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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
16,064 posts
 
And that expensive speaker, it's a real laboratory of measurements vs. experience. The off-axis sounds very good to me, but the overall tonal balance never did. I attributed the latter due to compression, but also really trying to stretch a small woofer beyond its capabilities. 

I won't go into it here, as it causes a lot of passion, but I encourage anyone who can to look at the specs and listen. It's interesting what does and does not correlate with experience.
audiokinesis
2,737 posts
 

Getting back to tweeters, I don't have a lot of experience with a lot of different current-generation domes and ribbon(-ish) drivers, but I've tried a fair number of different compression drivers and many different diaphragm types.  My preferences tend to be for polymer diaphragms (rather than metal diaphragms) up until you get to the price point where true beryllium diaphragms enter the game.  Since my design choices place a higher priority on the horn or waveguide than on the compression driver, and a higher priority on synergy than on excellence in isolation, matching up the exit angle of the compression driver with the entry angle at the throat of the horn or waveguide is a consideration, which does limit my compression driver choices somewhat.

Duke

wolf_garcia
6,696 posts
 
If you look up Piezo tweeters (there seems to be about a zillion pages of stuff about 'em) you'll notice that the "crystal" (or something) allows them to be used without crossovers…and these tweeters can cost less than 3 bucks. Amazing. Another note, tweeters allow aural "cues" that make recorded music sound real and lead your ear balls in the right direct, thus making them extremely important to audio reproduction. They also have the benefit of allowing a dinner party guest to stick their pesky fingers right into the beryllium domes of your Magicos, causing you to look around for a Tweeter Insurance Policy as well as revising your list of Friends You Invite Over.
erik_squires OP
16,064 posts
 
@wolf_garcia

Not saying tweeters aren't important, but their price and attention can be oversized to the rest of the speaker. :)

I have AMT's and ring radiators with solid center poles, and no friends, so I'm safe. :)

There are two Be tweeters I'm dying to try. The SB Acoustics which was recently released and the really low profile Be from ScanSpeak, especially as it may work in Focal's as a retro-grade.

But, neither time, money or energy are alignining right now.

Best,

E
wolf_garcia
6,696 posts
 
Tweeter Mythology isn't unlike Speaker Cone Material Mythology as "doped paper" seems kind of dopey, "nanotube sandwich" sounds kind of foody, and a good designer can make music happen with either. It's still kind of interesting that piles of all sorts of mids and woofers always combine with (generally) one good tweeter, so I do agree with the fact that the mid/woof generators are of primary import. I think there needs to be more research into using actual bird parts for tweeters…I think there's a lot to learn from natural beaks perhaps being grown in labs to save the actual birds, plus there are few tweeters made using feather damping.
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