08-Jun-2016, 11:47
Beryllium is very difficult, expensive and dangerous to manufacture.
I have a pair of Yamaha NS1000M which have Beryllium tweeter and mid range domes which they say would be impossible to make economically today.
Scanspeak Beryllium tweeters are >£500 each retail, so would probably add around £1250 to each Phantom (using the 2x retail markup and 5x BOM cost formula).
This may well be better but move them into a different price bracket.
Paper is a very good material for Bass drivers. It is a bit limited for mid range drivers, with breakup modes likely towards the upper crossover area. Damping can mitigate this but there is still distortion. Scanspeak, and maybe others, cut slots in the paper cone of some models and re-glue with a damping compound. This works well, and is used in some high end speakers, but is pretty expensive too.
Overall for lower frequency drivers many materials cleverly implemented work well. Tweeters are more difficult since most will have breakup in their passband and need to be damped to prevent audible peaks. Metal dome tweeters have their resonance at inaudibly high frequencies and are rarely damped.
Some people don't like them!
I have 4 largish speakers at home. Two pairs have damped fabric domes, one a titanium compression driver, one a Beryllium dome!
Then there are the tiny Phantoms which work amazingly well IMHO.
I have a pair of Yamaha NS1000M which have Beryllium tweeter and mid range domes which they say would be impossible to make economically today.
Scanspeak Beryllium tweeters are >£500 each retail, so would probably add around £1250 to each Phantom (using the 2x retail markup and 5x BOM cost formula).
This may well be better but move them into a different price bracket.
Paper is a very good material for Bass drivers. It is a bit limited for mid range drivers, with breakup modes likely towards the upper crossover area. Damping can mitigate this but there is still distortion. Scanspeak, and maybe others, cut slots in the paper cone of some models and re-glue with a damping compound. This works well, and is used in some high end speakers, but is pretty expensive too.
Overall for lower frequency drivers many materials cleverly implemented work well. Tweeters are more difficult since most will have breakup in their passband and need to be damped to prevent audible peaks. Metal dome tweeters have their resonance at inaudibly high frequencies and are rarely damped.
Some people don't like them!
I have 4 largish speakers at home. Two pairs have damped fabric domes, one a titanium compression driver, one a Beryllium dome!
Then there are the tiny Phantoms which work amazingly well IMHO.
Devialet Original d'Atelier 44 Core, Job Pre/225, Goldmund PH2, Goldmund Reference/T3f /Ortofon A90, Goldmund Mimesis 36+ & Chord Blu, iMac/Air, Lynx Theta, Tune Audio Anima, Goldmund Epilog 1&2, REL Studio. Dialog, Silver Phantoms, Branch stands, copper cables (mainly).
Oxfordshire
