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Let's talk Tweeters!

Another thread which talked about specific speaker brands was taken over, so I’d like to start a new one.

Mind you, I do not believe in a "best" type of tweeter, nor do I believe in a best brand of speaker, so lets keep that type of conversation out, and use this instead to focus on learning about choices speaker designers make and what that may mean to the end user.

There is no such thing as a speaker driver without trade offs. Some choices must be forsworn in exchange for another.

In the end, the materials used, magnet and motor structure, and crossover choices as well as the listening room come together to make a great speaker, of which there are many. In addition, we all listen for different things. Imaging, sweetness, warmth, detail, dance-ability and even efficiency so there is no single way to measure a driver and rate it against all others.

Also, please keep ads for your 4th dimensional sound or whatever off this thread. Thanks.
erik_squires
erik_squires OP
5,268 posts
 
BTW, top-end AMT tweets measure as well if not better, but are in the same price bracket too. 
timlub
1,649 posts
 
@erik_squires

Hi Erik, I have a pair of the Original Big Ess folded horns at home also and agree, its a nice animal, but much larger than a dome. What sets this tweeter apart is its size and what it does.
It has about a real world sensitivity of about 93 @ 8 ohms. It has a Xmas of over 3mm! Linear 1 way travel is 1.5mm.
If you use their spec of 2.83v input and an average sensitivity of 95, it is plus or minus about 1 db for its operating range.
With this Xmax, it can be crossed very low, they have tested it at 1.3k. This construction should have very low distortion. This tweeter should be able to compare with just about any dome out there.... And YES EXPENSIVE. But, you should be able to come up with some world class MTM’s in to 90 to 95db sensitivity.


erik_squires OP
5,268 posts
 
Tim:

I use much smaller AMT’s than that one, but yeah, they are still much larger than a dome.

Yes, having a low crossover point is great, but you can find that in a number of good tweets for a lot less. Maybe down to 1.8 kHz though.

It is a nice driver though, don’t get me wrong, but the relative value is a bit of a head scratcher. :) However, perhaps they are like SB Acoustics. The wholesale could be MUCH less than that, less than half. Then it becomes much more interesting. :)

Best,

E
shkong78's avatar
shkong78
515 posts
 
I had been audiophile for 40 years.

There are only two speakers that I had kept for more than 10 years.

The first one is Apogee Duetta Signature that I had used from 1988 to 1998.

I had been using Lansche Audio 4.1 since 2007.

This one is using Plasma active tweeter which is the best tweeter available right now.

This tweeter had me keeping Lansch Audio 4.1 for more than 11 years.


jeffersondavis
31 posts
 
I agree plasma tweeters are hard to beat. But short a driver that needs piping in large tanks of gas, the Seas diamond tweeter is easily the best I’ve ever heard. IMO it’s better than the Paradigm or Revel Be tweeter or the Raidho or RAAL ribbon tweeters in terms of micro detail, dispersion, and midrange dynamics, I’ve never heard a tweeter that could dynamically play so damn low (pretty flat down to 500Hz or so).
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