Acoustic Application
Acoustics is a particularly successful application for diamond. Being stiff but light makes diamond an excellent acoustic material. In a tweeter, the high frequency generating part of a loudspeaker the desired properties for perfect sound reproduction are the light weight, which enables the air piston to ove rapidly, and the stiffness to retain shape. Diamond’s unrivalled stiffness allows it to behave closely to the theoretical ideal of a perfectly stiff tweeter acoustic diaphragm.
Where other materials distort at higher frequencies, a CVD diamond tweeter dome returns a true reproduction of sound up to a high-frequency of at least 70 kHz, which is three times beyond normal human audible range. The result is a clear and transparent sound, which comes close as possible to the sensation of actually being present at the performance.
Element Six has perfected the technology to grow CVD diamond into complex geometric shapes including domes of the required thickness for superb acoustic properties. Element Six has worked closely together with Bowers & Wilkins in the development of the CVD diamond dome tweeters for their flagship series, the B&W 800D Series.