Re: Why are speakers elliptical?
I believe that it was Dr G F Dutton of EMI Research Labs who was an influential proponent of the theory that an elliptical shape spreads out the 'bell' resonances of a speaker cone so that the reproduction has less of the characteristic 'speaker sound'.
Certainly, you'll usually find an elliptical speaker in any post-war HMV kit and their 13" x 8" speakers have a good reputation. Dutton's theory is plausible, though I'm not convinced it was ever borne out in measurements. Perhaps the idea got seized and propagated by HMV marketing.
As merlinmaxwell points out, the preference today is to use more heavily damped cone materials to reduce the effect of the majority of cone bending resonances.
Martin
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