Well I did make some that used a 2 inch wide ribbon that was about 18 inches long. Foil was .0007" multi trace type with .0003" Kapton backing and .0003" silicone adhesive. The magnets were "ceramic 5 " and huge, about 1.5 inch deep( face against ribbon edge) (and 1 inch thick) standard higher energy ceramic. I stacked them 3 deep so 3 inches thick, to get a reasonably uniform field across ribbon. They weighed a ton! Ribbon was not corrugated AND it was tensioned at end to tune bass. Also you need to get ribbon edge close to magnet faces so low loss of lower freq energy. Less than about .015" I think but cant remember
I used it in a large baffle AND in a sealed box. It was extremely low sensitivity BUT it did sound quite good in midrange. Bass was soft and irregular. With sub its ok but dynamics in upper bass seemed a bit soft
I suppose you could do a foil only version but there may be some problems. Not sure.
Eventually I made larger versions about 4 feet tall. No tension and small corrugations. They were the best midrange I have ever heard and horns were seriously great.Also upper bass was very clean and fast but could not run loud. they needed a separate smaller tweeter to get best result.
Also made one with smaller 1" deep magnets that wasn't too bad despite the less uniform field.
In the end you can make a ribbon BUT it will be very heavy and you will need eather a good sized box or a large baffle. Just a guess but at close distance maybe a 20 inch wide baffle. With box I would say minimum of about 12inch wide by 15 inch deep and VERY well damped with stuffing. You would have to just experiment here
I used it in a large baffle AND in a sealed box. It was extremely low sensitivity BUT it did sound quite good in midrange. Bass was soft and irregular. With sub its ok but dynamics in upper bass seemed a bit soft
I suppose you could do a foil only version but there may be some problems. Not sure.
Eventually I made larger versions about 4 feet tall. No tension and small corrugations. They were the best midrange I have ever heard and horns were seriously great.Also upper bass was very clean and fast but could not run loud. they needed a separate smaller tweeter to get best result.
Also made one with smaller 1" deep magnets that wasn't too bad despite the less uniform field.
In the end you can make a ribbon BUT it will be very heavy and you will need eather a good sized box or a large baffle. Just a guess but at close distance maybe a 20 inch wide baffle. With box I would say minimum of about 12inch wide by 15 inch deep and VERY well damped with stuffing. You would have to just experiment here
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the ribbon will likely sound better in the midrange/treb , the planer better in bass and will be more efficient
the planer has less perfect mag field AND has the magnet structure interference so it will not sound quite as open and natural UNLESS you do a fair amount of trial and error in magnet size/spacing/foil thickness/ trace size etc etc etc.
In other words the planer can reach a high level BUT will likely take much more work to perfect. Easy to make BUT more work to perfect for full range operation.
The ribbon is much easyer to get nice sound quickly without all the work BUT will have limitations in bass dynamics and efficiency.
IMO the ideal planer size is about 8-15 inches wide. too small and its harder to control bass resonances, to big and the tension needed and the frame strength becomes an issue.
people will say "what about the BG long planers that are only 3-4 inches wide diaphragm, they can do 70 hz if a big line"
The problem is they tend to be very very tricky to hold their exact tune and everything has to be near perfect. For diy this is a nightmear. Just make diaphragm bigger and its much esyer to get right
for DIY I found 10-12 inch wide about right.
the planer has less perfect mag field AND has the magnet structure interference so it will not sound quite as open and natural UNLESS you do a fair amount of trial and error in magnet size/spacing/foil thickness/ trace size etc etc etc.
In other words the planer can reach a high level BUT will likely take much more work to perfect. Easy to make BUT more work to perfect for full range operation.
The ribbon is much easyer to get nice sound quickly without all the work BUT will have limitations in bass dynamics and efficiency.
IMO the ideal planer size is about 8-15 inches wide. too small and its harder to control bass resonances, to big and the tension needed and the frame strength becomes an issue.
people will say "what about the BG long planers that are only 3-4 inches wide diaphragm, they can do 70 hz if a big line"
The problem is they tend to be very very tricky to hold their exact tune and everything has to be near perfect. For diy this is a nightmear. Just make diaphragm bigger and its much esyer to get right
for DIY I found 10-12 inch wide about right.
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in the high end if you want a single driver to do vocal you would want it to cover more like 80-5K. Look at the Infinity ref standard. Single "ribbon" really a planer, doing 70hz to about 3-5khz. I have played with such crossovers between 70 and 400 hz and on male voice in particular it is quite noticed
the "power region in music is about 80-400 hz. I dont like any cross in there anywhere. Very hard to get right. stay outside that and much easyer. Also I dont like crossovers above about 1khz
AND as we have discussed about strengths / weaknesses of ribbons and planers you can see why nearly every single successful planer/ribbon manufacture uses a planer to about 400-600 hz, then cross to a ribbon from there.
BUT this is all for normal listen positions and high er volume.
IMO
The easyest way to get tru full range no crossover operation to a high level at close listening distance in a reasonable sized speaker is going to be a planer
The easyest high perf planer is one where the magnets are small, the spaces are big, the foil and film is super light , foil less than .00035" , film less than about .00025 inch, use 1 very light spray of "super 77" glue . I built them this way and they sound like a full range electrostat. Last one was .00015"foil and .0002" film
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This will do next to nothing in such magnet architectures. I just use some 90deg angle steel about 1/4 ich thick to make a frame to attach mags to
People wax on and on about using steel on WIDE ribbons. I have measured a difference and it will model a small difference, small. BUT in actual practice which I have years of , it makes no difference at all
watch the flames on that one
