True bullet proof speakers...

[iXtreme]

We got some new speakers at my work a while back. Believe it or not... these things are Kevlar. Yellow weave in color with a black concave poly dust cover. They sound kinda crappy as they were from mini-hifi's. But these are true "bullet proof" speakers. I took a test woofer already in a box and hit it quite hard with the tip of my bic ballpoint as it's box was borked anyway. These things are almost in-penetrable.

Some actually sound quite nice for use in a garage or as outside party speakers. Too bad the amps didn't come too, would been cool to experiment with a cheapo amp

[maxg]

I seem to remember that the front speakers for my car are either Kevlar or carbon fibre. They sound fine for what they are but I cant say I have tried stabbing them with a ballpoint yet!

Hey - Klipsch administrators - when are Klipsch going to bring out some car speakers? I lost all my boot space with the KHorns in the back and the Belle's ruin the line of the dashboard!! LOL

[boomer9911]

Great idea Max, even for pick up trucks as well as cars. I actually run my Klipsch Pro Media 2.1's off my Panasonic portable cd player when I'm on the road in the sleeper(mini hotel rooms)of my Kenworth, and it sounds quite good! Hersey's would fit, be abit of over kill mind you.

[djk]

In 1978 I think I installed the first Klipsch car stereo.It was in an extended cab pick-up.A pair of Heresy 12s with a home brew electronic crossover (ready made for car didn't exist)and four Hepner horn loaded co-axes.Hepner made the midrange and tweeter horns for Cerwin Vega.Later they made the midrange and tweeter drivers for the Klipsch Cornwall II and Heresy II.When the owner of Hepner died Klipsch bought the tooling.So I have a good idea of what kind of car speakers Klipsch could make if they wanted to.

[Tom Adams]

djk - I did something similiar to your project. I made an apartment move several years back and one of the last items I moved were my precious Heresy's. At the time I had a Honda 3-door Accord with a Nakamichi amp driving a pair of ADS 300C's. As I was loading the Heresy's in the back, I thought, "Hmmmm....I wonder..." So out came the screw driver, I disconnected the 300C's and hooked-up the Heresy's. Man-oh-man, what a sonic experience! And loud?? Ohhhh yeah. Couldn't close the hatchback, but what the heck. It was hard as heck to disconnect those Heresy's and listen to those 300C's.

Tom Adams

[Frzninvt]

When I was younger in the late 70's early 80's time frame, there was I guy I knew that had a van that he had 4 Heresy's in, all powered by Zapco amplifiers, with the top the line Alpine component cassette deck he even had the Zapco Eq as well. We cruised around in this thing and listened to Pink Floyd's The Wall it was utterly amazing, such detail and output. Nothing at that time could come even close. I also had a cousin that used a pair in his Trans Am, the rear seat bottoms were removed so they would fit. He had the Cerwin Vega CS-9 Coaxials in the rear dash, he had a Nakamichi portable cassette recorder mounted above the center armrest. It was powered by a Fosgate (long before they became Rockfor Fosgate) PR-2100 amplifier 50W X4 this was the cleanest sounding set-up I had heard next to my buddy's van. When there is a will there is a way! This was way before the advent of the car subwoofer and CD player. Oh those were the days!

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Sony KP-43T70 43" Television

Denon AVR 3300 A/V Receiver (LF/RF) (LWE-I's w/Motion Feedback - Walnut)

Yamaha M-80 Auto Class A Amplifier (LF/RF) (Belle's - Oak Clear/Cane Grills)

DBX BX-2 2/3/4 Channel Power Amplifier (RR/ARR/LR/ALR) (Heresy II's (Walnut/Cane) & ESS Mini Monitors (Walnut))

DBX MPA-150 Mono Split Spectrum Amplifier © (KV-4 - Black)

Klipsch KSW-15 Powered Subwoofer (2)

