Nude Vinyl LP Replay Cartridge: Sexy Sounds?

As the 21^st Century vinyl LP revival / “craze” seems to continue for as long as it did, does it  still really matter what vinyl LP replay cartridge / needle to use? 

By: Ringo Bones 

It seems like major record labels don’t give a damn about the sound quality of their offerings anymore. I mean the last time I ever saw those “audiophile apps” that supposedly makes your digitally downloaded (legally I hope) compressed music files sound like good old vinyl LP being exhibited to an unsuspecting public was back in 2006. If a typical 21^st Century audiophile wants better quality sound from the one offered by the Redbook 16-bit 44.1-KHz sampled CDs, he or she won’t likely to find it on the DVD Audio and SACD discs being stocked on mainstream record stores at the mall because these too are getting scarcer and scarcer since 2009. For a better sounding than CD prerecorded music format – vinyl LPs are still the answer, as used record stores and those weekend vinyl LP and antique stereo swap meets that typically opens after weekend scheduled Airsoft games are getting more popular here in South-East Asia since 2006. Assuming you’re lucky enough to find a treasured vinyl LP or 7-inch single you’ve been seeking since 1987, does it still matter what vinyl replay cartridge to use? 

According to seasoned “vinylophiles”, nude vinyl LP replay cartridges offer the sexiest sounds for the money – and not all of them are stratospherically expensive, though the very expensive ones are oft reviewed in leading hi-fi magazines. To the vinyl LP replay novice, a typical nude cartridge’s most striking feature is probably its lack of bodywork. Like no non-resonant aircraft-grade aluminum alloy, titanium, carbon fiber, exotic woods like Mpingo or whatever – just the magnet structure left open to the elements, albeit with a backing of a substantial flat mounting plate that’s either made from transparent acrylic or Lucite – or non-resonant aluminum alloy, titanium, carbon fiber, Mpingo or similar tonewoods or anything that doesn’t resonate or whose resonance is consonant to the music being played. 

Probably the most famed nude moving coil cartridge in existence is the van den Hul Grasshopper. At around 5,000 US dollars or so (the last time I checked in Hong Kong back in 2010) the Grasshopper is about the same price as a well-reviewed entry-level 4-door sedan made by a famed South Korean automaker making it out of the price range of most vinyl LP enthusiasts. But to every vinyl enthusiast fortunate enough to see it with their very own eyes, the most amazing part about the van den Hul Grasshopper cartridge is its lead-out wires from the coils, which are exposed to the elements and are so thin that they are very difficult to see with the naked eye to anyone on the wrong side of 40. A jeweler’s loupe didn’t offer much improvement either. How van den Hul managed to solder those wires, I don’t know, it’s simply amazing – with an amazing sound, holographic walk around imaging and soundstaging, to match the looks and the price. 

Some very seasoned vinyl enthusiasts argue that the nude construction of the van den Hul Grasshopper is not the very reason or the main factor why it sounds so good. They cite that it was something that Dutchman A.J. van den Hul invented in the late 1970s that makes the Grasshopper cartridge sound as good as it should – i.e. the Type 1S Diamond Stylus. The famed vinyl LP replay stylus is also used in another famed moving coil cartridge by van den Hul that’s only half the price of the Grasshopper – namely the van den Hul Frog. Though the Frog sports a “British racing green” colored non-resonant aluminum bodywork. And there are even some skilled vinyl enthusiasts out there who ditched the Frog’s aluminum bodywork and tweaked it into an ad hoc nude moving coil vinyl replay cartridge that sounds as good as the twice as expensive Grasshopper. I wonder if those very skilled vinyl enthusiasts have dubbed it as the “van den Hul Nude Froghopper”.  

