Alnico Ceramic Speaker Difference
Alnico speakers compress at high volumes.
Alnico ceramic speaker difference. Ceramic magnets are made from ferrites often iron oxides. You see ceramic is easier to come by than alnico making it a cheaper magnet to make. My opinion there would not be much difference if we could test ceramic poles versus alnico poles or ceramic bar versus same size ceramic bar generating the same field pattern. Magnetically speaking ceramic magnets produce a stronger field than alnico.
Ceramic speaker have more headroom ceramic speakers tend to have smoother breakup. Ceramic magnets are made of ceramic surprise. By some players the ceramic magnets are given a bad reputation when compared to alnico which is probably due to their association with cheaper instruments. Some folks might liken the difference between alnico and ceramic speakers to the difference between tube and solid state amplifiers where one compresses smoothly and the other gives all it has and then clips hard.
Alnicos would be stronger but the main difference in sound characteristic is more the shape and subsequent coil engagement than the substance the magnet is made out of. The result is a slightly hotter sounding pickup with more treble response. Ceramic is the cheapest and most common material. If you are comparing speakers that have the same magnetic flux but generated from different magnet compositions you probably won t notice a difference in tonality.
Alnico is commonly thought to produce the most vintage tone and has a reputation for sounding compressed. Because the ceramic magnet isn t introducing compression the result is a cleaner sound in comparison to alnico. Alnico speaker breakup quicker that ceramic i e.