Speaker cone material pro's and con's


Are any of you aware of well-written general discussions of the pro's and cons of various speaker cone materials, for example, paper cone, metal cone (and various metals), polypropylene, ceramic, Mylar, etc.? I am not interested in propaganda for various technologies found on speaker manufacturer websites or opinions offered by audiophiles based upon something they read in an audio magazine, but rather, seek a good, general discussion that is written by a person qualified to speak to such issues (e.g., an engineer or physicist) and that is accessible to a reasonably technology-savvy layman.

I understand that the implementation of a particular cone material is crucial to performance and that it is thus difficult to discuss materials in a vacuum (e.g., how a cone's vibrational mode is dealt with dramatically affects performance), but a good discussion would presumably assume certain standard implementations and still arrive at conclusions.

Any links or recommended readings? Again, I am not looking for audio forum blather derived, for example, from someone's trip to Wilson or (mis)understanding of something written in TAS, but the serious observations of qualified authors.

Thanks in advance.
dearing

Showing 4 responses by gregm

A quick primer and some ideas from the ldsg. Then, definitely subscribe to AES: it's a serious organisation and their papers are as intersting as they are thorough.
Mechans:
If its the sonics you are interested in then a discussion (...) is meaningless
You are wrong. The cone & its material influence the sound you get -- and as such, are part of the parametres (along with T/S which I assume you;re alluding to) one takes into account when designing loudspeakers.

All the guy's asking is for some refs... :)
Any debate on cone material is really only a contribution to the smoke screen which feeds audio marketing departments
Maybe.

BUT, the thread starter only asked for INFO and pointers, for goodness sake..

I fail to understand the pursuant polemics...:)
Eldartford:
Is my lighthearted mention of walking on water considered polemic
Hardly. If anything, a refreshingly light note...!