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Good lookin' speaker drivers

For me, a large part of the overall aesthetic of a speaker is the actual driver itself. The cabinet, obviously, is a large part of the styling, however there is just something about the way certain drivers look that do it for me and give some indication as to speaker's sonic potential.

I find myself leaning more towards bespoke--or to borrow an term from horology--"manufacture" drivers. Examples of good lookin' drivers IMHO are:

*Revel Ultima2 mid/bass: simple, inverted dustcap sans any lines

*Magico Q series drivers

*KEF Uni-Q

*JL subs with their large overroll surrounds

Conversely, the less aesthetically successful drivers IMO are the wide-bandwith single drivers with the whizzer cones, i.e. the Lowther drivers. In no way am I saying that these are sonically inferior--they're not, and sound great--but something about the whizzer cone in my mind makes a visual association with the cheapo car stereo speakers.

Just an opinion. What other drivers do you guys like, aesthetically speaking?
e30m3

Showing 1 response by realremo

realremo
460 posts
 
I like a well detailed driver cone, that has a pattern or a texture to it, and that moves independently of the center bullet, and i prefer that bullet to have a metallic finish. I like the look of the tyler acoustics drivers, and the monitor audio drivers in the silver series are very nice. I also like creative use of color, like the yellow kevlar mid range drivers on some of B&W's gear.
I find the drivers on my current quad 22L2s to be kind of drab by comparison, but the sound is quite good, so i made an exception!
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