Another famed nude moving coil vinyl replay cartridge that can be bought around the same price as the van den Hul Frog is the one by the famed Japanese cartridge maker Dynavector called the Te-Kaitora - named after the Maori phrase for “The Discoverer” because it was designed by Dynavector’s New Zealand branch. As with all nude moving coil cartridges, the magnetic structure of the Dynavector Te-Kaitora is left open to the elements, albeit with a backing of a substantial sized flat non-resonant titanium plate. And as a warning to overly enthusiastic potential customers, the nudity of the Dynavector Te-Kaitora exposes several millimeters of its very fragile – very expensive and almost invisible – boron-rod cantilever with the famed Ogura Pathfinder stylus. The wiring is made of silver and the cartridge features Dynavector’s proprietary magnetic tweaks – i.e. a flux dumper coil on the front and magnetic softening via ferrous metal strips. 

And probably the cheapest nude moving coil vinyl replay cartridge out there is probably the Sumiko Blue Point Special at one-twentieth the price of the van den Hul Grasshopper. It is top of the range in Sumiko’s Oyster Series and its “skeletal” construction makes it the most vulnerable of its sibling cartridges. Though the overall structure is sound – complete with a non-resonant aluminum cantilever – and electrical engineering is impressive throughout. And even though it is only one-twentieth the price of the van den Hul Grasshopper, the Sumiko Blue Point Special seems to offer 90% of the Grasshopper’s sound. Though some seasoned vinyl enthusiasts claim that the Sumiko Blue Point is not a true nude moving coil cartridge because of its extra large mounting plate. 

Sound quality-wise, nude moving coil vinyl LP replay cartridges are notable for their holographic walk-around soundstage and very dynamic pace, rhythm and timing that’s much closer to what live music actually sounds – rather than a mere electronic reproduction of a recording as portrayed by lesser vinyl replay cartridges. The nude construction undoubtedly contributes to the beguiling transparency and purity of tone right across the broad midband, which can be a delight with well-recorded acoustic instruments. 

Remembering Open Reel Tapes

Given that at this very moment, the music industry is currently retooling their product outlet into the online digital music download and streaming service realm, will the open reel tape go down in history as the best domestic music recording and playback format ever? 

By: Ringo Bones 

With the music industry now too busy to profit from the recent success of post Napster legalized online digital music download and music streaming sites like Pandora, Spotify and We7 over physical media, many true-blue hi-fi enthusiasts and serious audiophiles now wonder if one asks which domestic music format has a better sound quality than the good old vinyl LP – more often than not – they will be answered with the open reel tape. But is this symptomatic of the apparent lack of innovation in the music industry? 

Here in South East Asia, SACD and 24-bit 192-KHz sampled DVD Audio became as ubiquitous as hen’s teeth since 2005. I mean have you ever seen a Judas Priest or Ozzy Osbourne greatest hits compilation on SACD discs released by Sony Records on your local record store, never mind the Tower records and HMV here in Singapore and Hong Kong? And those “software doodads” supposedly to make your digital music downloads sound better than vinyl LPs - like the Burwen Bobcat – quite pricey at the time when I last saw it being demonstrated around Hong Kong and Singapore back in 2007 seemed to vanish without a trace back in 2011 with no cost-competitive alternative being offered. When it comes to “better-than-CD-music”, your only choice here in SE Asia are those weekend audiophile swap-meets where used vinyl and – if luck allows – used mint condition prerecorded open reel tapes are traded in a flea-market style setting.  

Commercially-produced prerecorded open reel stereo tapes for domestic use adopted the quarter-track – i.e. playable in both directions – format and companies like Barclay-Crocker gladdened the hearts of audiophiles by issuing many fine tapes right up to the demise of the format in 1986. Sadly, I only have 4 Barclay-Crocker style prerecorded open reel tapes – Lionel Richie’s Can’t Slow Down, Bon Jovi’s Slippery When Wet, An RCA Classical Music recording/compilation titled Music For Frustrated Conductors that came with a conductor’s baton in its packaging (I wonder how will RCA package this album for cassette or CD format?) and an Ampex open reel alignment / test-tape that came with the Teac X-3 Open-Reel Tape Deck I bought in a swap meet back in 1998. Sound wise, prerecorded open reel tapes have much more air and space in their recorded acoustic when compared to their vinyl equivalents. Though the open reel version of Bon Jovi’s Slippery When Wet have a definite DAT (as in 16-Bit 48-KHz sampled Digital Audio Tape mastered) timbre. 

