Beryllium Tweeters

B limo, If you are prepared to look beyond BE dome tweeters, I would also consider a 2nd hand pair of Penaudio Cenya monitors which sound natural, resolving and musical. They also happen to look beautiful. Their size is also suitable for high end desktop setups. I've got my eye on a pair of Cenya Signatures. The Cenya Sig's are more comparable in size to the Ref 3A Dulcets, therefore giving you the flexibility to switch between your desktop setup and a pair of stands which could be fun!

Yes Bifwynne, I totally agree. Unfortunately often times the victim is not the real culprit. I have read comments that the new DeCapo is bright and/or harsh. Nothing could be further from the truth in this case. Often times, I believe folks will shoot the messenger at the expense of underlying conditions that are overlooked. My prejudices concerning metal tweeters in general, based on previous listening impressions, one of which I briefly owned, have been squashed by what I'm hearing, the reason for my commenting on this thread. The resolution and sense that I am hearing all the details and nuances of the recording are all laid out without compromising the musical message in any way. What is more remarkable, at least to me, is that I have come to a greater appreciation of the musical content of poorly recorded material without the typical audiophile impulse to dissect what I am hearing. This in itself is a big deal.

92db is not high efficiency

01-10-15: Johnk
92db is not high efficiency

Yes, that's true John. But a speaker's sensitivity is only part of the story. John Atkinson provided this neat summation in his Stereophile review of the original De Capo's -

"The MM de Capo i's voltage sensitivity was above average, at an estimated 91dB(B)/2.83V/m, which is slightly but inconsequentially less than specified. Its impedance (fig.1) was reasonably benign, dropping below 6 ohms only in the lower midrange and the high treble. (The speaker is thus both sensitive and efficient.) The minimum value was 5.1 ohms at 10kHz, and the electrical phase angle was generally mild."

01-09-15: Runnin
Speaker cable matters a lot at this level of quality, as do interconnects. I got all solid core, and it is much nicer/cleaner than fine strand. The difference here to my speaker cables was immediate and not subtle. It wasn't that I could tell that something was wrong and went on a cable search. I just experimented and discovered how good solid core is.

Same with interconnects. I ended up with solid core copper plated with silver by Morrow Audio. I can recommend without reservation. Imaging like crazy and a 3D soundstage I never knew my music had. My cables are MA3, and the speaker cable is Audioquest Type 4.

I also owned a full loom of solid core cables (Acoustic Revive) which use extremely pure oval-shaped copper conductors instead of plated copper. Using solid core conductors is one way to address skin effect amongst other design challenges, but there are other solutions which have equal merit.

I currently use Jorma Prime & Statement cables which use many extremely thin and extremely pure copper conductors wound exactly in parallel with ceramic glass fibres around a ceramic glass fibre core to form a tube, together with other natural materials like walnut. Jorma experimented with many other materials as well as copper alloys, but found copper delivers the most neutral, transparent, and natural musical signal.

Mind you what what Jorma or I might find sounds good may not be your cup of tea or suit your system. That's why there are a million cables out there to choose from!