has any company ever made "hi-fi" plastic cased speakers?

[TonyJZX]

I see in one of the many many MANY "public address or sound reinforcement is not hi-fi" threads that people who have heard some of those plastic bodied active or passive speakers that the case resonates with a notable plastic tubby sound.

And yet we know that plastic can be a great material... we know GFRP and polymers are used in race cars to firearms and they can be tough and they has consistent structure and they can be made attractive AND they can be formed into complex shapes.

So it can well be done but is it case of plastic being more expensive per pound than MDF?

Or is it because plastic mouldings require expensive injection machines that isnt needed on MDF?

But then a slew of companies inc. Behringer can injection mould plastic PA units like the PK108 as active and passive for a reasonable price?

So then I cant see why aluminium has been used in some cases when plastic could be cheaper??? (ie. genelecs)

 

[Sokel]

In another thread a friend said Kef Blades are plastic but I don't know for sure.
IF they are is a proof that it's not about the material but the construction that counts since many people love them and measurements are fine.
If I remember well some Rockports (one one most wow speaker I ever heard) is some kind of carbon fiber(?).

 

[dasdoing]

Loudspeaker Enclosure Materials (Part 1)

In this article for Voice Coil, Mike Klasco (Menlo Scientific, Ltd.) reviews and looks ahead at all the materials and design approaches for loudspeaker enclosures. This article discusses enclosures using wood, MDF, plastic, plastic composites, moldable materials, coatings and pairings for those...

audioxpress.com

 

[Gorgonzola]

I know that Wilson Audio makes most of their speakers partly or entirely of proprietary composite materials, so-called "X-Material", "V-Material", etc.. But these materials appear to be slabs that are cut and shaped more or less as would ordinary MDF, (medium density fiberboard).

But I don't think Wilson does any casting of speaker parts which is perhaps your are thinking of asking about plastic in hi-fi speakers

 

[Joachim Herbert]

Neumann KH80. Ok, that's not HiFi.

 

[tomtoo]

You have to calculate with some quantity that a molding/casting process gets interesting from a price point of view.

 

[Dunring]

I'd check some high end yacht builders to see which ones they use. For a marine environment it's practical, they would likely list speaker options for their high end models to find one. Those places build custom with choices of stereos.

 

[HarmonicTHD]

Neumann KH80. Ok, that's not HiFi.

Why not?

 

[Joachim Herbert]

Why not?

It's an active studio monitor.

 

[HarmonicTHD]

So. Why isn’t it Hifi? It certainly is linear within the frequency range it was designed for and reproduces the source material with high fidelity.

 

[Music707]

Neumann KH80. Ok, that's not HiFi.

Reading the OP's post it should be clear that the focus is on sound reproduction quality and not about a market segmentation like e. g. Consumer vs. Pro. The above answer obviously misses the OP's point.

 

[TonyJZX]

its someone being snarky, which i love

yeah people love to pidgeon hole stuff and we would even put nearfields into the "not hifi" category

this is not a new thing... I remember sneering at the infamous Yamaha NS10 with my hifi buddies as not being "hi-fi" literally decades ago

google the NS10 if you havent heard of it... its a legend, for the wrong reasons

 

[Rednaxela]

Apart perhaps from bass extensions and max SPL it doesn’t get much higher fi than KH80 IMO. So great example I’d say.

 

[phoenixdogfan]

The baffle on LS 50s seems to be made of some kind of plastic. Wilsons are made afaik of a plasticized resin.

 

[antcollinet]

The baffle on LS 50s seems to be made of some kind of plastic. Wilsons are made afaik of a plasticized resin.

Rega's Kyte speakers have a plastic enclosure. Phenolic resin - a material Rega seem to have a lot of time for. They use it for the platter in their Planar 1 turntable too.

 

[mhardy6647]

Lots of plastic in lots of expensive loudspeakers -- the sales & marketing literature tends to use less loaded vocabulary to describe it, though.

 

[dshreter]

Loudspeaker Enclosure Materials (Part 1)

In this article for Voice Coil, Mike Klasco (Menlo Scientific, Ltd.) reviews and looks ahead at all the materials and design approaches for loudspeaker enclosures. This article discusses enclosures using wood, MDF, plastic, plastic composites, moldable materials, coatings and pairings for those...

audioxpress.com

Great article! Highlights how this is a lot more complicated than plastic / not plastic.

 

[Joachim Herbert]

I will never again (try to) make a joke in this thread. Promised!

 

[Marc v E]

It's all about the right implementation of the materials used. B&O makes almost all of their speaker enclosures out of molded or laminated plastic. For instance my speakers: https://www.tonmeister.ca/wordpress/2014/03/10/bo-tech-ribs-and-dogbones/

 

[Joachim Herbert]

Baffle of KH150 is plastic, KEF lsx is made of plastic.