Speaker Design and Triple Test Bench in Voice Coil August 2023 

Voice Coil August 2023 offers the second part of Peter Larsen's FINE Circle speaker design tutorial, updated directories of Voice Coil Winders and Converters, and Magnet Vendors and Distributors for 2023. James Croft reviews a new Diaphragm patent attributed to Tymphany, and Vance Dickason offers a triple dose of Test Bench, starting with the Beyma 10NMFS 10" subwoofer, followed by the Wavecor WF182BD13-04 7" midbass woofer, and culminating in the Scan-Speak 18ME/9642T00 Ellipticor 6.5" Midrange.

Voice Coil June 2023 features an extensive patent review in James Croft's Acoustic Patents column. The topic is a 2014 patent awarded to Nokia, offering an opportunity to revisit the history of electrostatic loudspeakers, with insights from Tim Mellow, one of the two listed inventors. In Test Bench, Vance Dickason focuses on the D8404-552000 Ellipticor cloth diaphragm dome midrange from Scan-Speak, and characterizes the SB Acoustics TW29BNWG beryllium dome and waveguide from the brand's prestigious Satori line.

In earlier editions, Voice Coil introduced the Scan-Speak Ellipticor drivers with its unique oval voice coil shapes to defeat cone and dome standing wave modes. With the design and concept becoming extremely popular in the high-end two-channel market, the elliptical-shaped series of Scan-Speak drivers continues to expand. The new D2404/552000 Ellipticor 24mm tweeter is the little brother to the D3404 tweeter. This article was originally published in Voice Coil, March 2021.

This Test Bench article focuses on the Scan-Speak Ellipticor 21WE/4542T00 midrange woofer, an impressive looking driver. The motor design for the Ellipticor 21WE/4542T00 is again an AirCirc multi-magnet and patented SD design, using an elliptical two-layer voice coil wound with round copper wire on a titanium former. Motor parts include polished front and back plates for the neodymium magnets that incorporates a 12 mm diameter rear vent for additional cooling. This article was originally published in Voice Coil, October 2020.

Scan-Speak has saved some last minutes surprises to end the year of the company's 50th anniversary in full force. The Danish engineering team just unveiled a new Ellipticor driver, expanding the rapidly growing family with the new Ellipticor D2404/552000 dome tweeter. This latest addition offers an impressive set of specifications according to the released datasheet, and should strongly motivate many speaker designers targeting high-end designs.

In the year when Scan-Speak celebrates its 50th anniversary, it seems the Danish engineering team is keeping R&D busy and getting to roll out a series of exciting new products. audioXpress was aware that new Ellipticor drivers were on the way, and now we received the confirmation of the first announcement, a large-size woofer (38 cm - 15") with paper cone and SD AirCirc neodymium magnet system. The new Ellipticor 38WE/8582T00 woofer offers surprisingly good specs, as was to be expected!

Following the first test on the new Scan-Speak Ellipticor series, with the D3404/552000 tweeter, this edition of Test Bench focuses on the Scan-Speak Ellipticor 18WE/4542T00 midbass woofer. Like the D3404, the 18WE/4542T00 is a seriously feature rich transducer, which has a magnetically attached aluminum trim ring that can obviously be anodized a variety of colors besides black. For the cone assembly, Scan-Speak chose a rather stiff curvilinear profile back coated paper cone with an elliptical 45 mm × 35 mm convex paper dustcap. This article was originally published in Voice Coil, April 2018.

This edition of Test Bench focuses on the Scan-Speak Ellipticor D3404/552000 dome neodymium motor tweeter. Overall, the D3404/552000 is like a big elongated 28 mm diameter tweeter. For a motor system, Scan-Speak basically scaled up their currently successful Air-Circ tweeter motor with 10 neodymium slugs and copper shorting rings and a titanium former. The big news is that this motor and diaphragm yield a 2.83 V/1 m sensitivity of 97 dB! This article was originally published in Voice Coil, April 2018.

Previewed at an exclusive event in Munich, in May 2017, Scan-Speak has now launched the first two drivers in its Ellipticor line, combining a series of design innovations such as elliptical voice coils, resulting in lower distortion, combined with higher SPL. The first two Ellipticor drivers released by the Danish brand include the D3404/552000 tweeter and the 18WE/4542T00, a 6.5” midwoofer.