Sorry i haven't indicated that i was talking about high quality drivers produced by renowed manufacturers.
As Mr Gedlee says, the THD is an very imprecise indicator... but i'm still searching for a clear and pragmatic definition of the concept : "linearity related paradigm".
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As far as I'm concerned distortion is highly audible, just play a tweeter too low. However quantifying and measuring it is a whole lot more difficult. Non-linear and linear are just measurements. I've found that using a subwoofer will often make the mids cleaner. This maybe IMD or some combination but its clearly there.
You could also say that poor off axis response and box diffraction are also all forms of distortion.
Being mechanical microphones have low order distortions that vanish with amplitude similar to a speaker driver. The B&K tech articles are a wonderful resource on this with mathematical analysis, laser interferometer measurements, and actual acoustical data to verify the theory. The mics typically fall apart well after most speakers. OTOH I don't feel there is not enough literature on possible breakup modes in the popular 1" diaphragm recording mics. This would be an interesting topic.
MEMS mics like those from Knowles and others are still far from being useful in the highest quality professional recording applications. There have been experiments in large arrays of MEMS mics that made at least one pop diva happy.
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Jordan’s 50mm module were actually were developed first, and also used anodized aluminum. The anodizing thickness and quality is critical. Mark Audio drivers were actually a result from tech transfer from Ted Jordan.
The point here is that one can ALWAYS design a microphone to meet the requirements, be it very low distortion, or flat frequency response, ... not that ALL microphones are like this. Many mics are deliberately made less than optimal because that's what the artist/engineer wants. But the mic need never be the limiting factor in a recordings "distortion" (unless one wants that kind of stuff!)
A 1" microphone is not going to have the widest flattest response, but it will have incredibly low noise - probably lower than any recording studio needs, but not necessarily lower than what a researcher might need. A 1/4" or 1/8" electret mic would be just about perfect for a recording studio.
The larger the diaphragm the lower the noise, but the more limited the bandwidth. With very small mics like the MEMs one can get low noise by paralleling several units. The noise drops by 3 dB for every doubling of the number. At a dollar or so per unit one can afford quite a few in an array. The array would have very high bandwidth and low noise - kind of the holy grail of microphone.
I worked on Knowles MEMs microphone in its early days before it was a product. Today Knowles dominates the MEMs mic business with almost 2/3 of the market. Odds are your cell phone has a Knowles microphone. They make and sell more mics than anyone else in the world. It's made them a very rich company. But they don't make pro-audio microphones.
That's odd because Doreen Bance herself told me she'd developed/was first to produce anodized cones, and told me the story behind it over a pub lunch.
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Were the rubber coated aluminum cones used by Rudy Bozak in mid-ranges and tweeters from about 1960 anodized?
B.
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2 grams, that's hideously heavy compared to air. Electrostatic speakers are a tiny fraction of that and much better approach matching the weight of air.
Some of the most prized drivers in the sub forum clock in near half a pound*. Think I'm kidding?
Silly to make make sound in air by shaking heavy cardboard (or even lighter aluminum attached to heavy coils of wire). What kind of absence of distortion can you expect when you are trying to accelerate (and decelerate) a half-pound object? C'mon. Think RePhase is going to help you?
Ridiculous to debate distortion in heavy-cone speakers. They are all dinosaurs compared to true horns (not too feasible, eh) or electrostatic speakers or all the concepts yet to be widely commercialized (such as motional feedback, plasma drivers........).
B.
*check it out: 227 grams
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How big does an electrostatic have to be to produce the same bandwidth? Just wondering. The only ones I heard were my friends quads, which crackled alot when you turned them up too much.
I believe Doreen was the manufacturing specialist for Jordan drivers, so it could be that she personally did manufacture them under the Jordan brand. I still have a pair of the 50mm module which has a this cloth which covers it. Not sure when the Bandor brand appeared, but I do suspect it was after Ted’s divorce. Since Ted has passed away a few years ago, there is no one to verify this.
The later JX6 had a plastic like molded basket, that basket was done during Mark’s collaboration with Ted. Ted was always trying new things, the last I received from him were a pair of spiderless JX6.
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They developed drivers together and, well, you know the rest, shared intellectual ownership etc
I assume what she told me was true and really enjoyed meeting her. She shared a little secret involving weight ratios of components. Apparently makes all the difference..
I would love to know, but I guess you would have to kill me if you told me?
You generally get better bass in a bass reflex or sealed alignment with heavier cones (higher mms per se). Part of this is the fs and there maybe other reasons having to do with the air mass.
The result is less distortion with a properly designed sub driver.
OK.
Thanx for posting the info
They are Exactly what i got from Doreen, many moons ago !Yes they were. Mine were anodised Black, & 4 Ohms.
I never got round to putting mine into a box, unfortunately = delayed project. So they sat around in their original packaging etc for years. I was recently thinking of advertising them for sale on here, when out of the blue someone from the UK PM'd me & asked if i still had them, & would i sell them. He had seen my mention i had a pair in a thread from several years back. I thought that £50.00 was a Very fair price, as they were in brand new condition, & only briefly tested once at low power to make sure they worked when they arrived. Well he thought that i had 2 pairs to sell of Very rare & Very highly thought of drivers, for ONLY £50 ! Not a chance, as i had seen them sell for over $100.00 a pair before, & not in as new mint condition either. Anyway he finally agreed to $50.00 plus fully insured post & packing of £5.49, so off they went.
Actually, i wish i'd kept them now !
OK.
Thanx for posting the info
Anyway he finally agreed to $50.00
Actually, i wish i'd kept them now !
Yes they are worth 3 x that, esp in rare black and 4 ohm