Voice Coil March 2025 offers a renewed perspective about speaker cabinets and enclosures. Mike Klasco (Menlo Scientific) writes about "Developments in Technologies and Materials for Consumer Audio Products," with a focus on the materials, processes, and sustainability. Knowing that one path to product differentiation is achieved through style, materials, finishes, and of course, higher-quality ingredients that deliver superior acoustic performance, in this article Mike Klasco recommends the latest strategies to avoid commodity materials looking cheap or with unwanted resonances. Learn about strategies to design speaker enclosures that can accommodate integrated electronics, how to explore new materials and evaluate the challenges with manufacturing and parts suppliers, design to manufacture strategies, and much more. An article completed with brief profiles of key materials and technology suppliers, including the latest composite materials.The next article for this issue is the second part of "Enhancing Loudspeaker Efficiency and Bl(x) Symmetry with Virtual Voice Coil," by Dario Cinanni (SpeakerLAB). This Voice Coil Spotlight explains the design and simulation possibilities of the SpeakerLAB software for speaker designers and explores a Virtual Voice Coil (VVC) module for designing voice coils and predicting audio transducer parameters with maximum accuracy, that includes complete temperature management involved in loudspeaker calculus. In Part 2 — The Rest of the Story, Dario Cinanni also expands on audio transducer parameter prediction such as maximum SPL, analyzes key design components such as the magnetic circuit, and analyses the resulting simulated metrics that could help determine the highest efficiency.
And in this same issue, Nora Wong (Menlo Scientific) provides the always highly sought-after Speaker Enclosure Vendors Directory. For the 2025 edition, she updated the profiles of many established companies from the US, Europe, and Asia, while adding some new names in speaker enclosures with which not everyone is familiar. Always a great resource to have on hand.
And for the first Test Bench in this March 2025 issue, Vance Dickason characterized the powerful Dayton Audio Ultimax II 8-22 8" subwoofer from this recently upgraded series. Keeping many common features with the original Ultimax drivers, the new line includes models from 8” to 18” diameter, with a large aluminum shorting ring and aluminum pole sleeve for lower magnetic distortion, a lightweight and rigid woven carbon fiber cone assembly, extensive thermal venting for the frame and the motor, flat wound voice coils, and a dual back-to-back spider. All with the purpose of achieving high Xmax (18mm on the 8" up to 28mm on the 18" model). After having examined the Ultimax II 10" version in January 2025, this Test Bench looks at the new Ultimax II 8" version where the very stiff and thick carbon fiber cone stands out with the NBR surround, assisted by the two flat 6" diameter cloth spiders. The design features a 50.8mm (2.0”) diameter four-layer voice coil wound with flat copper wire on a vented aluminum former, ferrite magnets with dual aluminum shorting rings, and braided voice coil lead wires stitched into the top spider.
The second Test Bench in this issue is a very interesting product that Vance Dickason was finally able to characterize, coming from Glass Acoustic Innovations Technologies (GAIT). This company from Taiwan is a renowned specialist in Ultra-Thin Glass (UTG) diaphragm technology, which is quickly gaining recognition in both consumer audio applications, including headphones, but increasingly in hifi and high-end audio circles. And for Voice Coil, GAIT submitted its latest 1" dome tweeter with a unique glass diaphragm formed using a chemical strengthening process, which not only enhances the strength of the glass but also allows for control of damping effects through increased reinforcement depth at different areas of the diaphragm. The result is displayed in the GAIT BGD-D72-64-4-0A1 super tweeter that is characterized in this issue. Features for this BGD super tweeter include a 1” diameter 4Ω voice coil and neodymium magnet motor, assembled with an injection-molded plastic faceplate, a
phase plug, and a damped rear chamber.
This issue concludes with an Industry Watch section with stories compiled by Vance Dickason, including the latest speaker driver announcements and updates from the 2025 trade show and events calendar.
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