Pioneer has unveiled a new car speaker that is made from basalt, a volcanic rock that claims to ‘improve’ the speakers’ sound quality.

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Pioneer TS-D1720C Car Speakers

The speaker cone in the new TS-D speaker range is made out of basalt because according to the Pioneer engineers, it’s ‘rigid, heat resistant and delivers more detailed and accurate sound.’

Pioneer’s innovative speaker technology takes basalt fibres interwoven with Aramid fibre. The Dual Layer IMX Aramid / Basalt fibre composite cones are designed to deliver accurately detailed sound reproduction.

Pioneer’s Product Manager for the mobile electronics group, Breanna Hanke said, “Pioneer speaker engineers are constantly looking at different materials that can reproduce the highest sound quality possible. Basalt was chosen for its strength, heat resistance and rigidity. The result is a cleaner bigger sound.”

The new cones consist of a high-tech sandwich of basalt and ceramic components. The basalt, before it is turned into a fabric, is pulverized and melted at more than 2700 degrees Fahrenheit and then drawn into fibres. The combined materials of basalt fibres and aramid fibres are used to reinforce Pioneer’s composite injection moulded polypropylene (IMPP), creating an extremely strong speaker cone that can withstand flexing associated with excessive cone movement and produce an improved transient response in the mid to low frequency spectrum.

The new cones are matched with ultra light weight soft dome tweeters in both the coaxial and component versions. The large soft dome tweeters, made of high quality laminated polyester, use a finite element method (FEM) design with a specially crafted rear chamber that prevents standing waves and creates a loading effect to help produce a wider frequency response. In the coaxial version, the tweeter is placed in a waveguide chamber to control and direct the sound to the listener’s ears.

To further enhance performance and ease of installation, each TS-D speaker comes with a passive crossover network. In the component package, the speakers come with an attractive outboard passive crossover that uses an audiophile-grade film capacitor for the tweeter with a cut-off at 0 or -3dB and a metal core coil for the woofer to produce a smooth, natural response, says Pioneer.

Pricing and Availability

TS-D1002R 10cm 2-way Speaker with 110W Max power handling: $199
TS-D1602R 16cm 2-way Speaker with 260W Max power handling: $289
TS-D6902R 6×9″ 2-Way Speaker 360W Max power handling: $329
TS-D1720C 17cm Packaged Component Speaker System 260W: $399