VIETA La-8 plus A Manual page 9

Why use a Carbon-Fiber membrane?
We have used the Carbon Fiber membrane in the La-8 series plus and LA-12 plus
because it is more rigid than other materials, it is extremely clean during the whole
production process and it provides outstanding clarity to the low and medium-low
frequencies.
In addition, the Carbon Fiber is light weight and has a high degree of absorption,
and in the case of considerably thick diaphragms, it provides a very good self-
absorption.
Speakers with this type of membrane have an excellent piston movement,
providing a superb low and medium low frequency response.
Advantages of a Carbon-Fiber loudspeaker:
- It provides a more transparent sound.
- It gives a better image and depth than any other material.
- It has high efficiency and high peak levels.
- It has very low intermodulation distortion.
What would be the ideal diaphragm for a speaker?
The ideal speaker diaphragm would have to be an absolutely rigid surface, so
that the forward and back movement would be completely 'piston-like' in the
reproduction frequency range. This means that the cone surface would not bend at
all when it moved. But on the other hand, at complete odds with the above, it
would also have to be an infinitely lightweight surface.
For a surface to be absolutely rigid and yet infinitely lightweight is impossible. A
rigid material means that the surface ripples less in the frequencies we are
interested in, however the more rigid it is the more it will move in higher
frequencies, and these movements may be much more pronounced. It is therefore
also important that the diaphragm material be self-absorbent, i.e., capable of
mitigating the energy that resonates on its surface.
The impossibility of obtaining these three elements at the same time, are the
reason that no cone or diaphragm is perfect, even though some speakers seem to
come closer to the ideal speaker than others do. Carbon-Fiber is the material that
currently comes closest to this ideal loudspeaker concept.
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