Thickness of diaphragm

T

theletterq

New member
After reading something in a book lately about how condenser mics can have a metal coating on the diapragm of a couple of microns, is this what is referred to as the thinness of a diaphragm?

Or, is it actually the mylar itself? With all the talk lately about thin diaphragms, just looking for some clarification. The general premise in the book was; thinner coating=less weight=more responsive.

Thanks...
 
The gold coating is VERY thin; on most condenser mics, you can see thru the gold coating pretty easily. The thickness comes from the mylar backing support (the part that the gold is applied to.

Thinner means less mass, a higher resonant frequency, and all kinds of other nice side benefits. The down side is finding something really thin that doesn't stretch and it's a bitch to get the tensioning right, especially on large diaphragms.

Stephen Paul was the first to figure out how to do 3 microns with large diaphragms, and the rest of the microphone industry is just now figuring out how to do it, almost 20 years later. The industry is down to 2 microns (claimed), but how stable it is, is yet to be seen.

In the meantime, Stephen Paul is reliably down to .6 microns (6/10th of 1 micron), and has some prototypes even thinner, I believe.
 
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