why aren't ribbon tweeters more popular?

Downsides—delicate, easily overdriven, higher distortion, beaming dispersion pattern. Ribbon and quasi-ribbon also exhibit edge resonances and a rising frequency response, some more than others, making them difficult to work with and listen to. However, these traits are attractive to aging boomer ears with hearing loss.

Ojgalli Only thing I agree with is delicate but they can be easily repaired unlike other transducers. Ribbons can image wonderfully can produce accurate sound and measure well. Sure are not difficult to work with I do so daily. But some have such biases they can not except the fact that ribbons are just like any other transducer used in audio and if done right a hi quality loudspeaker can be designed with ribbons or most any type of transducer. Happy listening.

Evolution Acoustics and Aerial Acoustics use these on their top flagship speakers.
Nuff said!

Old Apogee Duettas or Divas kill almost anything made today. When rebuilt by Rich Murry at Truesoundworks they are amazing and among the best I have enjoyed. I have listened extensively at friend's system to some of the most expensive finest speakers made today or have tried in these speakers in my own system and keep going back to Apogees. Apogees in stock and or with moded crossovers they kill just about everything. Apogees when re-ribboned they kill everything period. With planar and ribbon speakers you are at a performance with dynamics speakers in most cases you are in a recording studio. Nothing wrong with either venue but that is the difference in sound.

Hi JohnK,

Have you heard/used a ribbon whose sound gets close to the t500mkII?