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.

To add my 2 pennies, paper is used because of its lightweight(for fast transcient responses and dynamics)characteristics and ability to minimise sound coloration. Though its starting to finally show its age as there are new materials that will far exceed paper in terms of sound quality,output etc. Titanium alloy being one of them, but you dont see many speakers with titanium cones due to expense to mfg. them. But dont shy away from speakers that use a pulp cone. There are too many great sounding speakers that use them.

Dunlavy used them on all his speakeres including some very expensive ones that recieved rave reviews for their accuracy. He claimed that they rang less and didn't store energy as much as more expensive, high tech alternatives.

,,,There are paper base drivers in the multi thousand price tag speakers as well,,,,

Scan Speak and Morel make awesome paper treated drivers, and so do many other manufacturers I am sure...paper is easy to model and is more predictable, and all more well rounded.

I love paper treated drivers sound (the ones well made and designed of course,,especially for mid and midbass..

I actually have some JBL L-96's which have arguably the best midrange driver ever made, and its paper...

The reason why many of us like and use pulp type cones is that they provide excellent self damping charateristics. That being the case, less of a filter can be used to accommodate the transition into the next driver. There is no doubt that some of the more rigid materials do certain things better but they also ring harder and require more filter to remove the resonance. IMHO, in my high resolution designs designs, I have found that component coloration (sounds and resonances of capacitors, inductors, resistors and wires) are much more objectionable than the problems that reduced rigidity generate. Then again, my drivers are more heavily damped and use carbonfiber to add rigidity the cone. Low mass, excellent self damping potential and rigidity, the necessary mix IMO for a superb transducer.
Bobby@merlin