What's the story with Hemp speakers?

TONEPUB · « **on:** 31 Mar 2007, 03:29 am »

I have to admit that I have not had the opportunity to hear any of the
hemp drivers yet. A lot of you have been suggesting them, so could
you tell me a little bit about what you like about them?

Thanks!

opnly bafld · « **Reply #1 on:** 31 Mar 2007, 04:17 am »

EVERYTHING..........but probably the main thing is in the name of your publication.
TONE

TONE

Lin

Steve Eddy · « **Reply #2 on:** 31 Mar 2007, 05:19 am »

Quote from: opnly bafld on 31 Mar 2007, 04:17 am

EVERYTHING..........but probably the main thing is in the name of your publication.
TONE
TONE
TONE

And in case of emergency...

BONG HITS

BONG HITS

se

JimJ · « **Reply #3 on:** 31 Mar 2007, 05:52 am »

...smoke two joints in the mornin', smoke two joints at night...

Now where did that Sublime LP go...

alan m. kafton · « **Reply #4 on:** 31 Mar 2007, 06:27 am »

I have it on good authority that Mr. Eddy smokes high-calorie brownies.

Russell Dawkins · « **Reply #5 on:** 31 Mar 2007, 06:31 am »

he is also 2/3 of the way to 666 posts!

lonewolfny42 · « **Reply #6 on:** 31 Mar 2007, 06:40 am »

Quote from: Russell Dawkins on 31 Mar 2007, 06:31 am

he is also 2/3 of the way to 666 posts!

......666, The Number of the Beast.....

Steve Eddy · « **Reply #7 on:** 31 Mar 2007, 07:51 am »

Quote from: lonewolfny42 on 31 Mar 2007, 06:40 am

......666, The Number of the Beast.....

Number of the Beast? Naaaaah. That's just my cholesterol number from smoking all those brownies.

By the way, is anyone aware of any 10" drivers with hemp cones and T/S parameters similar to the Eminence Beta 10?

se

ZLS · « **Reply #8 on:** 31 Mar 2007, 11:25 am »

The Omega Speakers proprietary Hemptone drivers are truly astounding drivers. Incredible frequency range (you would be astounded at the bass response that s 41/2" driver can generate). They are very quick and responsive with excellent PRAT. Their ultimate e strength that they posses is the beautiful heart rendering tone that they posses. It is a tone that is so rich in harmonic information that the sound seems bigger and more realistic. The fact that they can handle more power that paper cones without breaking up is just an added bonus.
It is the type of thing that once people listen to them they say "Now I understand what you were talking about, and you were so right!"

TONEPUB · « **Reply #9 on:** 31 Mar 2007, 02:13 pm »

Steve,

good to see you back! Boy its deadline time and I could use a couple of those brownies
myself! (at least once the issue is done)

Im going to have to investigate further, it sounds very interesting...

thanks for the feedback all!

2bigears · « **Reply #10 on:** 31 Mar 2007, 02:21 pm »

-- if those drivers get really hot,you can start to see the music,so i have heard????

konut · « **Reply #11 on:** 31 Mar 2007, 04:18 pm »

The Visaton B200 8" driver is a blend of hemp and carbon fiber.

JohninCR · « **Reply #12 on:** 31 Mar 2007, 05:03 pm »

Quote from: konut on 31 Mar 2007, 04:18 pm

The Visaton B200 8" driver is a blend of hemp and carbon fiber.

Is this true? The Visaton site says only lightweight paper, but no mention of "special" paper.

konut · « **Reply #13 on:** 31 Mar 2007, 05:40 pm »

It used to be listed on the Visaton website as such, but, as you noted, that is gone. You might be interested in this though. #64
http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=19253.60

Dmason · « **Reply #14 on:** 31 Mar 2007, 05:44 pm »

I once spoke to an engineer at Visaton, and he told me that they were using a proprietary blend of manila, a grass indigenous to South Asia, with similar tensile, and elastic properties to hemp, and a small amount of carbon fibers. It is an unbelievably tough cone material.

The "hemp" sound has to do with John Harrison's proprietary recipe using hemp fibers. The B200 and FR8 are quite similar sounding in the midband, in my opinion.

Russell Dawkins · « **Reply #15 on:** 31 Mar 2007, 05:48 pm »

wikipedia has manila as coming from banana leaves. That it used to be called "manila hemp" because for a while all rope fibers were called hemps, is what caused the confusion, I guess.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manila_hemp

Steve Eddy · « **Reply #16 on:** 31 Mar 2007, 06:42 pm »

Quote from: konut on 31 Mar 2007, 04:18 pm

The Visaton B200 8" driver is a blend of hemp and carbon fiber.

Thanks, konut.

Fs is good, but Qt is rather too high and its nominal impedance is a bit too low.

se

Steve Eddy · « **Reply #17 on:** 31 Mar 2007, 06:45 pm »

Quote from: Russell Dawkins on 31 Mar 2007, 05:48 pm

wikipedia has manila as coming from banana leaves. That it used to be called "manila hemp" because for a while all rope fibers were called hemps, is what caused the confusion, I guess.

Yeah. Some of the Fostex drivers use manila hemp, which they refer to as "banana plant fiber." They may have refrained from using "hemp" because of this country's "drug war" insanity. I remember when Nike marketed a shoe made from cannabis hemp and some people went completely apeshit over it, saying it "sent the wrong message to our children."

*sigh*

se

TONEPUB · « **Reply #18 on:** 31 Mar 2007, 07:59 pm »

Either way, this sounds pretty exciting...

What speaker system would you guys suggest I check out to get the
best overall hemp experience? I've got everything at my disposal from
9w SET to 350wpc solid state.

Are they more like the Lowther drivers, or just a more conventional
driver that's used as a woofer in place of a paper/alum/carb fiber
woofer for different tonality?

Ill definitely get right on it after this issue goes to bed!

As always, thanks for the help!!

Steve Eddy · « **Reply #19 on:** 31 Mar 2007, 08:08 pm »

Quote from: TONEPUB on 31 Mar 2007, 07:59 pm

Are they more like the Lowther drivers, or just a more conventional
driver that's used as a woofer in place of a paper/alum/carb fiber
woofer for different tonality?

Well, ultimately you could do either, but all those I've seen are just using conventional paper cone drivers except they use hemp fiber for the paper instead of wood fiber.

se