Diamond Coatings for Speakers, IEMs, and Headphones

This article explores a fascinating topic that is recurrent in the loudspeaker industry: diamond coatings. As speaker designers look to refine their products' sound quality through diaphragm treatments, there are benefits to be explored from diamond coatings, or more specifically diamond-like-coatings (DLC), which is a process that matured over the last half-century. The industry has now reached a stage where this technology becomes available and viable, particularly for microspeakers.

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have developed an ultra-thin loudspeaker that can turn any rigid surface into an active audio source. To demonstrate the concept, MIT engineers have developed a paper-thin loudspeaker, which was now presented in public, pitching a straightforward fabrication process that could be introduced to enable the flexible, thin-film solution to be produced at scale.

Over the years Audeze has developed planar magnetic headphones that are highly praised by musicians, sound engineers, and audio/music enthusiasts for their high quality. The company, whose R&D and manufacturing center is based in Orange County, California, is now launching a new series of electrostatic headphones using a new transducer technology called CRBN, which Audeze believes will help improve patient comfort, and support neuroscience research.

This article takes a closer look at Polyetherether Ketone (PEEK) and comparisons with the PEI (polyetherimide) or polyethylene naphthalate (PEN) developments, and even standard PET formulas that dominate most cheap earphone and headphone diaphragm applications. The article also references key product implementation and the latest knowledge directly sourced from vendors and patent holders, such as DuPont, Teijin, and Victrex. This article was originally published in Voice Coil, May 2021.

In its August 2020 edition, Voice Coil featured an article by experienced speaker designer Igor Levitsky on The Advantages of Thin-Film High-Frequency Transducers. In a follow-up Spotlight article the author returns to expand on the development and design aspects of the Radian Audio LT2/LT6 Ribbon Planar transducers - its more recent, commercially available project, in which he continues to be involved. This article was originally published in Voice Coil, September 2020.

In its August 2020 edition, Voice Coil featured an article by experienced speaker designer Igor Levitsky, highly recognized in the industry for developing some of the best planar magnetic speaker and headphone drivers for some of the most reputed brands, focusing precisely on this type of technology. It seems clear that we will see more and more headphones and speakers using thin-film drivers, as the industry is now perfecting the use of different types of diaphragms and materials. The August 2020 edition of Voice Coil includes the first part of this article, completed in the September 2020 edition.

The August 2020 edition of Voice Coil magazine opens with a great article by Igor Levitsky on “The Advantages of Thin-Film High-Frequency Transducers,” followed by a tutorial on voice coils by Mike Klasco, and an updated directory of vendors. James Croft reviews a speaker design patent from Panasonic, and Vance Dickason places the LT2 ribbon transducer and waveguide from Radian Audio Engineering, and the 140FCD 1" compression driver from REDCATT on his Test Bench.