in Northridge from 1969 untill they were bought by Beatrice Foods in 1977. They would experiment with different driver materials paper, plastics, metals, woods, pretty much anything you could imagine. He told me, if all things remained the same and only the cone material was changed. There was almost no change in frequency response as long as the material was able to move air efficiently.
Domes were a different story they had drastic frequency response curves from different materials.
That being said as another poster already mentioned the driver material matters alot less than the design of the loudspeaker

aaron