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Which SPEAKER for the 21ST century?

Cones vs Electrostats vs Ribbons Can we all somewhat agree that the speaker is the most important component in our system? We are all familiar with the cone driver. Has the old tech cone(mid/high) driver reached its potential zenith? Does the electrostats have the potential to become more efficient? Size less overwhelming? As well will the prices ever become reasonable? And last will the new tech(mid/high) ribbons become the choice drivers for high fidelity music reproduction for the new century? All comments are well appreciated.Thanks
tweekerman

Showing 2 responses by hager_charles

hager_charles
51 posts
 
The speaker for the 21st century is going to be ATC. They were founded as a driver company and now in 60% of the world's recording studios. What makes their Mid-Range so Unreal and amazing is that they use a Soft-Dome Midrange. It is made out of a FABRIC and kept in it's 1/2 sphere shape though some weird sticky goo. Rumor has it that PMC (Bryston's Pro Speaker Line) has been trying to copy this design for years without success.

They also internally bi and tri-amp each of their active speakers with Active Crossovers instead of Passive Crossovers. Their amps have flattened wire as well to improve it's performance with a much tighter wind. Why more speakers aren't INTERNALLY amp'd, I don't understand.

Truly the best Mid-range and speaker system in the world.
Check them out at www.atc.gb.net!
hager_charles
51 posts
 
I throw everyone a curveball, or nearly everyone.... I vote that the speaker for the 21st century will be the successful development of the hypersonic speaker. Prototypes exist and work, but not to the performance needed. When the science figures it out, it should theoretically be the best speakers available.... It is based on the physics that when 2 musical frequencies are played, each tone is played, as well as the sum and difference of the two tones. Therefore, if we have 1 speaker playing at say 100,000 Hz, we'll never hear it. If we have a second playing at 100,002-120,000Hz Range, the additive sound is also silent to the human ear, but the difference should give one a 2-20,000Hz range.

The difficulty w/ most drivers is that they need to play from 20-20,000Hz, or a span of 100,000% of minimum frequency. Entirely too much to handle w/ 1 driver. If we now make a driver that plays from 100,002-120,000Hz, we only need to make a driver capable of 20% over minimum frequency... The should be MUCH easier to therefore accomplish the entire audible frequency range w/ 1 pair of drivers....

Cheers all.
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