Factors affecting speaker precision?

[keantoken]

Hi.

I have been giving thought as to how I might be able to judge a good speaker without listening to it. My first thought was that the more resistance the cone has against the coil, the more prone it is to error. However I am still not sure. Perhaps more is better if it acts as feedback through the coil. Also, the more resistance, the less it is prone to oscillation.

Also, if the cone material is too flexible, the speaker would lend itself to uneven frequency response and sound dispersement vs. response due to the cone flexing. If the speaker's frame is not built rigidly, the speaker would be subject to ringing/rattling which would cause problems for bass and also possibly with percussion instruments with sharp sounds.

Since one can not tell everything about a speaker at first glance, I am speaking strictly technical. Listening is usually the finest test but one does not always get the chance... So I am asking strictly in the sense of what makes a speaker accurate (and/or not "cheap") and not so much as far as its "character".

Thank you,
- keantoken

[cuibono]

Floyd Toole's book Sound Reproduction approaches this, and does a very good job of it. Check it out. He relies on a bunch of anechoic chamber measurements for the prediction. Sean Olive actually did the research, Toole just presents it.

[keantoken]

Thank you, I'll see what I can find.

- keantoken

[454Casull]

Could take you many months to find an acceptable answer to your question.

[soongsc]

Most of the pieces are in the various publishe documentation. However, like a blind man trying to figure out what an elephant would look like, you will get different answers.

[keantoken]

Hm. I was told by one person that high-efficiency speakers sounded the best, which started me pushing on speaker cones. Is this true?

Thanks,
- keantoken

[454Casull]

Originally posted by keantoken
Hm. I was told by one person that high-efficiency speakers sounded the best, which started me pushing on speaker cones. Is this true?

Thanks,
- keantoken

Most high-efficiency woofers use paper cones. I'm not sure how you are formulating your hypotheses.

[keantoken]

It makes sense to me that the less resistance the cone has against the coil, the greater the efficiency. So, if it's easy to push the cone in then it's high efficiency.

Most of the speakers I've had where it was hard to push the cone in sounded decent with the volume up, but any low, delicate sounds could not be heard. When I put other speakers in, I could hear more detailed sound.

A paper cone would be lighter, so it would give higher efficiency than a plastic cone, at higher frequencies. However I am not willing to judge speakers on efficiency alone. Most paper cone speakers I have listened to sounded bad to my ears, maybe I just haven't been around much.

I was listening to some papercones a little while ago and the sound was more detailed and more accurate than my current setup. However I had to concentrate to hear through the "noise" that they seemed to generate. I guess they're just bad speakers.

- keantoken

[454Casull]

What you are testing for is Kms, which is only one factor in many that determine efficiency.

http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/showt...postid=1665512

[tinitus]

Originally posted by keantoken


So, if it's easy to push the cone in then it's high efficiency.

Its called "low loss"

But if you mean high sensitivity its the other way round

"High sensitivity" is relative, could be anything...but fore home use 93db would be "high"

Fore normal hifi, soft suspended drivers would be preferred, unless you play very loud

But actually its the xo tuning that determines "accuracy", or "speaker precision"