ribbon driver material

[bgilles2]

I'm trying to repair my Carver Silver Amazing LS. Can anyone tell me where to purchase the Kapton material used for the ribbons?

Thanks

[gunn234]

I know it's a few months later but I have repaired my ribbons ordering kapton from fralock. The smallest amount I was able to order was a couple yards by three feet costing my $108. The foil for the conductors I used was from film capacitors I cut opened and unrolled.

www.fralock.com

It took me a couple of tries to stretch the kapton right but any handy guy should be able to do it.

Their Kapton which is 0.0005mm thick is labeled as 50 HN
an even thinner version which is 0.0003mm is labeled as 30HN

Carver uses the 0.0005mm from what I've read on a few sites but it seems that there are a few DIYers using 0.0003mm which can bring out more of the top end since it is a lighter film.

I had some help from this site to fix my carvers too

http://www.audiodesignguide.com/mag/.../ribbon-3.html

Good luck if you haven't done any of this already.

[elghosto]

or, if you do not want to diy, look here

http://www.carveraudio.com/ribbonrepair.htm

[Herbert Rutgers]

Interresting to read about ribbons and Kapton. I am a builder of electro static loudspeakers (ESL's) and I used Kapton 30HN as diaphragm. BUT I only got a few feet. Of course there are fellows who have another square meter of this stuf. (I need olly 6" wide diaphragms) Could anybody help me?
Herb.

[LineSource]

Hi Herbert,

2um to 4um thick mylar films seem the most commonly used material for ESL diaphrams. Mylar is very thin, relative quiet when vibrated, and can be self-tensioned. Some polyester films can be heat shrinked for re-tensioning.

Many people claim that Kapton is "too noisy" to be used in a diaphram. For my DIY ribbons I found aluminum foil glued to Mylar to sound much "sweeter and warm" than Kapton for tweeters and midrange ribbons. Kapton is ideal for large bass panels. A search on ribbons will give similar listening claims of noisy kapton.


Most Kapton suppliers sell rolls of 5 pounds of HN gauge 30 for $250. $50/lb

http://www.professionalplastics.com

Dupont: "Kapton® HN is available in the following gauges: 30 (7.5 µm), 50 (12.7 µm), 100 (25.4 µm), 200 (50.8 µm), 300 (76.2 µm), and 500 (127 µm). Other gauges, such as 75 (19.1 µm) and 400 (102 µm), are available by special requests"

[Herbert Rutgers]

In know all the remarks on Kapton and that mylar is comonly used for (ESL) diaphragms, BUT,
I have built ESLs with Kapton for the frequency range of 300 Hz - 20kHz (combined with a motional feed back (MFB) system for the 25 - 300 Hz), and they sound EXCELLENT.
Moreover mylar is sensitive to HT flashes (a hole) and Kapton is absolutely resistand against such events, even stands corona for a few minutes! So: to me there is no discussion about the usage of Kapton 30HN as a diafragm for ESL's.
I know I a'm a lone wolf.
The question is how to get a square meter or two without spending $250 as you also experianced.
Herb.:whazzat:

[LineSource]

bquilles...madisound board just posted what you need!

Planar Membrane FS

Posted By: PdxDennisJ <pdxdennisj@yahoo.com> (c-24-22-30-0.hsd1.or.comcast.net)
Date: 7/17 4:19p.m.

Hey Guys... I have about 30' of Kapton membrane that was manufactured for the Carver Amazing series of loudspeakers. The roll is 130mm (5.2") wide and has two aluminum channels embossed on it. They are 8mm wide and have a 10mm space between them. I'm asking $50 for the roll. It cost Carver $3.40/ft. to have manufactured. Anyone interested in building a pair of floor to ceiling line radiators?
Regards,
Dennis