Back in the mid 1990s, even a dog-eared condition but functionally perfect two speed - as in playable at 3 3/4 i.p.s. and 7 1/2 i.p.s. quarter track open reel tape decks started to fetch second-hand prices way above their Blue-Book resale values. “Notorious” examples are the Revox B77 and A77 open reel tape decks, models from Sony and Akai that dates from the early 1980s – and the Philips Black Tulip Open Reel Tape Deck, a superbly built 3-head machine (like the Teac X-3) that never really took off in its day started selling at over 200 US dollars. Vacuum-tube based tweaks could easily drive the second-hand sale price into the 1,000 US dollar price range.  

If you think listening to prerecorded Barclay-Crocker Open Reel Tape albums on your two-speed quarter-track stereo open reel tape deck is an adventure in itself this day and age, just wait when you try to record live music being performed by your local wunderkind in one. Believe it or not, an intrepidly diligent open reel tape enthusiasts can still find an unopened Scotch 111 blank open reel tape in most weekend audiophile swap meets here in SE Asia. The Scotch 111 open reel tape was often described by seasoned live recording enthusiasts as a “hoary old product” - even in the 1960s part of the Golden Age of Stereo because it had the history that descended linearly from the infancy of tape recording in the United States. Probably as far back as the post-World War II half of 1945 when Jack Mullin of 3M bought one of those “captured” Nazi-era German-made open reel tape recorders back to America to be demonstrated in front of the general public and prospective audiophiles in San Francisco. 

During the Golden Age of Stereo, not even the creator and manufacturer of the Scotch 111 open reel tape, the 3M Company, would argue that it was an “outstandingly good tape”. There were certainly other products available that offered much greater potential performance when it was finally discontinued around the latter half of the 1970s. But for a long time, the Scotch 111 reigned as the standard tape – because according to first-hand users – it was fairly consistent and widely available and it was the direct evolutionary heir to the first American ventures into magnetic recording. Open reel tape deck recorders worldwide were adjusted to suit the Scotch 111’s characteristics and when you were in doubt as to what open reel tape to use for a particular recording application, you could almost always fall back on the old Scotch 111 with a reasonable expectation of getting the magnetic recording job done adequately.     

Online Digital Music Streaming And High End Audio: Never The Twain Shall Meet?

Given that it could become the main music distribution system for the rest of the 21^st Century, will online digital music streaming and online digital music downloads ever achieve audiophile status? 

By: Ringo Bones 

A recent research done by music marketing groups had projected that streaming music services like Spotify and WE7 will generate up to 1 billion US dollars in revenue for the global music industry this 2012 – which represents a 40% increase over previous years. But given that online digital music streaming services and online digital music downloads are fast overtaking the good old-fashioned music store that sells “physical” music media like CDs, DVD-Audio discs and SACD discs, are the major music labels who now embrace this newfangled way to sell music ignoring the sound quality issue that are voiced by committed high-end audiophiles with almost unlimited disposable income? 

Sadly, the sound quality of their product only mattered to major music label bigwigs during the “Golden Age of Stereo” of the 1950s and the 1960s. During the oil crisis of the 1970s when making vinyl LPs are precipitously getting more and more expensive, major record label bigwig executives adopted the mantra of just good enough – instead of as good as possible – when it comes to the aspect of sound quality. And by the way, when CD was introduced around 1983 – its linear PCM 16-bit 44.1 KHz sampling system was 1970s technology. Are music company bigwig executives ignoring dedicated audiophiles with purchasing power rivaling NASA at their own peril?   

