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Paper Based Speaker Cone Question

I am considering a pair of Ohm Walsh speakers, likely the beta Super Sound Cylinders or the beta 3.3010s with the integral powered subwoofers. Ohm has indicated to me that the speaker cones are made from a paper based material. Should this concern me or not considering the pricing is around $5k to $6k / speaker pair? Can paper based speaker cones perform properly and have reasonable durability?  Are there other similar cost speakers with paper cones?

michiganbuckeye
vtech2000's avatar
vtech2000
23 posts
 
I find the Mother of Tone web site to be an outstanding reference toward the understanding of this subject - this page in particular:

http://www.mother-of-tone.com/vibration.htm

... but especially the following page:

http://www.mother-of-tone.com/mother.htm

But read at your own risk, as you will not be the same after.
invictus005
597 posts
 
Some of the best sounding speakers ever made had paper cones. Paper will outlast any other speaker cone material and can survive hundreds of years. Any other questions?
seanheis1
595 posts
 
There are $50 speakers that use Kevlar and 100k speakers that use paper and vice versa. The cost of the enclosure is much greater than the driver. 
audioguy85's avatar
audioguy85
2,017 posts
 

Tannoy uses paper cones.....some believe that the sound of music takes on the properties or characteristics of the material used to construct the cone. 

tomic601's avatar
tomic601
12,869 posts
 

First consider the question in context….of a true Walsh driver…if you understand how they work the waveform must propagate along the driver surface, so a stiff non pistonic cone is ideal.

in a more conventional box speaker / driver arrangement, IF you want the output to look like the input, you want a pistonic driver.  IF the speaker / driver designer is focused on recreating the input aka music without distortion, they will have to get creative with various exotic materials like aluminum, bextrene, doping, kevlar, carbon, balsa wood, etc…. None of which constitute a free lunch.

The key here is output = input, otherwise you are buying a tone control you like… nothing wrong with that…. Audiophile know thyself….

Jim

 

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