Beryllium Tweeters

Melbguy, interesting you mentioned those when you did. A pair came up for sale local but the reviews I pulled up said they were the best speaker, or the worst, depending on the recorded material and music...

Runnin, good to see that you found a synergy in your system. When I got the Sig 2's I had already dialed in a nice synergy with the rest of my setup so I never experienced the overly bright sound that Bifwayne and Bacardi are experiencing at times. My sig 2's sounded sooo good, to me, and I don't like really bright sounding systems.

Toddnkaya, I love Vapor speakers...Amazing!

I think I will eventually try some Decappos or get another pair of Sig 2's once I climb higher up the ladder. I was just trying to figure out some more reasonable priced speakers that have that delicate and airy treble that my Sig 2's gave me. I agree with Runnin when he says that the vocals are just awesome!

The beryllium tweeter on the DeCapo is well implemented, no brightness or harshness but they were a bit bright when I first heard them and when I got them home. It was my impression at the time that it was a break-in issue and this has turned out to be true. What is noteworthy is that these speakers will reveal issues with recordings that are closely miked and exacerbate that fact. Not that they are intrinsically bright but some instruments, like flute or even piano at certain frequencies can sound peaky on such recordings. But no brightness and praise NO harshness whatsoever. I agree with Rebbi, they are just wonderful communicators with zero fatigue factor which would indicate in itself that the tweeter is doing it's job.

@Tubegroover ... I agree and said pretty much the same above. Some of the source material is simply horrible and a good system may reveal those deficiencies as tonal harshness.

As I said above, I'm pretty sure my rig is capable of generating a reasonably flat, reasonably time coherent FR with low distortion, as corrected by my DEQX PreMATE. So ... by process of elimination, I think it is a fair inference that any perceived tonal harshness is not caused by my speakers' BE tweeters but is attributable to the source material.

01-09-15: Rebbi
The Reference 3A line now uses BE tweeters across the range. I have the De Capo BE's, but the Dulcet BE's would fall into your price range and they're marvelous.

Although the classic Yamaha speakers I mentioned are capable of terrific sound paired with smooth, tube-like or tubed amps they might prove a bit bright paired with some ss amps and front ends. Having spent the afternoon researching good value BE speakers, i'm in agreeance with Rebbi on this one, the Reference 3A MM De Capo BE monitors are a steal. You could pick up a mint near new pair 2nd hand within your price range. Their already good bass can be augmented by investing in a good pair of stands such as Sound Anchors or Taoc. And their high efficiency means you can also use a wide range of tube amps including SET's. I might even pick up a pair one day for a desktop setup in my study. Count me impressed!

B limo, If you are prepared to look beyond BE dome tweeters, I would also consider a 2nd hand pair of Penaudio Cenya monitors which sound natural, resolving and musical. They also happen to look beautiful. Their size is also suitable for high end desktop setups. I've got my eye on a pair of Cenya Signatures. The Cenya Sig's are more comparable in size to the Ref 3A Dulcets, therefore giving you the flexibility to switch between your desktop setup and a pair of stands which could be fun!