V-cone® Technology – The Original and Best
Elettromedia introduced V-cone® technology for the first time in the Hertz Mille range of speakers in 2010. Subsequently, the technology has been rolled down to the more affordable Hertz Dieci range. We look at what it does for your car sound.
Speaker mid-range cones are a vital component of a speaker system. It is crucial that whilst being moved backwards and forwards at force at speeds of up to 3000 times per second that they hold shape. Traditionally, speaker cones are conical due to being attached to a cylindrical collar with wire wound around it, also know as the voice coil. The purpose of the cone is to move air in response to electrical impulses in the voice coil that come from an amplifier. Years of research have led designers to carry the round form of the voice coil through to the finished shape of the speaker in order to maximize efficiency and avoid distortion.
The cross section or profile of the cone had, until 2010, tended to be flat. The conical shape helps the cone stay in shape under heavy excursion but not always enough to prevent physical distortion. Elettromedia is a company built on innovation. Where as many car audio manufacturers have abandoned pure research and simply borrow technologies or licence them from others, Elettromedia has increased its efforts and spend on pure research. It was this central tenet to the company’s ethos that led to the development of the first patented V-cone® speaker. The in-house design team uses a 3D-vibrometer to show them exactly what happens to a cone when it is being move quickly and with force. Despite experimenting with many exotic materials and compounds, speaker cones were seen to physically distort to alarming degrees. Something needed to be done to ensure that a speaker cone held its shape and the “eureka” moment was in realizing that this could be more effectively achieved by changing the shape of the cone rather than the material. V-cone® was born and on further investigation, many other benefits were reaped from the new cone profile. These include a high damping factor – important to ensure the speaker returns to its original shape immediately after movement but also and probably the most serendipitous by-product is better sound dispersion.
Factory speaker positions in cars are usually suited best to those with ears in their ankles or knees, which is why most cars achieve little if any soundstage at all particularly as the cheap speakers employed transmit a narrow band of sound in a very specific direction. By improving how the sound radiates from a speaker, it is possible to achieve a much better soundstage. V-cone® ensures a far better off-axis performance therefore filling the whole car with sound rather than just the foot-well. This allows installers to better balance bass and treble into a coherent whole. The result is a musical, accurate sound with rich tonality achieving a pleasing result to even the most critical ears.
When choosing speakers, you should always listen to what you are buying. A specialist installer should have a demonstration vehicle or other facility to ensure you know what to expect from a speaker before you buy it.
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