Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners Cone vs Surround size..

As most of you have noticed, not all cones or surrounds are manufactured the same.. Some drivers have surrounds that are 1 to 2 inches wide.. The driver is listed as 10 or 12, but the cone is really only 8 or 10 ? They make up the rest of the size with the surround, which does nothing with regard to creating sound.. It only connects/seals the cone to the frame..
Check it out.. Am I wrong here ??

Bigger drivers need bigger surrounds. Drivers that are designed to have alot of Xmax need bigger surrounds.

I think thats just the way they have measured them from the beginning.

Mikey, both of the points Brandon made are correct. Typically you'll find that the actual cone diameter is around 20% less than the overall advertised diameter.

Reminds me of the nominal vs. actual screen size of CRT monitors...

Bigger in what regard ? If they are in proportion, no problem.. But when they just add a larger surround and call it a larger speaker, that's not right..

That's my point.. In the begining monitor companies didn't state actual screen size.. People complained, and that all changed..
I just feel that speaker compaines should be doing the same.. You don't have to look too far to see 10 inch cones with 2 inch surrounds being advertised as 12 inch driver..
This is bogus.. The surround are is not moving any air..
I only brought this up, as we got into it a bit over at Hsu yesterday.. They agreed, it's a rip off.. Their surrounds are very minimal, and as such the cone area is large.. The driver doesn't have to work as hard to move the same amount of air as a smaller cone with a larger surround..