cone made by leather?

[DAMIC]

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

After reading this interesting site, it comes that the best material for speaker cone is natural material i.e. paper. In order to stay with that sence, I am wondering, whether it is possible to make the cone out of thin animal leather. I think that the leather could be even closer to ideal cone material. Of course, the leather should be treated, stiffened and impregnated against air humidity with some appropriate natural product (C37 lack - http://www.ennemoser.com/ or something similar).

Any opinions?

[noodle_snacks]

Isn't it a bit silly to conclude from one poorly written, inaccurate article, that natural materials are the "best" materials?

[phase_accurate]

AFAIK leather has been used as suspension on the old square Jordan Watts modules.
I don't see any advantage in using it as cone material.

Regards

Charles

[Pano]

I've often wondered why there aren't any leather speaker cones out there. Or if there are, they must be few and far between. I've never seen one.

Drum heads can be made of leather. What is it about leather that doesn't work well for speakers?

[stoolpigeon]

Charles, did Jordan use leather for the surround or for the spider?

[Andy G]

Madonna ??

[AndrewT]

Hi,
from my little experience with leather characteristics in clothing and footwear, I would guess that leather may be compliant enough to make spiders and surrounds.

I cannot imagine leather being stiff enough nor light enough to be of any use for a cone.

I can just see the animals/bats/snakes walking/flying/slithering around like armadillos saying "use me as cone material"

[thadman]

Did anyone else find that article lacking any scientific basis and wildly inaccurate?

[sdclc126]

Originally posted by thadman
Did anyone else find that article lacking any scientific basis and wildly inaccurate?

Yes absolutely - he makes a lot of unsubstantiated claims and offers no evidence to support his assertions, such as measurements! In fact he pooh poohs the idea of measuring, yet he says the best drivers have the lowest distortion, which is actually true.

It's basically a bunch of nonsense IMHO; no one has yet come up with the "Holy Grail" of driver design, and the best ones have all parameters and components carefully designed and tested to work well together. There are many different materials and concepts used in today's hi end drivers - paper and the other things he mentions are but some; the last word has yet to be spoken.

[Cal Weldon]

I think the natural leather would require to many unnatural additives to stiffen it enough without increasing the mass too much.

Michael, drum heads are stretched over a frame are they not? How would you get the same tension in a cone?