[chrisby]

Untreated paper is, but coated paper isn't.

Anyway, I recommend aluminum cones, but not ones where the material is bent, stamped, streched, woven, cracked or otherwise stressed into submission.  I prefer cones made from a 2.5" thick, 16 pound solid billet of aluminum and CNC machined until only a .008" thick, 1 ounce cone remains!

http://www.ygacoustics.com/UploadFiles/file/PDF/YG%20Acoustics%20BilletCore%20Brochure.pdf

Steve

is it just me, or does this seem almost criminally wasteful? 

[srb]

is it just me, or does this [BilletCore] seem almost criminally wasteful?

You mean like carving a toothpick from a telephone pole?

On a similar "removing a large amount of material" note (but not close to removing the percentage of material as the BilletCore, ~ 99.6%) - the MacBook machined aluminum case.  Apple does collect and recycle the aluminum waste, and I would hope YG Acoustics does as well.  In any case, I wouldn't want to initially pay for the YG driver nor pay for a replacement driver down the road.  Any driver can be potentially damaged or suffer from a defect.

Steve

[Æ]

is it just me, or does this seem almost criminally wasteful?

I'm sure they recycle the excess. Wouldn't you?