DD MOVING PARTS INFORMATION

CONES

A cone must be stiff enough not to flex under power but not so heavy as to lower the speaker efficiency unnecessarily. Our cones are a multi-fiber blend developed for extremely high strength to weight ratios. The bulk of the cone is made from a synthetic base of fibers including 25% Kevlar, polyester fibers, glass fibers, Sisal fibers and other fibers that are bound with a high solids acrylic matrix. These cones exhibit very low moving mass while minimizing unwanted cone flex. This synthetic fiber blend resists strength variations due to moisture and temperature changes. Additional apex treatments around the cone/voice coil joint area are used to further increase the strength. These cones represent the state of the art in cone technology and even rival the strength to weight ratios of our full-on composite molded cones.

Some models feature our molded Kevlar cones. These are the lightest and most rigid cones on the planet. We use sandwich construction, reinforced apexes and a unique laminating method which seals the cone skins back together around the perimeter. Aerospace grade epoxy is used as the matrix for its high strength and light weight. The cones are baked for 24 hours while under pressure from a vacuum pump system. We hand trim them and apply the appropriate surround for specific duties. We use up to 5 different surrounds of varying rigidity on some sizes.

SPIDERS

That funny looking wavy thing under the cone is one of the most crucial components to high performance loudspeakers. The spider keeps the cone moving straight up and down, keeps the coil from moving side to side in the magnetic gap (the death dance for a speaker) and provides restoring force to the cone movements by acting as a spring. We use an exclusive blend of synthetic fibers for a more linear, durable and tear resistant material. This costs 10 times more than conventional materials, and we use up to nine spiders on some models. We spend more on the spiders than some companies spend building their entire speaker. But hey, we’re making YOUR speakers; it’s worth it!
We don't use progressive roll spiders so you won't have to worry about your speakers sagging after a little use. This spider topology offers poor coil control and loses what little control is has after being stretched out. Progressive spiders are popular with many marketing departments because it gives them another cool word to use and they really don't care what happens to the speaker after you buy it. We don't have a marketing department and we wouldn't use a progressive spider in a speaker we built for ourselves, so we sure wouldn't stick you with one.

VOICE COIL

Our voice coils are made with the latest high tech wonder stuff available. Engineered for maximum cooling effect, the coils have built in heat sink cooling vents to carry heat away from the coil wire. These coils work in conjunction with the FREE FLOW COOLING SYSTEM to lower the duty temperature of the coil. The aluminum former is wrapped in multiple layers of NOMEX to further increase the strength of the former wall and to insulate the adhesives from heat. Any flex in the former wall diminishes efficiency and eventually results in rubbing coil due to a structural cave in. Our formers are so strong they can support over 300 pounds of weight without buckling.

DUST CAPS

You may notice a lot of carbon fiber on our drivers. Carbon fiber/epoxy sandwiches are extremely strong for their weight. When bonded to our synthetic cones they form an incredibly strong yet light moving system. These caps actually work as a cone wall stiffening disk capable of creating world record SPL numbers without flexing, keeping the pressure in the cabin under immense loads. These hand-laminated disks consist of layers of carbon and glass fibers in a heat cured epoxy resin. These disks are expensive to produce but the enhancement to the performance and cosmetic appeal are worth it.

LEAD IN WIRE

The lead in wires are one of the most overlooked components in loudspeaker design. Most people don’t even know they exist and those that do lose very little sleep worrying about them. They are hard to see, don’t have much advertising value, and the only time anyone takes much notice is when the speaker stops working. THEN the lead in wire gets attention, usually because lead in wires represent a major failure area when speakers stop working. These little wires do a lot of moving. Think about it, if a speaker moves, say 100 times a second (100 Hz), how many times has the wire gone up and down in a couple of hours, days, weeks, years?

Lead in wire is made from different types of flexible cloth layered with conductive metals. Conductivity is low compared with solid wire, conversely the resistance is high compared to the speaker wire it is connected to on one side, and the voice coil wire its connected to on the other.

We use the highest quality, American made lead-in wire for all our speakers. We laminate the wire into multiple spider layers. This allows us to scale the amount of wire needed to flow electrical current with the correct spider control to handle the power. The result is high performance with out lead slap, lead wire breaks or burnout. Another DD exclusive.