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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
prof
3,482 posts
 
erik,

I made my comments in regards to the tweeters used in the speakers I mentioned, and how I perceived their effect.

Do I understand then that you are looking only for technical contributions?  Maybe this is more of a DIY speaker builder discussion thread?


audiokinesis
2,753 posts
 

Erik, I hope you don’t mind some feedback.

While I’ve participated here a bit, I felt pressured to choose my topics and my wording carefully. My impression is that the majority of what I could theoretically contribute on the subject of tweeters and their implementation would be unwelcome. Not that that’s necessarily any big loss to anyone...

My point being, your "guiding principles" may be stifling participation more than you realize.

Duke

dealer/manufacturer

shadorne's avatar
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shadorne
7,477 posts
 
ATC have built their own tweeter in the last five years. Previously they used Excel and before that Vifa and before that Audax (40+ years of pro audio) 

It took many years years to develop and they regard Excel tweeters as extremely good - so improving upon that was difficult.

The ATC dome tweeter looks much like any fabric dome tweeter however it has NO Ferrofluid and had to be made with extremely tight tolerances in order to dissipate heat (large ATC are intended to play at realistic levels of real instruments like a drum set). A dual spider was necessary to avoid rocking motion which is a challenge in all dome tweeters due to their small size and why the majority use Ferrofluid.

Ferrofluid is not bad but it does dry out with time and changes the response and eventual reliability.

ATC like doped fabric domes and pulp paper or constrained layer damping type approaches to cones or domes. This is because these materials are intrinsically damped and therefore do not "ring" or affect the timbre of the sound reproduced as much as rigid materials. (Of course break up can be issue with softer materials and therefore expensive motors and large voice coils are needed which makes the transducer units overall extremely costly) 

I am not sure if it will ever be made available to the general market and other speaker manufacturers like other ATC drivers.
erik_squires OP
16,412 posts
 
Feedback is good!

I am sorry if this is coming off as heavy handed. I have seen a number of good threads devolve into "my brand X is much better than your brand Y" or "you aren't getting 4D sound..."

So long as we can avoid that, all participation is welcome, especially from those with first hand experience, including and of course, especially @prof

I would like us to bend towards manufacturing choices and what kinds of pro's cons each has.

For instance, MBL's are pretty expensive, and seem to need lots of room. Just saying. :)

Best,



Erik
prof
3,482 posts
 
erik,

cool.

Sorry I'm not going to be able to add particularly technical info to the thread.  I only had listening impressions to give at this point.
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