Pleated Fabric Surround Bass Drive Units

[calvert73]

I'm looking for Bass drivers with pleated fabric surrounds (front suspension) ideally they would be suitable for sealed enclosure design. 10" to 15" Drive units.
RC

[Charles Darwin]

I know of none.
Pleated fabric surrounds tend to fall into the 'hard' category which makes them unsuitable for subs and sealed boxes.
The softest pleated fabric surrounds I've come across are those on my Tannoy 3149 DualConcentrics which Tannoy describes as "medium soft" which gives them a fairly low resonant frequency of 32Hz (the lowest I found for any 10-15" driver of that type) but they are very much unsuitable for sealed boxes as they start rolling off at around 150Hz regardless of box size.

[NEO Dan]

Eminence EMI-1550 15" High Efficiency Sub from Madisound

[Cal Weldon]

I didn't see where he required a sub. I read bass drivers. Anyway they are out there by the hundreds. It's known as a treated cloth accordion surround. Most PA bass drivers use them.

RC, telling us what you want to do is easier for us than asking for names of drivers. It's too broad of a question.

[bear]

Cal, actually technically the use of the term 'accordion' WRT this surround is incorrect, it is pleated. The 'accordion" surround is a different animal, I think the origin is RCA, and the shape is different... they do get used interchangably, but I got corrected a few times on this and then looked it up.

_-_-

PS. usually the pleated fabric surround is used on higher power drivers that require more stability and less Xmax - although I see no great reason not to make them wider for more Xmax, they usually don't and there must be a good reason for that.


PPS. anyone ever see a large format driver with a cloth/fabric roll edge??

[Dr.EM]

Why specifically do you need that style surround? What is your overall goal?

[Cal Weldon]

Originally Posted by bear

Cal, actually technically the use of the term 'accordion' WRT this surround is incorrect, it is pleated. The 'accordion" surround is a different animal

I shall take your word for it.

anyone ever see a large format driver with a cloth/fabric roll edge??

Does 15" count as large format? The Akai on the left has a inverted roll treated cloth. I've also included 10" CTS units but I'm guessing they don't qualify.

[Charles Darwin]

Originally Posted by Cal Weldon

I didn't see where he required a sub. I read bass drivers.

I did assume that he wanted a sub because we are here in the subwoofer section. Not that difficult a mistake to make, I think.

[Cal Weldon]

Yes but we do expect the most discriminating interpretation from someone named Charles Darwin. We don't expect you to just skim over things.

Cheers CD.

[Cal Weldon]

I couldn't leave it alone so I went looking. bear, I can't seem to Google anything about RCA or "true accordion surround" or "actual" or "real" etc. Something interesting on the wiki page though.

Quote:

Types of pleats

* Accordion pleats are the most basic form of pleat, consisting of a series of permanent folds of equal width in alternating opposite directions. When pressed flat in one direction, accordion pleats become knife pleats. Accordion pleats are rarely used in dressmaking, but are used to make folding fans.