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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?
213runnin

Showing 2 responses by erik_squires

erik_squires
16,732 posts
 
In terms of completed design, I'm a big fan of composite construction. This includes the Focal W sandwiches, rohacell, carbon fiber laminates, and the cut paper designs used by ScanSpeak (my personal faves).

There's also some newer designs I'm curious about such as the Satori  papyrus / Focal materials using unusually long plant fibers, and Eton also has some interesting ideas about marrying magnesium to resin.
erik_squires
16,732 posts
 
Agreed. The material used in a driver is only one of many factors that come into play.

I've heard very good and very bad Be tweeters for instance. Fun to bs about though.

Best,

E
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