Back in 2005 as I visited audio / hi-fi fairs here in Southeast Asia, there were companies exhibiting digital processing devices supposedly to make your MP3 downloads sound closer to Red Book spec CD – some boasts that it can make them sound like late 1950s era stereo vinyl LPs. But these were expensive devices back then. In 2012, none of these make your digital downloads sound like vinyl are to be found. Instead, die-hard hi-fi enthusiasts here in Southeast Asia now talk about trading swapping pre-owned vinyl LPs given that SACDs and 24-bit 96-KHz sampled DVD-Audio discs seems to be getting extinct in front of our very eyes in this part of the world. Some say digital music downloads will probably sound like good old stereo vinyl LPs by the year 2070. 

Are Piezoelectric Ceramic Cartridges Hi-Fi?

Even though its innards are composed of a piezoelectric material that’s only been mass produced after World War II, why are piezoelectric ceramic cartridges still not considered audiophile enough for high fidelity stereo vinyl LP playback? 

By: Ringo Bones 

From a scientific / engineering standpoint, it seems that the “lowly” piezoelectric ceramic cartridge appears to be more advanced than your typical mainstream moving coil and/or moving magnet cartridge for high fidelity playback of stereo vinyl LPs. And yet in this day and age well into the 21^st Century, it is the moving coil and moving magnet types that dominate the now esoteric – yet so hip – scene of the vinyl LP playback niche of the audio world. But why is it that a diamond stylus sculpted to almost nano-engineering precision will only be viable for high end high fidelity vinyl LP playback when its mechanical undulations after reading the vinyl LP’s microgrooves are connected to a mechanical actuator/pickup composed of a coil of wire or magnet instead of a Bimorph Rochelle Salt, ammonium dihydrogen phosphate or a barium titanate / combination lead titanate-lead zirconate piezoelectric ceramic cartridge? But first, let’s briefly examine how LP became the dominant Post World War II high fidelity music playback medium. 

Modern vinyl LP playback for the home can trace its origins back to June 1948 when Columbia Records introduced the microgroove 33 and 1/3 rpm long-playing (LP) record as a better sounding and longer playing time alternative to the 78 rpm shellacs. Thanks to the work of Hungarian-born Peter Goldmark who, with the help of William S. Bachman, invented the LP disc in a laboratory set up by Columbia a few years before. Goldmark’s new record was cut in hair-width grooves, utilized a new electronic equalization system – i.e. the now standard for LP called the RIAA playback equalization where all of the music recording industry eventually all adopted back in 1953 – to balance the tone along all portions of the groove, was pressed in non-breakable vinylite plastic, and was played in a new turntable that recorded steadily at a new speed of 33 and 1/3 revolutions per minute. 

Not to be outdone, rival music recording industry bigwig RCA Victor thereupon issued their 45-rpm “donut” discs – and eventually the “hi-fi world” adopted both 33 1/3 and 45-rpm speeds as standard for post WWII vinyl record playback. Eventually, RCA Victor also produced its very own version of 33 1/3-rpm vinyl long-playing records from their burgeoning Classical Music catalogue – and thus paving the way for the Golden Age of Stereo of the 1950s onwards. 

Till this day, piezoelectric ceramic cartridges have a very glaring advantage over their moving coil and moving magnet cartridge counterparts, they can produce and output signal that can reach a peak of 1 volt – as opposed to high end moving coil cartridge that are as expensive as a South Korean made 4-door sedan whose signal output measures only around 5-microvolts or so. This allows ceramic cartridges to be connected directly to the line-level / AUX input of your preamplifier with only a passive RIAA circuit for tone shaping / tonal compensation. 

But sadly, ceramic cartridge design seems to be stuck in the 1950s because the stylus compliance of a typical piezoelectric ceramic cartridge is poor compared to either moving coil or moving magnet cartridge, so greater tracking force is necessary in using ceramic cartridges – which will inevitably exacerbate record wear. Ceramic cartridges also require about 1-megaohm load resistance – whereas most line-level / auxiliary / AUX inputs have far less – typically about 50-kilohms and even less for some solid-state preamps – which means bass output will be drastically cut. Though vacuum tube preamps and power amps in the 1950s with an EF86 tube input stage usually has input impedance greater than 1-megaohm – like Peter Walker’s famed Quad II power amp for example. 

