Beryllium Placebo Effect?
Hello All,
I wanted to share this article with everyone:
www.audioheritage.org/vbulletin/attachment.php?attachmentid=40060
because I've read a lot of reviews and impressions of the Mi Headphone and a lot of people were disappointed with what they got... I am sure that there was a lot of hype before the release of this pair of cans because of the very successful piston 2, piston 3, and because these cans features
beryllium diaphragms. I know that Xiaomi does not advertise these headphones as having Beryllium diaphragms on EN website but serious who doesn't know that they do?
*Please note that I do not own or tried the Mi Headphones, I simply wish to inform consumers and provoke thought. This is purely my own opinion derived from facts and research.
The article is basically saying that headphone diaphragms does not require to contain a certain percentage of beryllium (Be) to be marketed as 'beryllium diaphragm
headphones' or 'beryllium alloy headphones'. As some may know beryllium is a rare alkaline earth metal that have a very low density to velocity ratio which is ideal (perhaps the best one)
for diaphragm material.
How much does 100 grams of Be cost? About ~$800...pure of course. Then how is it possible that Xiaomi can manufacture headphones with 50mm Be diaphragms and sell them for less
than $80?
"
There are also reports of ~90% titanium foil from Russia and/or China that contains less than 1% beryllium and other elements such as aluminum and magnesium at trace levels. The material has the color of beryllium but the density is approximately twice the density of beryllium foil." quoted from the article.
I am not by any means claiming that Xiaomi is using titanium foil that contains traces of Be, I am simply bring up the possibility that the percentage of Be used to make the diaphragm may be much, much less than you would think. I mean just look at the price and think. What did you expect to get?