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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
shkong78's avatar
shkong78
1,485 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).
techno_dude
382 posts
 
Isn’t it best for a speaker designer to let the midrange play as high as it can play correctly , then cross over the tweeter higher so it can handle more power and can be of smaller diameter to better disperse. Thinking natural rolloff of the midrange...presence region of 2 kz to 4 kz with low order or without crossover.

Maybe some well known tweeters are crossed to low...Maybe this is what makes them calling attention to themselves...sounds kind of ´´squawking’´ phenomenon around 2kz.



jeffersondavis
31 posts
 
Probably true for a 3 way, but in a 2 way with a larger woofer if you cross a large woofer over too high, it will start beaming. If you want a more full sounding 2 way with a bigger woofer and not trade off imaging and soundstage (with a 2-way, this tradeoff basically exists with anything bigger than a 5"), you will want a highly capable tweeter that you can cross over lower.

If a designer can do so with the driver on hand, they will. Look at the Revel M106 and Revel M126BE, designed by the same team. When they got their hands on a beryllium tweeter, what did they do? Drop the crossover frequency by 600 Hz in order to achieve much, much better dispersion characteristics. Of course to do so you need a much better tweeter with bigger magnets, stronger voice coils, and exotic diaphragms.
erik_squires OP
16,064 posts
 
You know guys, I've heard the meme that Plasma tweeters are the best in the world, but that's marketing hype. 

Of course, we can grant that the tweeters have immeasurable moving mass, but the novelty of the technology is not the same as the implementation. 

The measurements for the Lansch Audio 5.1 are not bad, in fact in some ways they are pretty commendable:

https://www.stereophile.com/content/lansche-audio-51-loudspeaker-measurements

But I wouldn't call the FR best in the world, and, oddly, there's some stored energy ringing happening near 20kHz. Maybe this is from the horn? 

Again, buy what you like, but I think that calling these the best in the world tweeters is a bit much. I think there are a number of dome's, ribbons and AMTs which would sound as good if not better to some. 

Best,

E
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