Beryllium Tweeters

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

Depends on how you define it, but for most anything above 90db is easy to drive. If you are talking about bizarre Omegas and strange speakers that are 100-110 db and thrive on little teeny 3 watt flea amps then yes, 92db is not high efficiency. But for most normal people 92db is.

Acurus “Hofman’s Iron Law” and it offers you any two of the following: small cabinet size, deep bass and high sensitivity. No Omegas exist as you discribe and your idea that it depends how you define it is very wrong. Also would seem you feel that only adnormal people understand loudspeakers and with that I slightly agree.Normal people don't need science or physics interfering with what they feel is right.

Back on topic, I'm not actually looking to purchase anything right now, just adding ideas to the data base. For some reason I seem to really enjoy smaller speakers maybe because my listening rooms are on the smaller side.

Those Penn Audio's look nice! I really love Seas Excel drivers. I had a pair of Jamo Concert 8's and really enjoyed them.

Mainly, I was just curious as to what other speakers use beryllium tweeters...

Beryllium, as I understand it, is the second lightest metal we have, its very brittle (stiff) and I was thinking that it is probably one of the best materials, from an engineering standpoint, to make tweeters out of. I guess it must be expensive also because of how rare it is, so I figure if a manufacturer is using it for the dome then the rest of the parts making up the tweeter are of high quality also.

I used to be a hater of metal dome tweeters but I guess it's more about how it is implemented, what the corresponding parts are and the flavor of your associated equipment.

"I own Paradigm Signature 8s (v3). Yes ... they can sound bright, but I wonder how much is the fault of the source material."

That statement is probably correct.

You need to have components that filter the AC better. Very few manufacturers do this. I build my own components and hardness can come from tube voltage (driving the tubes to hard) and AC noise. I filter AC noise with capacitors and chokes. My power supply is probably costs more than your preamp. That is probably what you are hearing when you think things are bright sounding.

IMO Happy Listening.

About a year ago, when the BE tweeters first appeared in the Reference 3A lineup, I wrote to Tash Goka, head of Reference 3A, about upgrading my De Capo's to the new tweeter, and questioned him about the reputation of metal dome tweeters for harshness. Here's what he wrote back:

"Opinions about the "harsh sound" metal domes propagates may generally be true although some loudspeakers have used them successfully in the past.
They were usually made with aluminum, magnesium or titanium, etc...
This ringing metallic sound was also our finding whenever we have tried them for a project.
Metallurgy of Beryllium is different however. It is significantly lighter, stronger and definitely more inert. Sonically it is very bwell balanced, detailed, and spacious due to extended higher frequencies well in to 40 kHz range."