That's a loaded question as it depends on way too many factors. On a 3-way I prefer a 4-5" pulp cone for low mid as long as it is fully crossed over by 1200-1400 hz. I like the natural timber and tone of the pulp cone. Electrostatics are nice for upper mid on up. Remember the early 70's SAE's with the electrostatic panels for mid and HF. They used a 4" between the 30 lb. Gauss woofers (Ceramic coated 12" pulp woofer cone with 17 lb magnet!) and the stats that was as thin as tissue paper with something added to the pulp that made them quite stiff. AR had a really nice spider-less 2 1/2" paper cone in the AR12 that was strong and imo better than the dome in the ar10 and ar11. Some of the 2"-4" domes did work well. Got to love the choices.
Looking for input: Best material for mid range cone
I had a surprise last night when I switched speakers in my system. I've got a few pairs, but had been listening mainly to some Ascend Sierra 1, which have a polypropylene cone with a soft dome tweeter in a bookshelf design. Anyway, I've got a pair of Tannoy Precision 6.1's, and swapped them in.
The sound was noticeably different. Piano sounded better, vocals had a finer quality as well, and the whole sound seemed a little more lively. Now the Tannoys have silver interior wiring, a titanium tweeter in a coax design and are only rated for 75 watts. The cone material is some kind of pressed paper fibre. And they are voiced to somewhat push the midrange. But the sound was compelling.
I'm just wondering about cone material because some old Paradigms with Polypropylene were really not up to snuff, but they were quite old. Any thoughts?
The sound was noticeably different. Piano sounded better, vocals had a finer quality as well, and the whole sound seemed a little more lively. Now the Tannoys have silver interior wiring, a titanium tweeter in a coax design and are only rated for 75 watts. The cone material is some kind of pressed paper fibre. And they are voiced to somewhat push the midrange. But the sound was compelling.
I'm just wondering about cone material because some old Paradigms with Polypropylene were really not up to snuff, but they were quite old. Any thoughts?