What is the Best Tweeter?

NorthStar

NorthStar

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There are so many types out there, from soft domes to metal, gold, diamond, aluminum, beryllium, ribbon, cones, ceramic, cotton, silk, AMT (Air Motion Transfer), planar magnetic (electrostatic), Film (CDT), tra-la-la ...

Which type is the best sounding; smooth, non-fatiguing, velvet, high power handling, no ringing, ...?

I checked, but nobody agree between Dynaudio Esotar and the other five-six top ones.
Some swear by soft domes, other prefer ribbons, and so on.

If you were to design a loudspeaker, say for $100,000/pair, what type of tweeter design would you consider first?

Alright, beam me up Scotty.
 
The best tweeter I have ever heard was a 30mm Accuton diamond tweeter either that or a ribbon tweeter.
 
I always have loved the tweeters on the MBL speakers.

The 7 foot high ribbons on the large genesis speakers are also awesome as the sound is the same standing up and sitting down.

I always liked the Relevator tweeter that used to be on my Strads - great " air"

not a great fan of plain ole boring soft dome like the Dynaudio's or the new Wilson's.
 
Have to say the MBL tweeter and the diamond tweeters are tops to my ears.

The Magico M3 (diamond coated beryllium) and the beryllium in the Salon 2 (with a massive wave guide on the tweeter) are also superb.

I also find Electrostats like Quad ESL to reproduce highs so beautifully and naturally with no ringing. Technically not a separate tweeter I guess, so not sure we can include it in this list??

With the right amp (300b or SET equivalent), the horn tweeter on my AG’s reproduces highs, without ringing or any “rolling off”.

But the best tweeter in the world isn’t always the easiest to integrate with the rest of the speaker. With a ribbon tweeter for example, it can often stand out from a cone driver. They’re made from different materials, often different shapes and have different sounds. So at the end of the day, “X” tweeter might be the best, but it doesn’t integrate well with the rest of the speaker.

The MBL integration is seemless. I find the tweeter on the M3’s seemless. Ditto for the AG’s.

The knock against the diamond tweeter by designers is that its too “heavy” and sounds slow. I’m not sure I agree. Maybe they’re just too expensive. :)
 
Favorite tweeter sections;

- Legacy Audio in-house designed ribbon tweeters and super-tweeters on Aeris, Whisper and the new Valor's unique tweeter with Waveguide
- TAD R1 concentric driver
- MBL 101 and above tweeter
- TIDAL Agoria and Akira tweeters
- Gauder Acoustic RC9 tweeter
 
I’ll make a shameless plug for the carbon-balsa-carbon sandwich dome tweeter on my Vandersteen 7 Mk2 speakers. The tweeter is ultra smooth, low distortion and provides outstanding detail. It also integrates seamlessly with the carbon-balsa-carbon sandwich upper and lower midrange drivers.

Other tweeters I like:
MBL 101E Mk2
Raidho D-5.1
Revel Salon 2
Magnepan 20.7

Ken
 
I’ve heard people harp on about the plasma tweeter, but I’ve never really liked it.
 
Mike said:
I’ve heard people harp on about the plasma tweeter, but I’ve never really liked it.
Click to expand...

The Corona plasma tweeter used by Lansche and Accapella is really exquisite. Very high resolution with zero hardness.

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The only problem is, as it using a string of light to create the sound, it is practically weightless. That makes it literally lightning fast, which is nice, but it is really hard to align with the other drivers, as those will always lag behind in time. Therefore coherence is a problem.

And it is kind of mesmerizing to stare into the violet light when listening to music.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
I agree the plasma tweeters sound amazing. These were at RMAF and were amazing sounding although a little off on the WAF. Don't forget about the ozone that could kill you if you sit for one of those marathon listening sessions in your closed up room!

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Yesterday I did a search first before starting this thread. I should have tried harder with different word's combinations, but I used the two words: Best Tweeter and couple more combinations with the word Audio and Speaker Driver. I even checked the Speaker Forum section, and the General Audio Forum section. I ended up empty, after roughly twenty minutes of search.

And right now I was googling some more, and I found this:
• https://www.audioshark.org/showthread.php?t=10888&p=186557&viewfull=1#post186557

That was a Google entry, yesterday I used different combinations and that entry did not appear.
So I don't mind @ all if my thread is simply added/joined together to the main thread. The last post from Norman was on April 17 of this year.
I trust Mike's best judgement.
_____

Yesterday I checked several places on the internet, for a good hour or so.
I already knew that some soft dome tweeters were expensive, $1,000-2,000 each. In this thread from Audiogon one of them costs $2,800 each!
• Accuton D20-6.

• https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/what-s-the-best-sounding-dome-tweeter-available

I am not a tweeter expert (I don't even tweet) because I didn't listen to them all and for extended periods. The ones I'm mainly using in my own systems are soft domes type; cotton, silk, and others made of Linaeum ribbon (plastic film).
But I am definitively a soft dome type...90%.
_____

* Those are inexpensive, about the same price as mine, the same shape and type, and are mentioned as good value and smooth sound.

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HIQUPHON 3/4" (20mm) soft dome tweeter.
 
You seek Heil!

Another to consider is the Rowen LMT...Linear motion technology.
 
Okay it's a bit of an old thread, but if anyone is more interested in plasma tweeters there's a lot of better info on massless.info
 
I had Lansche 4.2 with the Plasma tweeter in my system for a couple of years in case you have questions.
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Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
The question got me thinking. A couple speakers I owned the quality of the tweeter stood out, but now I have a pair of speakers I don't notice the tweeter and i'm starting to think that's better.
 
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