Diamond drivers


Out of curiosity I was wondering why diamond speaker units seem to be on the rise. Brands like Marten Design and B&W and many more are selling speakers with diamon tweeters. So what does make a diamond tweeter so good? Or is it just marketing hype. Although I doubt Janzen en Accuton are just making diamond tweeters for marketing reasons.

Yesterday evening I spend two and a half hours listening to the new Raidho D-1 speakers, they use a ribbon tweeter and a diamond mid/bass unit. I have to say this is the best monitor speaker I have ever heard. It is also a 17.000euro monitor speaker so for that price it better be very good.
mordante
Dracule1 no I report it as I hear it. Sure home editions could change the outcome, but I heard enough of them in enough rooms with different equipment to base my own conclusions. I have been at enough shows to get a basic flavor for things. It is how I hear it and I am not discouraging anyone from listening on their own. They are not my cup of tea.
Okay. I've heard them at shows myself and haven't been impressed either. But get them in a proper audio room, and the sound can be transformative.
Diamond tweeters are for real. While they do make for good marketing and unfortunate price increases, they deliver.
I have owned the following loudspeakers over the last ten years: B&W CDM1, CDM2SE, CDM1NT (Aluminium tweeters), Jamo Concert 8 and 11 (Silk dome tweeters), 804S (Aluminium tweeter), 803D and 803Diamond (Diamond tweeters).
As context for my observations: I am very sensitive to any tweeter harshness.
I like the silk dome tweeters, but not so much Aluminium dome tweeters - they tend to have a residual metallic sound. The better Aluminium versions will only occasionally highlight a distortion artefact, as opposed the less accomplished versions which are almost unbearable after a few minutes.
However the diamond tweeters are clearly superior: better transient response, cleaner, more precise sound-staging, transparent to quality of recording and audio equipment, consistent sound quality across their frequency span. And yet they are easy on the ears - I can listen for hours without fatigue to the 803D and 803Diamond loudspeakers.
I have heard many other loudspeakers at dealers with different tweeter technologies including Beryllium and Ribbon. I haven't heard anything at dealer that would indicate an obvious weakness with the B&W Diamond tweeters. However, as always, a definitive comparison will require extended home auditions.
You are right about the pleasant sound of the Diamond tweeters. But there is more than only the tweeters. The biggest problem B&W has is that they still not make great filters. Wenn you do a test for depth and how wide the stage is, B&W is quite poor. This was the main reasson why I did not want to continue with B&W. I owned the 802N and 800S. The new series still have this problem. Depth ann a wide stage are one of the most excitings parts of highend audio. Wenn this is not that exeptional good, you miss a lot of excitement during listening to your favorite music.
Dracule1
I think the new diamond mid/bass driver is ground breaking. No one else has done what Raidho has with diamond. But I will hold off on judgement of the sound until I hear the D1.

Ground breaking indeed and a complete sonic treat. I have the Raidho D-Series under audition at home at the moment and I maintaining a blog that can be found HERE. Raidho is the only company of Know of that builds its own diamond coated bass woofers.