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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
williewonka
1,826 posts
 
I'm not saying my speaker is better, just a different approach than most - that I am extremely happy with -  it uses a Morel 2 1/8" soft dome midrange.

http://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/gershman-acoustics-sonogram-loudspeaker/

I've heard there are a couple of other companies out there using a 2" dome also

The Sonograms are very dynamic, detailed and smooth.

I've stopped looking for speakers since buying these

Regards - Steve


hifisoundguy
630 posts
 
I've never heard cone speakers that could match the midrange and highs that ESL's give you!
douglas_schroeder
1,824 posts
 
Hifisoundguy, I have. In fact, I’ve heard significantly better in comparison in my systems.

Waste of time to debate cone material as though one is universally superior.
stfoth
435 posts
 
I'd submit that there is no "best."  A lot of it is preference and most of the rest depends on other construction, enclosure, crossover, and synergy with the rest of the system.  For awhile I thought I hated metal cones, particularly aluminum.  Bought a few that seemed striking and wonderful, at first, but then wore my ears down and down.  Once that "sound" was set, always seemed to be grating, even in some otherwise really good or fairly expensive speakers on audition.  Until I heard the aluminum coned mids in Canton's Reference line and reinforced when I heard the magnesium coned Seas W18.  To my ears, those are fantastic.

But, I really like some paper coned mids, and, most may disagree, but I liked some of the plasticky graphite whatever they were called Infinity mids from the 90s.  Many others as part of whole speaker, as well.

The cone material is just one factor in the design and finished product and sound, ime.

Planars/ESLs, of course, can sound great, too.  Whatever floats one's boat the highest.
kosst_amojan
2,095 posts
 
I'll put my strong support behind big planars and electrostats. More sensitive to position than an arthritic porn star though. If I had a more ideal room I may have more deeply considered a pair. My ancient AMT1's are real happy campers in my spare bedroom, much more so than my listening room, just because of the simple shape. 
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