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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
kosst_amojan
2,095 posts
 
Polypropylene has always been a miserable material for cones. If you go back and read the reviews of speakers that employed that stuff back at it's peak, nobody had glowing things to say about it's sound. It has excellent damping, but it's got a horrible Young's modulus and mass. Somebody is making polypropylene cones doped with clay and minerals, but I can't remember who. 
Personally, I think the material is as important as implementation. Wilson is embracing paper after years of Focal W cone drivers. Magico likes their special recipe of carbon kink. B&W maintains their obsession with coursely woven plastic fibers. I think very highly of Focal's Flax Cone. Some materials just suck though, and polypropylene is definitely one of them. It is to midrange and woofer drivers what paper is to tweeters. 
erik_squires
5,268 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
213runnin OP
562 posts
 
Thanks for the comments, my own experience is somewhat limited.  Paper does seem to be quite nice when done right.
georgehifi's avatar
georgehifi
4,966 posts
 
Speed and lightness.
Best for upper bass to upper mids is ESL's.
Best for upper mids and beyond is a Plasma Tweeter.

Cheers George
helomech
766 posts
 
@kosst_amojan,

If plastic is a miserable material for cones, why do British monitors such as Harbeth Spendor and Epos produce such an elegant midrange? Have you compared such speakers to Focal's Flax cones?  
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