Paper Cones in HiFi?

Those who look inside high end speakers are often surprised by what they see. Not only are the cones sometimes paper, but the entire driver may be elcheapo. Wires too. I hasten to add that not every manufacturer is like this, but more than you would suspect.

What does it mean? Mainly that driver "quality" is more about reliability, and power handling capability, than sound, and the design of the overall speaker system, especially the crossover, is of great importance. Good drivers can sound lousy, and vice versa.

There is paper, and there is paper. Paper is a laminate of wood (mostly) fibers, and can be a very sophisticated product. One wooden product that amazed me when I learned of it is the bullet-shaped nose fairing on the submarine-launched ballistic missiles. It is made out of laminated wood, similar to a rowing shell. (I would have expected fiberglas). It is light weight and very strong: it supports the weight of the entire missile when it is hoisted into the launch tube.

"The dog ate my homework"...updated.

Sean...Lighten up! Dogs eat homework every day! I, and I am sure many others, have been in the situation of losing work for one reason or another, and the worst part is realizing that other people will be skeptical of our explanation. One time I lost a 20 sheet PowerPoint presentation while putting finishing touches on it after hours the night before the business trip. No choice but to suck it in and stay up all night doing it over again. As usual for a second time around it actually came out better, but I never told a soul that I had screwed up.

When I write long Audiogon posts I do it first in WORD, and then copy it into the thread. Why? I learned the hard way. BTW this also gives you a spell checker for words like "analogue" :-)

We look forward to your next dissertation.