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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 2 responses by jtgofish

jtgofish's avatar
jtgofish
515 posts
 
The cone material itself is not as important as proper damping material applied to any selected material.

This is why standard mass produced drivers as used in expensive speakers like Avalon,Wilson and Sonus Faber invariably are "modified" by these makers to dramaticaly improve sound quality.

Apparently if you apply specially prepared venomous snake oil to the internal cone surface and bio dynamic bull manure from beer fed Wagyu bulls to the front of the cone,the improvement in performance is staggering.This has to be done in the right lunar cycle of course.
jtgofish's avatar
jtgofish
515 posts
 
The point is that there appears to be no correct sounding cone material.They all have their sonic signature and once you become aware of this it comes down to choosing the one which causes least offence rather than one which is "best".
Cone/box speakers are such flawed devices that to expect unflawed or uncoloured performance from them is niave.Of course it is not in manufacturers interest to tell you this-although I am sure most experienced designers employed by them are well aware of it.
Any debate on cone material is really only a contribution to the smoke screen which feeds audio marketing departments.
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