Nakamichi DVD-10 DVD/LCD/CD Player

Nakamichi MB-10 Music Bank CD Changer

Technics SL-DL5 DDLinear Tracking Turntable

JVC HR-S7500U SVHS Video Cassette Recorder

VC3 Deluxe Video Clarifier

DBX 400XG Program Route Selector

DBX 120X-DS Subharmonic Synthesizer/Crossover

DBX 3BX-DS 3-Band Dynamic Range Controller (2) (1-LC) (1-RC)

DBX 14/10 14-Band Computerized Equalizer/RTA Analyzer/SPL Meter

Panamax 1000+ Surge Protector/Line Conditioner

Sega Dreamcast w/3 Controllers & VMU's/S-Video Output

Bedroom

Yamaha RX-900U Receiver

Panasonic DVD-A120U DVD/CD Player

Sony SLV-740HF Hi-Fi VCR

BBE - ARS Audio Recovery System

A/D/S L300E Mini Speakers

GE 20" Television

[cc1091]

B&W uses yellow Kevlar drivers for many of their non-tweeter drivers. B&Ws speakers often sound excellent, so I imagine that you are talking about some of the other speaker manufacturers who are now building in Kevlar too. The Kevlar drivers used in the 602 and in any of the 800 series reveal incredibly textured detail. With enough power behind them, they are unmatched by most of the Klipsch offerings in sound detail and clarity. Klipsch still retains the edge in projection of sound into the listening space though. Unfortunately the tonal qualities of the Kevlar speaker doesn't match well with the traditional sound of Klipsch horn loading. But these drivers are very impressive drivers in their own right.

[pzannucci]

You'll notice a lot of kevlar composition cones out there now. Kevlar is used in a high number of high-end designs but some people say they don't sound natural. To fix this a number of companies are making paper/kevlar mixed cones. These drivers can sound great and have many less tradeoffs than paper or kevlar do separately but take the best from each (sonics and "bullet proof").

Peter Z.

[Guest BobG]

B&W treats the woven Kevlar fiber material to obtain enhanced performance. "Remember though that not all Kevlar® cones are created equal. Design details such as the type of weave, cone geometry, resins and damping materials all make a difference to the overall performance. So although B&W is no longer the only manufacturer to offer Kevlar® cones, we've had more experience in fine-tuning the technique." (quoted from B&W's web site - take a look there to learn more)

They also make use of aluminum cones as in their new CM-4. "The bass unit is made from aluminium, which was selected for its excellent stiffness and ability to function as a piston." (from their web site)

Every design and every material has good points and bad. If you try to over simplify by choosing kevlar, or ceramic coated aluminum (as used by Klipsch, Infinity and several others) you miss the point. Like buying a car based on the cylinder lining material - there is way more to it.

[iXtreme]

These speakers are from RCA mini systems actually. Seeing as we are actually a farm/industrial retail chain and farmer brown dosen't care about fidelity they are not bad. They do actually sound good for shelf component audio. One 6" bass driver, one 2-1/2" mid driver and two piezo tweeters. I personally don't find them good enough for my living room, but the 6 in my garage on that old 8-track Lloyds multiplexer reciever are damn great

This message has been edited by iXtreme on 07-15-2001 at 09:05 PM

[cc1091]

OK iXtreme..as long as we are confessing "el-cheapo" equpiment (AKA RCA speakers driven by Lloyds 8 track), I'll confess using Radio Shack Optimus Pro 77s (based upon the old Radio Shack Minimus 7s and manufactured by RCA) for the audio output from my computer.

Thanks for the input BobG and pzannucci. I find the B&W Kevlar driver to be about as natural a sounding driver as I have ever heard. I did notice that they tend to limit its use to the middle ranges of sound, and rely on Paper/Kevlar combinations (and now it seems Aluminum too) for low frequency reinforcement.

FYI - From my own experimentation, the Kevlar driver from the B&W 602s does not sound good in place of the Klipsch aluminum driver on the RP-3s. Just too much of a textural difference (not to mention the other technical mismatches going on there).