And as a reminder for those folks way too young to remember – Bimorph Rochelle Salt Crystals used in some very high output piezoelectric ceramic cartridges are very sensitive to environmental conditions and should not be kept and used in places where the temperature exceeds 125 degrees Fahrenheit. But if top high end vinyl LP playback cartridge manufacturers try to develop this very instant their own line of high-end piezoelectric ceramic cartridges with the advantage of a really high signal output with much improved mechanical stylus compliance so that tracking force is equal to that of most moving coil and moving magnet cartridges – who knows where vinyl LP will be a few years hence. By the way, despite of the drastically cut low-frequencies, those cheap and cheerful piezoelectric ceramic cartridges can replicate a well-recorded well-thwacked snare drum better than similarly priced moving coil or moving magnet cartridges.    

Interstage Transformers: Mere SET Amp Design Afterthought?

Even though it offers audible and engineering improvements in designing and building single-ended triode amplifiers, do most SET amp designers still view interstage transformers as a mere engineering design afterthought? 

By: Ringo Bones 

Most zero feedback single-ended triode amplifier designers seem to have yet to understand that directly heated triode power amp tubes that date from the 1930s – including the famed 300B tube – are not that easy to drive and therefore necessitates the need of a well-designed interstage transformer to exploit their full sonic potential. But why are well-designed interstage transformers still a rarity in the world of zero feedback single-ended triode amplifiers?

Books and data on how to design interstage transformers seem to be forgotten as soon as the world discovered solid-state semiconductor amplifier design. Folks who know or have datasheets on the correct winding configuration and transformer core material to be used are very reluctant to share their secrets. Getting a symmetrical square wave out of an interstage transformer that you’ve desined and wound yourself is still one of the blackest arts in the realm of vacuum tube audio. Unscrupulous designers often steal from those who successfully designed one then claim it as their very own design.  But still, SET amplifiers incorporating a skillfully designed and built interstage transformers, are one of the most amazing wonders of the hi-fi world – sound wise. 

Given that the most powerful directly-heated triode tubes specifically designed for audio use that are designed during the 1920s and the 1930s only offer 10-watts or so, audio designers often press directly-heated triode transmitter tubes in designing single-ended triode power amps that offer greater power output. For example, an 845 directly-heated triode transmitter tube is capable of 50 watts and yet even driving it with mere capacitor coupling from the plate of the 300B tube to the grid of the 845 transmitter tube will only give you 28-watts or so.

 The interstage transformer acts as a parallel choke on the 300B making it as a driver tube. At about 28-watts, the impedance of the grid of the 845 transmitter tube (like all other directly-heated triode transmitter tube designed around the 1930s) drops dramatically, necessitating the need for more current from the previous amplifying stage to drive the 845 tube further. That’s where the interstage transformer takes over, providing additional current to drive directly-heated triode tubes to their maximum designed power output.  

And not all interstage transformers are designed – and even created – equal. A case in point is the beautiful WAVAC 4304B SET amplifier that uses the famed Nobu Shishito designed inverted interstage transformer, is probably the flat-out the best amplifier I’ve heard – tube or solid-state. Nobu Shishito’s inverted interstage transformer designs are very noteworthy for their delicacy and blinding transient speed – more than good enough to trick you as if you are listening to an actual live musical performance! 

Metal Coned Hi-Fi Loudspeakers: Wave of the Future?

It is probably the stiffest cone material currently manufactured for domestic high fidelity loudspeaker use, but are metal coned hi-fi loudspeakers truly represent the future of loudspeaker design?

