neodymium speakers ?

[thoriated]

You raise some good points. Alnico may not generally be the preferred choice for professional sound reinforcement, except where high sound quality trumps maximum SPL with the minimum number of drivers. A well designed ceramic magnet driver using a flux shorting ring can be very good sounding.

From what I gather, the main attraction of neodymium magnet assemblies for prosound is light weight - a driver of given nominal efficiency and power handling can weigh less than half its equivalent using a ceramic magnet. The first generation of ceramic magnet speakers typically weighed 15% or more than their immediate alnico predecessors, btw.

FWIW, alnico is the most least temperature dependent within its operating parameters. I would expect neodymium to sound better than ceramic, generally speaking. Ceramic magnets, due to their non-conductive nature, are prone to higher harmonic distortion generation when flux shorting rings are not used (JBL uses flux shorting rings in most, if not all of their LF prosound drivers to avoid this).

[v-bro]

Wow, that's it, thanks man!

A braking coil...how ingenius!

Not to speak of differential drive....