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What is your favorite type of tweeter?

It seems to me that 98% of speakers under $1000/pr use dome tweeters, 95% of speakers under $5000/pr use domes, 92% of speakers under $10000/pr use domes, and 90% of speakers over $10000/pr use domes. Do those stats seem reasonable?

If a manufacturer were designing a new loudspeaker at a $5K or $10K price point, would there be a bias in favor of domes, in order to stick with a known, familiar entity, or a bias away from domes, in order to create interest and set oneself apart from the competition?

This forum does not have a "Poll" function, so I can't ask everyone to vote for their favorite type of tweeter. But I will be grateful for any comments.
javachip
mrjstark
1,112 posts
 
Horn-loaded top of the line Fostex tweeters with full-range drivers.
carlos43
11 posts
 
Heard some Hiquiphons in a set of Ensemble References recently. They were special models built expressly for the Pawel Acoustics mini-monitors. Crystal clear and spacious!
johnk's avatar
johnk
1,490 posts
 
While I have no favorite Fostex t500amk2 compression tweeters are close. Most manufacturers use domes for they are affordable. And many folks feel more comfortable with familiar lay outs in loudspeakers. Domes are well known by designers many again stay with what is comfortable, affordable and sells. Since buyers of loudspeakers do not understand design or parts used, most loudspeakers sell on name and hype. If you keep a open mind and ears when looking at loudspeaker design. You will be rewarded with great sound. Or just buy 2-3 way towers with dome tweeters maybe with 2 -6 1/2in woofers or a 2 way bookshelf with 6in and dome....Seems everyone's selling a version or more of these designs.
islandmandan
848 posts
 
Hard to beat the Esotar2 tweeter in my Dynaudio Contour 5.4's.
Dan
shadorne's avatar
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shadorne
7,333 posts
 
Domes are extremely good. They are perhaps the best shape for a driver and give the most even dispersion. Small 1 inch domes are very cheap when used as a tweeter (hence extremely popular) and sound great. The likley reason they are not used on most larger drivers is the cost of a huge magnet for such a massive voice coil and the challenge (extreme tolerances) required to control the rocking motion. Rocking motion is worse for drivers with large excursions and large voice coils creating a costly engineering challenge to maintain precise linear excursion within the gap. A large woofer with a tiny voice 1 or 2 inch coil that is aligned by a spider and rubber surround is easy and very cheap to make (and also, funnily enough, what you find in 98% of speakers)

This same phenomenon is known in hydraulic engineering - a piston height should be as long as its diameter in order to prevent binding from rocking motion. A small voice coil is akin to a small diameter pistion and can be controlled more precisely with less precision/cost.
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