For the front housing of my new model, TENORA, I chose aluminum with a semi-matte black anodized finish.
Because aluminum has a low density, it features a high speed of sound propagation (elastic modulus ÷ density). In fact, it has a faster propagation speed than titanium, which is used in higher-end LOAK model.
Thanks to its light weight and rigidity, aluminum fulfills one of the key requirements for a front housing: transmitting vibrations with minimal loss. However, its low internal damping means it doesn’t absorb much vibration. This makes it somewhat unsuitable for the driver-mounting area in the front housing—where it’s essential to suppress vibrations from the dynamic (D-type) driver.
To compensate for aluminum’s shortcomings, TENORA’s front housing incorporates stainless steel in the driver installation section to help absorb vibrations. This design is also used in the titanium-bodied LOAK2 model.
In the image below, you can see that stainless steel is embedded in the blue-colored area. Additionally, there’s a resilient shock-absorbing material placed between the driver’s outer edge and the aluminum housing.
This material applies constant pressure to the driver, securely fixing it in place while also absorbing vibrations. As a result, TENORA minimizes the transfer of driver vibrations to the front housing, delivering the stable sound, well-defined notes, and voluminous low end characteristic of a stainless steel housing, while simultaneously providing the fast, crisp, and airy qualities unique to aluminum.
