Pressed steel speaker chassis vs cast or plastic

[RoA]

If I see a pressed steel chassis woofer I automatically assume cheap. If I pay good money for a speaker I want cast chassis high quality woofer. If I see the woofer screws go directly in to the wood I assume cheap. I want threaded inserts and nice bolts. If I pay good money for a speaker I want quality Xover parts not cheap stuff.

I know none will guarantee good sound quality but I just believe if I pay good money for a product I want some attention to detail, parts and sound quality commensurate with cost.

Am I that wrong? And yes I know, an LS3/5A uses a pressed steel chassis woofer too.

 

[voodooless]

Am I that wrong?

Cheap doesn't mean poorly engineered. Good-looking and expensive material doesn't mean it's well-engineered either. You'll find plenty of counter-examples for both cases. Best to not look at the price, but let the objective data speak for itself.

 

[RoA]

I get that but if a speaker costs a considerable amount of money, measures and sounds good should cheap parts not matter?

 

[voodooless]

I get that but if a speaker costs a considerable amount of money, measures and sounds good should cheap parts not matter?

I'd say, up to a point. There are also things like longevity, which also doesn't mean cheap is always worse, but sometimes it is. And you pay for the development cost as well. If a cheaply made stamped frame woofer gets the performance of a Purifi woofer, I think they would be entitled to ask a bit of extra money for it. It's al about value for money.

 

[unpluggged]

If I see a pressed steel chassis woofer I automatically assume cheap.

Yeah, "cheap" like this Peerless custom woofer:

Neumann KH120 Disassembly Pictures

Hi all, it seems pretty hard to find any pictures of the KH120's internals online, so I thought I would post these here. Maybe they can be of use to someone! :) These pictures aren't of my own KH120s. I found them several years ago with great difficulty thru Google Translate on a...

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[AOR]

Cast chassis tend to be made from aluminium, which acts to reduce certain types of distortion in the loudspeaker motor. The steel in pressed chassis increases that distortion. Plastic can sometimes be the best compromise, as it can easily be strong enough, if it's something like glass filled nylon, it's also cheap and doesn't increase distortion.

 

[voodooless]

Yeah, "cheap" like this Peerless custom woofer:

Well, it's a "Premium sculpted stamped steel chassis"

 

[Doenerkunde]

Yeah, "cheap" like this Peerless custom woofer:

Neumann KH120 Disassembly Pictures

Hi all, it seems pretty hard to find any pictures of the KH120's internals online, so I thought I would post these here. Maybe they can be of use to someone! :) These pictures aren't of my own KH120s. I found them several years ago with great difficulty thru Google Translate on a...

www.audiosciencereview.com

Another good counter example would be the Kii Threes stamped steel Peerless/Tymphany woofers. Implementation is king.

 

[Devnull]

If you can stamp steel and have it be stiff enough to be a car chassis and protect you in a crash then a well engineered stamped speaker frame shouldn't be an issue.

 

[RoA]

Another good counter example would be the Kii Threes stamped steel Peerless/Tymphany woofers. Implementation is king.

View attachment 406412

12 Euro drivers (the Peerless SBS-160F35AL01-04 used as bass driver is around that price too if you buy 500+ units).

You see, to me that is not acceptable in a $14'000 product let alone that Kii didn't even develop their own drivers.

If you are happy to pay that for something that uses some of the cheapest drivers around, good for you.

 

[voodooless]

If you are happy to pay that for something that uses some of the cheapest drivers around, good for you.

Nobody said this... Looking at the distortion figures of the bass of the Kii 3, it isn't particularly good, especially for 4 woofers per speaker. So it isn't really very good value in this regard.

 

[unpluggged]

12 Euro drivers (the Peerless SBS-160F35AL01-04 used as bass driver is around that price too if you buy 500+ units).

You see, to me that is not acceptable in a $14'000 product let alone that Kii didn't even develop their own drivers.

If you are happy to pay that for something that uses some of the cheapest drivers around, good for you.

How much should a driver of a speaker with retail price of, say, €500 cost in BOM?

 

[RoA]

Driver of a cheap ELAC. I would still not be happy with wood screws but that it excusable in a product such as this. I have no idea how this measures but I'd much rather know that my Kii Three had something like this inside.

 

[ivayvr]

Pressed or cast steel, I am much more concerned about obscene prices charged by some "premium" brands for poorly measuring speakers.

 

[unpluggged]

Driver of a cheap ELAC. I would still not be happy with wood screws but that it excusable in a product such as this. I have no idea how this measures but I'd much rather know that my Kii Three had something like this inside.

View attachment 406448

Looks plastic to me.

 

[RoA]

How much should a driver of a speaker with retail price of, say, €500 cost in BOM?

Taking your Neumann's as an example, they use cheap drivers in an active pair of speakers retailing for around that price for one speaker but at least you get (cheap) amplifiers and DSP with it.

 

[Purité Audio]

Yes or really expensive drivers in really poorly measuring loudspeaker designs, a terrible waste.
Keith

 

[RoA]

Looks plastic to me.

It isn't

 

[RoA]

Yes or really expensive drivers in really poorly measuring loudspeaker designs, a terrible waste.
Keith

Agree. Like I said, if I pay a lot of money for a speaker I want it all.

 

[MAB]

If I see a pressed steel chassis woofer I automatically assume cheap. If I pay good money for a speaker I want cast chassis high quality woofer. If I see the woofer screws go directly in to the wood I assume cheap. I want threaded inserts and nice bolts. If I pay good money for a speaker I want quality Xover parts not cheap stuff.

I know none will guarantee good sound quality but I just believe if I pay good money for a product I want some attention to detail, parts and sound quality commensurate with cost.

Am I that wrong? And yes I know, an LS3/5A uses a pressed steel chassis woofer too.

You are correct that none of these guarantee good sound quality. And the LS3/5A sound bad for reasons that have nothing to do with the woofer chassis.

Taking your Neumann's as an example, they use cheap drivers in an active pair of speakers retailing for around that price for one speaker but at least you get (cheap) amplifiers and DSP with it.

Good grief, are you just arguing for high prices? These are great sounding speakers. And very reasonably priced. Any change in BOM cost will translate to nearly 10x price increase. The majority of the audio industry is infected with compulsive FOMO and FUD regarding exotic materials, what we need is better acoustic engineering not fancy driver chassis.