Aluminium speaker?

[roubi]

Hello,

I would like to build some speakers with aluminum. I love the design, the small weight, and the possibility to cool down the amp (like amp6) with the speaker. How can it sounds? And does anyone has any idea how to work on aluminium and to give it the aspect of a speaker?

Thanks a lot.

[V-bro]

Great material for a speaker cabinet, built many aluminium speakers, many manufacturers also love it. Given you make a nicely stiff construction and put some bitumen on large surfaces you should be fine!

[Gben-Chalice]

I know this thread is ancient, but, there is a composite called areolam; two skins of aluminium bonded to a ally honeycomb. Very light & stiff, mostly used as reenforcement in race car chassis and aircraft, celestion made speakers out of it once sl600 i think

[V-bro]

And Görlich have a patent (for many years now) of a hard and super lighweight foam which they also coat with aluminium. These are 100% handmage in Germany and pretty costly too...

[Gben-Chalice]

For speaker construction the matierials need to be stiff 1st, then non-resonant, the lighter and stiffer you get the less energy storage. Makes the most difference on a closed box but as the boxes get bigger and the freqs lower you can hear the difference. When i started building bass bins i realy had NO idea of how much bracing i needed ( its a horn dammit, the sound just passes down it). Sometimes beinng cheap gets real expensive

[Saturnus]

On the Boominator there's slightly less than 2dB difference in the bass region depending on if you use standard spruce 5 layer plywood and no centerbrace, or the recommended epoxy bonded birch 9 layer construction plywood with centerbrace.

That's a pretty massive difference but the acoustic forces involved in the Boominator is also massive.

[Gben-Chalice]

2 db= double? Not a lot maybe, but its all audible distortion. These days i brace all my boxes, especially subs, i like tensioning opposing panels as well , on IB boxes anyway, that can be as simple as a brace you force in or as complex as steel bracing and allthread . By experiment you can find each panels "sweet spot". Im sure theres math about harmonics and such but my ears dont give me headaches like math dodes

[Saturnus]

2dB is a lot, especially since it's non-linear as it varies with output like the drivers power compression.

I find it much much easier just to calculate the resonance of each section and then fine tune afterwards. Means much less wasted time on bracing something that doesn't need bracing.

[Gben-Chalice]

Respect saturnus! I'm limited to using formulas myself, my strenght is in knowing my limitations. But i can lift 10 tons of roof with 3 1x8s and calculate loads on trucks on the fly, algebra, not so much

[roubi]

Hi V-Bro and everybody
and thanks for your answers.
How do you work with aluminum, I mean, how do cut it and solder it???