Har själv ingen kompetens att bidra till diskussionen, men tänkte att följande inlägg från John Dunlavy kunde vara av intresse för de som inte redan läst hans synpunkter:
"First, "membrane type transducers", which include "ribbon types" and "electrostatic types", suffer from several negative features that are not common to most high-quality cone and dome type drivers actuated by a voice coil uniformly surrounded by an intense magnetic field.
The first misunderstanding regarding the difference between the two types of drivers usually focuses on the difference in mass between a ribbon or planar electrostatic diaphragm and that of a small cone of dome - designed to cover essentially the same frequency ranges. This is a mistake that fails to grasp that the rise-time and impulse-response of any diaphragm is related not just to its mass but to the "force" acting on the mass to make it move, to the total resistance of the air across its surface, to the damping factor of the diaphragm's material and to the properties of the suspension system holding the diaphragm in place.
With regard to the question of "mass vs. force", most cone and dome type drivers with voice coils win hands down over "magnetically-driven conductive ribbons" and "electrostatically-driven non-conductive membranes". To grasp why this is so we must first understand that the force available to move any diaphragm is directly related to the product of B, L, and I, where B is the total magnetic-flux "cutting" the conductive ribbon or voice coil, L is the length of the ribbon or the length of the wire comprising the voice-coil and I is the current flowing through the ribbon or coil. If we assume, for sake of discussion, that the total magnetic flux and the current are the same for both cases and that the wire in a voice coil is ten times longer than the length of a given ribbon, the available force for moving the voice coil is ten times that acting on the ribbon. However, this difference is partially offset by the typically greater mass of a cone (but not dome) compared to a thin corrugated ribbon.
But this difference in mass is usually partially compensated for by the larger total radiating area of a cone compared to a ribbon. A further advantage of the cone or dome over a ribbon is the larger "restoration force", due to the better coupling between the magnetic field and the length of the coil, that tries to force the cone back to its original position (aided by the "damping" provided by the "surround" and or the "spider"). By contrast, there is a much smaller restoration force and virtually no "physical damping" available for "taming" the motion of a ribbon. This translates to the rise-time and impulse response of small cone and dome drivers being superior to that of ribbon-type tweeter and mid-range drivers. I would like to add that the same properties also translate to a higher efficiency (per watt) for the cone/dome compared to a ribbon.
Much the same can be said with respect to comparing the properties of an electrostatic loudspeaker driver with a cone or dome driver. However, electrostatic membrane type loudspeakers normally exhibit a significantly lower radiation efficiency per unit of "radiating area" than that of a cone or dome type driver with a properly designed voice-coil/magnet assembly. Contrary to popular opinion, this translates to a much slower rise-time and a poor impulse-response compared to well-designed cone and dome drivers.
It also translates to a much narrower "beam-width" or radiation pattern for an electrostatic driver compared to cone and dome drivers. (The beamwidth expressed in degrees between minus 3 dB points is approximately equal to 57 divided by the length or width, respectively, of the radiating area of the diaphragm.) Anyone who thinks otherwise has fallen for the snake-oil and buzzard-salve advertising of some manufacturers and have not seen accurate measurements depicting the properties needed for comparing the true attributes of each type of driver."
Hämtat från:
http://home.austin.rr.com/tnulla/dunlavy6.htm
där man för övrigt också kan hitta en del välargumenterade elakheter mot diverse kabel-ormolje-teoretiker.....