I gre out of Be Tweeters

@andy2

I have not heard a high end diamond tweeter, but in terms of distortion, dynamic range, lack of stored energy and smooth frequency response, the top end AMTs are world class in my mind.

I've also heard horrible AMTs so YMMV.

I doubt if you can tell one decent tweeter from another

What is the bar for decent?  If most Be are decent, then yeah, I think you can hear the difference between the best and the decent.

Change to Maggies and you will feel much better at the bar, I promise!

Hm... Interesting  because I've listened to couple of Maggies and they lack the details of the conventional drivers.

I also like the AMT tweeter in the recent versions I've heard; they seem to integrate well with other drivers, something that is tough to do with ribbon-type tweeters.  

I have recently been wondering about what I really want a tweeter to do in a system.  I've heard some systems with full or extended range drivers with and without a tweeter.  The main benefit of cutting in the tweeter in these systems was not an extension of the frequency range, but primarily a smoothing out of the overall frequency response.

I have been listening to old and new (reproductions) versions of field coil compression tweeters (Western Electric 597) and I have been taken by how little one actually notices the tweeter--one just hears a smooth and natural sound.  It is not a tweeter that adds much obvious sparkle on top, but the systems I've heard just sound better with this tweeter.  The really bad news is the cost.  These things go from about $13k a pair to near $60k (souped up G.I.P. version), and they also need a power supply for the electromagnets.

I hate all modern hard and light material tweeters including beryllium, diamond, Spendor LPZ, Tannoy super-tweeters ...
All of them sound not natural, scratchy, itchy, intrusively, whistling, tiresome.

I have recently been wondering about what I really want a tweeter to do in a system.

This is true for many. I have grown out of sparkle, and air, and that seems to correlate well with smoother FR and lower distortion (when I've been able to measure them).

That doesn't mean you should. My point here is there's something like what I call a residual sound. Like scented body wash, and in the right music, environment that can be a lot of fun.

The most natural tweets, like Troels Graveson has said, to me, disappear. They sound like they are simply not there. The best AMT's can be there, as can the best diamond, and Be, and there are a lot of soft domes and ring radiators which are not bad in these terms.