By: Ringo Bones

Contrary to popular belief, it does not favor playing back heavy metal rock music and while discussion still continues on the pros and cons of metal-coned drivers, the number of designers and manufacturers using them does seem to be on the increase since the late 1980s, and it is not just the bass guitar amplifier maker Hartke that’s been famed for using metal coned drivers. In the United States, Platinum, NEAR, Joseph Audio and Thiel are well-known examples while in the UK, Acoustic Energy, Monitor Audio, JPW, Studio Power, B&W (in their up-market Nautilus), Musical Technology and even Mordant Short whose up-market Performance 6 loudspeakers got very favorable reviews back in 2005. In Norway, the popular driver maker SEAS were producing a range of aluminum and magnesium alloy units since the start of the 1990s while the famed metal-dome tweeter, despite its disadvantage of an oil-can resonance between 25-KHz and 30-KHz, is still currently being used in many commercially produced hi-fi loudspeakers and is still produced by a number of manufacturers worldwide despite of the advent of high-resolution digital audio and the vinyl LP revival whose wider-than-REDBOOK-spec-CD frequency response can easily reach the oil-can resonance mode of most metal-dome tweeters. Unlike Red-Book 16-bit 44.1-KHz sampled CDs whose bandwidth stops dead at around 22-KHz.

Fundamentally, the argument for metal hi-fi loudspeaker driver cones rests on its very high stiffness with the potential avoidance of any unwanted resonance or “breakup” in these drivers’ intended working frequency range. To optimize metal cone stiffness, special alloys are used. These are physically hardened and then reinforced by electrolytic anodizing which results in a thick coating of very tough “ceramic” made from the very oxide – i.e. aluminum oxide - of the alloy itself. This anodized surface lends itself to dye coloring, as in the case of Monitor Audio’s well-known “Gold” dome back in the mid to late 1990s. Both main drivers – i.e. bass midrange cones and tweeter domes benefit from the chemical reinforcement process.

When commonly used softer cone materials give or bend in their breakup frequency, and they generally do in their operating frequency range, their resonances must be carefully apportioned and controlled – i.e. damped – to try to attain the highest sound quality. Resonances do color the sound, and their presence is often seen as irregularities in the loudspeaker’s frequency response. Paradoxically, how these errors appear in the measured response may not always be a good indication as to how they actually sound. Like playing Classical string quartets on a typical metal coned hi-fi loudspeaker doesn’t always make the reproduced sound of the Classical string quartet recording sound as if it is always accompanied by a xylophone or by Zildjian and Paiste cymbals.

With softer damped materials – like fibrous paper or pulp card, Bextrene and Polypropylene plastic and bonded matrix composites – bending may be imperfect because these materials don’t act as perfect springs to begin with. A true linear spring recovers immediately from deflection or deformation with near 100% restitution after being stressed. In contrast, many composites and plastics show some memory effect, a slower recovery after bending, and some nonlinear compression with higher forces. This may result in a change in sound quality as sound level is increased. The nonlinear response to high bending forces, and the slowed recovery after bending – technically speaking, it is a form of hysteresis –is a factor in the overall linearity of the driver. In return for the favorable internal damping from a resonance viewpoint, non-metal-cone technology can provide a smooth response, nicely extended to the required upper limit, and then may often deliver a smooth acoustic rolloff beyond this point.

In contrast, the metal diaphragm or cone may be essentially perfect from its bass resonance to beyond the required range, and have no resonance whatever in its lower operating region. Potentially, it has a singular freedom from compression and hysteresis distortion. Subjectively, that manifests itself, if the overall system design is of sufficient quality and a great tonal neutrality, a sound with expressive dynamics and a high dynamic range. Clarity can be very high and low-level detail excellently resolved, in short, fine transparency is a typical of the genre.

However, there’s a price to pay. Like for like, metal cones are generally heavier than the alternative cone materials and magnet for magnet, this often results in reduced sensitivity, often a loss of 2 to 3 decibels. Metal cones are substantially more expensive than paper pulp or plastic equivalents – not to mention the seldom stated fact that metal cones destined for metal coned loudspeakers have a higher reject rate in their production in comparison to paper and plastic.

