pros and cons: beryllium vs ribbon tweeters in sound and emotions terms

I had Paradigm Sig 2's with Berrylium tweeters.  Associated equipment was a Lightspeed Attenuator, Parasound dac, Classe CA200 amp.  Sound was fantastic every which way you sliced it!

I then had Monitor Audio Gold GX50's with ribbon tweeters.  Associated equipment was Peachtree Nova Pre / 220 Amp.  This setup also sounded really, really good.

Im a fan of laid back ribbon tweeters, and beryllium seems to, for the most part, also have a laid back sound for metal tweeters, but they have great detail as well.

Both, ribbons and beryllium from my experience are very fast which helps in the detail department.

Folded ribbon tweeters I’ve heard in recent years delivered a very relaxed and non fatiguing sound, almost to a fault if one expects recordings to have a bit of an edge to it from time to time. 

Which folded ribbons are these?

I lived with Dynaudio speakers with the superb Esotar2 tweeter for eleven years. After I sold them and bought a much less expensive pair of ADAM Audio ARTist 5 active monitors to tide me over, I was surprised to find that ADAM's folded ribbon tweeter was even more lifelike, present, and revealing than the Esotar2. Certainly no lack of bite there. It's hard to tell how much of the improvement comes from the tweeter itself and how much from the removal of the passive crossover between amp and driver.

Note that "folded ribbons" are actually air motion transformers, a completely different technology from ribbon drivers.

As Mapman said, I think it depends on how the tweeter is integrated into the complete design. I've heard good and bad examples of both kinds of tweeters.

My current speakers have ribbon tweets, and they've been implemented nicely. And they sound that way. At least IMHO!

IME, ribbon tweeters can present a laidback impression, while BE tweeters can present a more forward attack if not matched closely w/ gear.

ccolby most recently I’ve listened carefully to affordable Goldenear Aon 3 speakers with folded ribbon tweeter and liked those a lot. Have heard various others over the years including ribbon tweeters in Magnepan which is a totally different beast..