Diamond and Beryllium transducers?

[tin ears]

Speaker drivers made from Diamond and Beryllium have been around now for 5 or more years.

Speakers made from these drivers have been highly regarded.

Where are the diamond and beryllium headphone transducers?

 

[Sherwood]

Well, the coltranes that use diamond drivers are a wee bit pricy. More to the point, every extremely high end dynamic headphone has failed. I think it hasn't happened because no one outside of the head-fi elite and arab sheikhs would buy them, and that's hardly enough to spec a custom full range beryllium driver smaller than 2".

 

[Champ04]

A friend of mine sells Focal speakers. They use the Beryllium tweeter. And I got to meet the guy who holds the patent on forming pure Beryllium tweeter domes! That was way cool.
BUT!, the cost for my friend to replace a tweeter that some knucklehead has put his finger through is over $1500. Thats just for one!! COST!
So, yeah, way expensive.

But it is way cool stuff. He showed me one of the blank domes before its trimmed and mounted. Its SO lightweight that it literally floats much like a feather when you drop it. And yet, if you put it on a table, dome side up, and push down on it, it actually takes effort to dent it.
I can only imagine how it would work for a headphone!!

Oh, I forgot this till just now. Focal's original cost for blank beryllium for the sole purpose of testing their ability to form it properly......... $14,000.
How much raw material did they get for that money???? Just enough for 2!!!!!

 

[Lad27]

The other thing that came to my mind reading this thread:

Beryllium is recognized as highly carcinogenic material. In the line of my business where we repair and test military avionics, we needed to go to extreme precautions in regards to OH&S in areas of handling and disposal of components containing beryllium (mostly high power HF transistors in radar assembly) - regulations are so strict, that we have to have a big warning sign at the main entrance to our building that says "Warning! Beryllium is present in this building!"

Perhaps this (apart from cost) could be one of the reasons that headphone manufactures are reluctant to touch the stuff. Can anyone imagine what could happen if someone gets the cancer and some smart lawyer points at carcinogen present in consumer product?

 

[cotdt]

i prefer ribbons

 

[tin ears]

Isn't it about time someone dethroned the old school headphone classics like the R10 etc?

Are these two materials the likely candidates to advance the state of the art? They seem to be for speakers. Ribbons might be a front runner as well.

Clearly, manufacturers have taken standard materials about as far as they can.

 

[naamanf]

I really don't see the point in Be headphone drivers. The reason they are used for tweeters is so they can make a hard dome driver with minimal moving mass. I would just about guarantee the domes in the drives for headphones are already lighter than those Be domes. They don't have the same output requirements so they don't need to be as strong.2

 

[tin ears]

The reason diamond and Beryllium is used is that it sounds better.

 

[naamanf]

So what about those two make them sound better?

 

[jbloudg20]

Quote:

Originally Posted by naamanf /img/forum/go_quote.gif So what about those two make them sound better?

Let me introduce you to a friend of mine:

naamanf, this is my friend www.google.com

Google, meet naamanf. I'll leave you two alone now.

 

[naamanf]

Yeah thanks. It was a rhetorical question.

 

[Champ04]

deflection distortion.
Its not just about low mass but how rigid a driver can be made.
Flexure of the driver element is a significant cause of distortion.