Hi


In the past, if you disassembled a device that contained a speaker,
the speaker usually looked like this:

Nowdays, if you disassemble a device that contains a speaker,
the speaker usually looks like this:

Is there a name for the first type and for the second type?


Thank you

 

Not that I know of. Internally the two are identical. The newer one has a flat diaphragm instead of the angled cone, but it still is driven by a voice coil. The flat diaphragm is supposed to improve the sound quality, phase relationships, etc.

ak

 

Yep. Newer materials are lighter and stiffer, thus creating less distortion.

 

Great, thank you.

 

I believe the second type typically also has a curved surface to the diaphragm, but not perhaps as pronounced as the first.

 

Back in the 70's-80's, Sony and others developed these "planar drivers". The idea was that in a typical woofer-midrange-tweeter speaker system with traditional cone speakers, there is no consistent plane where the phase angles of all three emitters are aligned. So, for example, the crack of the cannon in the 1812 overture won't have as sharp of an attack edge if the bases of each speaker cone are different depths behind the front of the speaker enclosure. With planar (flat) drivers, all three speaker surfaces are in exactly the same plane, so (in theory), all frequencies start out with the same phase alignment as when they all hit the single plane of the microphone diaphragm when recorded, for improved transient and fast-attack reproduction. A technically correct theory, although I doubt very many people could tel the difference. One problem is that they did not address the inconsistent phase delays through the crossover networks, but one thing at a time...

ak