Finally, while there are no resonances in their primary frequency range, when a metal cone does finally give up and resonate, it lets go with a greater exuberance than a paper or plastic coned driver. So severe is the first resonance that it can rise 10 to 15 decibels above the main response and with sufficient energy to suck power out of the adjoining frequency bands. Thus, a 6.5-inch metal coned driver might resonate at 6-KHz – desirably higher than the 1-KHz typical resonance of a good paper or plastic coned driver – but it does so with such amplitude that the cone output decays prematurely into a pre-resonant suckout, tailing of above 2-KHz. This makes the crossover design of a metal coned hi-fi loudspeaker much more awkward.

This means that if the crossover rolloff isn’t sufficiently fast – i.e. not enough high ordered crossover slope – some of that 6-KHz peak may pop up into the treble band, roughening both the tweeter’s sound and its measured response. Some hi-fi loudspeaker designers resort to anti-resonant traps: electrical filters that seek to notch out the resonance and remove it from the system’s sound. This may seem like a brilliant engineering solution, but it limits the loudspeakers’ compatibility with power amplifiers – i.e. single-ended triode amplifiers with a low damping factor doesn’t like these kind of speakers.

Ultimately, it is up to the loudspeaker designer to make the best choices in the overall system build, regardless of the cone technology employed. Excellent sounding high fidelity loudspeaker systems have been produced over the years that use every conceivable combination of driver technology. Just hope that if you finally found your ideal hi-fi loudspeaker, sound quality wise, it is within your range of affordability.

Plastic Coned Hi-Fi Loudspeakers: Brilliant Engineering Solution?

First touted supposedly as an ideal solution against cone break-up inherent in early paper coned hi-fi loudspeakers, do plastic coned loudspeakers offer a brilliant engineering solution?

By: Ringo Bones

Maybe is it because on my first-hand audition of supposedly high-tech Bextrene and Polypropylene (MRP – Mineral-Reinforced Polypropylene) high fidelity loudspeaker cones whose drive units are well enough engineered to give smooth string tone, but on orchestral crescendos suffer from timbral muddle and tonal quack; I mean an overwhelming majority of them – i.e. ones within my price range – display a degree of plastic quack that was apparent with violins, plus a little nasality, just enough to add character when played at sound-levels of a typical violin or a Classically trained singer performing live sans electronic amplification. Fundamentally, the argument in favor of plastic cones over paper cones rests on plastic’s high stiffness in comparison to paper, with the potential avoidance of any unwanted resonance or cone “breakup” in the intended working frequency range. But were plastic coned hi-fi loudspeakers really has more flaws in comparison to the paper coned loudspeakers they are intended to replace?

Use of heavy, well-damped plastic cones that display a great measured performance – frequency response flatness wise – but little else in terms of subjective purity of tone and timbre (i.e. sound quality) came about as a result of a research into loudspeaker cone materials started by the BBC that culminated in the early 1970s. Thus prompting established high fidelity loudspeaker manufacturers of the time to switch from paper cones to plastic cones – i.e. Bextrene and Polypropylene. When other established hi-fi loudspeaker companies with bigger R&D budgets like B&W, KEF, Celestion and Wharfedale equipped themselves with sophisticated research facilities during the early 1970s eventually merely confirmed what the BBC had discovered a few months before, thus taking to plastic cones with enthusiasm. But to the ears – and wallets – of long-time hi-fi enthusiasts, too many top line monitors with plastic coned drivers brewed up in Britain between the early 1970s up to the early 1990s have sounded perplexingly poor in relation to their enormous engineering input for questions not to have been asked.

Fueling me and other hi-fi enthusiasts growing suspicion on the capabilities of plastic coned loudspeakers was back in 1995, when the well-established loudspeaker company called Mission produced the 731 LE whose better performance was largely due to switching from the use of plastic to a doped paper cone on the main driver. Even though there are scores of loudspeaker manufacturers – mainly in Britain – who swear by performance of plastic coned drivers – i.e. Spendor, Rogers, KEF, etc. But more often than not, plastic coned loudspeakers are still viewed by an overwhelming number of veteran hi-fi enthusiasts as something that’s good enough for mainstream pop and rock music, not for music that demands a little more precision and soulful rendition.