Design a $60,000 Speaker - Start here

Re: Tidal:

They are also using real diamond (not diamond powder) tweeter and midrange. This adds a great deal to the basic part cost.

Now ask me if a diamond midrange and tweeter are better than the best Be or AMT's. Answer is, I have no idea. :) The best AMT and Be tweeters are unbelievably good.

http://www.accuton.com/en/products/speakersystems/diamant-driver/


Best,


E

This brings up another kind of interesting / lopsided issue around audio. The cost of tweeters.

Wilson is one of the few companies that keeps this more or less in balance (again, not promoting, not a fan). The cost of high-end tweeters is kind of astronomical, and lopsided especially when you consider how LITTLE sound actually comes out of a tweeter. A tweeter may cover 3-4 octaves at most, but often commands half or more of the driver cost.

In my own speakers, I ended up spending $500/tweeter but only around $240/mid-woofer.

I think that if you slap Be on any speaker you can increase the value perception and retail price of it, regardless of whether it's any good or not. Same for Daimond, and even AMT.

From what I've seen, Wilson loves bass and he spends his money there, getting progressively less expensive as the frequency range goes up. Not a bad approach really.

In the case of the Tidal diamond and midranges though, that's probably 75% of the driver cost.  Astronomical.

Seems like more should be invested in midranges than tweeters.  In any event, I'd be interested in hearing those Tidal speakers, as website seems to convey that every little thing about them is magic.  (To borrow a turn of phrase....)

@erik_squires


I would agree with Wilson philosophy.

Mid range is most important followed by bass and finally treble.

The fact is that very good tweeters can be made for about $50 and the job they do is fairly easy - so why spend more?

A good mid range and in particular a good bass is where it gets expensive because the diaphragms must move orders of magnitude in greater excursion than a tweeter.

A accurate subwoofer driver is the most expensive to build with high required Xmax, however it barely covers an octave so I would rate the subwoofer last in priority.

My theory is that expensive tweeters are popular with designers because even an expensive tweeter is cheap compared to an expensive woofer and an expensive woofer requires an expensive mid range (to match sensitivity and high SPL capability) but an expensive tweeter can be combined with any old crap and the soeaker marketed as SOTA.

Customers generally find they are fighting to buy gear that  gives them detail, transient, and spacial cues (all born of the same considerations).

Down to the point that some end up with what another may call an 'unlistenable system' due to the spacial cues being where they want them, or expect them to be, but the rest of the package tripped up or exaggerated in an uncomplimentary fashion.

When it comes to the speaker part of the equation...ultimately this may be considered to come from the tweeter and it's integration with the given mid to mid bass driver. And a whole plethora of other aspects are at play.

Getting a tweeter to do it right is no small task, and yes, this is where a decent chunk of money is going to be spent.