I compare it to a piece of metal that you bend up and down. As you bend it up and down it changes the metal, softens it, up to the point it breaks. The harder you bend it, the quicker it will break.
guys who ran PAs back in the 70s and earlier may remember how fragile Aluminum diaphragms can be also -- same sort of principle IMHO...
the pistonic motion over time stresses the metal,
even given the 'super small' movement cycles compression drivers operate with, eventually they will break, given sufficient voltage...
if sufficient voltage is not provided, the older AL diaphragms just start to sound a bit less crisp and dynamic than when they were newer -- with less fatigued metal alloy....
seems like that mellowed response is desirable with the music 'producer' (the reeds of the instrument) and not so desirable with a playback system (a music 're-producer').
The April 2011 Dewey Balfa Cajun & Creole Heritage Week
