I gre out of Be Tweeters


I was at a bar the other day (well probably yesterday .... hahahah)


In any event, I was discussing how much my taste in beer has changed. I started with lagers, especially Mexican brands. Then I became a Guiness snob, and then I went over to IPAs and Belgian Abbey-style ales. Now while I can tolerate a lager, I can't stand a Belgian white at all. 


What makes me think of this here is tweeters. There was a short period of time when I thought I loved Be tweeters. I've grown completely out of them. I don't particularly like the "affordable" diamond tweeters either. I'm done.


What about you? Is there a technology you liked  earlier in this hobby and now have turned completely against?
erik_squires
Agree!!!!   Initially I was in love with a couple speakers that had BE tweeters and was chomping at the bit to get my hands on a particular brands.  Then I spent more time with them.  

With a couple exceptions/implementations I find beryllium tweeters to be a bit forward and by extension, radically limiting in terms of amp choice.  They offer a ton of detail but at the price of being fatiguing.  With one exception, I doubt I could live with them long term.  I know a lot of folks really like them but they are not for me.

This resulted in me opting for a ceramic/magnesium composite tweeter for my higher end speaker.  Assuming a rigid enough cabinet, it delivers all the detail of a beryllium without being fatiguing.  


Recognizing that everything is a matter of taste, I've heard things that I thought were good and bad with ALL examples of basic speaker technology and driver materials, so I wouldn't avoid anything in particular.  There are certain particular technology/materials that I tend not to like, but, even then, there are exceptions.  I am actually amazed with how wide a variety of approaches to design are available and have their fans.  If any particular design were outright superior, the market would have converged on that approach, but, that has not been the case. 

Even more amazing to me is how viable REALLY OLD gear is in direct comparison with anything currently available.  I have yet to hear a midrange driver that I would take over a 1939 Western Electric 713b compression driver and a decent horn.  

As for all of the rest of audio gear, I cannot think of any one particular design that I would categorically reject.  There are designs and types that I tend to prefer (low-powered tube gear), but, that does not mean anything else is crap to me.  I really like the sound of tape recordings, but, I would never own a tape machine because I am way too lazy to thread tape; aside from this, I could adopt anything.
I had a lovely Class G Hitachi sr-804 receiver for many years but as time went on it got a bit long in the tooth for whatever reason.

I was enamored with Heil Air motion transformers back when I first started but gave up on them when they kept getting fried.

I also punted with tubes in my DAC.

Class D has pretty much supplanted Class A/B in my house over the last few years.
I have a pair of Focal 1008 BE monitors that I've paired with my ARC VSI55 and my Peachtree Nova 300 integrateds, and I've been very happy with both combinations.  I started out with (and still have many) Klipsch speakers, so to me the BE tweeters are pretty easy to listen to, especially with the Peachtree, which is just slightly rolled off on top compared to my other gear.  I might get tired of them eventually, that seems to happen with much of my gear.
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