Can anyone explain what difference tweeter material makes?

[Hanleyster]

What are the pros and cons of each tweeter type?

Paper cone (older JBLs)
Soft dome (like vifa?)
Inverted dome, like EPI
Mylar dome like Wharfedale
Titanium dome like newer JBL

and so forth?

 

[Pio1980]

Design and execution always trumps material imo.

Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk

 

[1tumbleweed]

^^^^^^
What he said.

However, that being out of the way a comment or two:

The inverted dome, first used by EPi (AFAIK) and now also a part of Focal's arsenal, is said to decrease the tendencies of high frequencies to beam, as can happen with a conventional half-spherical tweeter.

Metal dome tweeters have a tendency to resonate in the audible range, if not designed to eliminate it. One reason I could never stand Monitor Audio speakers.

Happy trails,
Larry B.

 

[Hanleyster]

So its all BS?

 

[Tom Brennan]

So its all BS?

Not at all. Materials differ in how pistonic they are, how well they damp themselves and the frequencies at which they resonate (and how much, which gets back to damping). For example, as as been mentioned, metal tweeters, though often good at being pistonic, tend to have sharp resonances which if in the audible range can make a tweeter sound harsh, though often with excellent clarity in the range under the resonance. This resonant spike must be dealt with, either by filtering it out or by making the spike at so high a frequency it isn't heard, as in recent Monitor Audios.

Cloth diaphragms often exhibit smooth response and excellent damping but many think they have a different sound than metal ones, lacking a little clarity.

Titanium was developed originally as a compression driver diaphragm material because it fatigues less than aluminum at high power levels, thus is more reliable. But many enthusiasts think aluminum diaphragms sounds more clear and have better tone. (I don't agree but the notion is out there.)

Anyway, that's a start. I suggest you read the following by Lynn Olsen. I don't take Olsen as gospel but he's interesting. Note the article was written some years ago and should be taken for it's general ideas.

http://www.nutshellhifi.com/library/speaker-design2.html

 

[twiiii]

The answer to these questions could fill a book. Why don't you go over to Roger Russell's web site and read about speaker design and development. Its his view, but will answer many of your questions.

 

[moray james]

What are the pros and cons of each tweeter type?

Paper cone (older JBLs)
Soft dome (like vifa?)
Inverted dome, like EPI
Mylar dome like Wharfedale
Titanium dome like newer JBL

and so forth?

in terms of available bandwidth in metal (for the commonly available materials) it is titanium, aluminum, magnesium and beryllium in that order of worst to best. There are all sorts of plastic alloys and paper composites and you can find good and bad examples of any of them if you look. So there is no easy answer to your question. In pro compression drivers an aluminum is generally the best sounding for the money and the more expensive metals don't offer up much by way of bandwidth after they are properly EQed but I expect that is folks may feel different about that in a home monitoring system.

For woofers and mid drivers paper (felted paper) is still the material to beat as it is strong light and it self damps. There are more bad composites out there than good ones. There is a reason why you see so many top quality paper cones. Good ones are not cheap to make. What is it that you really want to know? Best regards Moray James.

 

[moray james]

you need to ask specific questions...

So its all BS?

but there is no shortage of BS. Shape of dome inverted or not does not make much of any difference this has been very well studies decades ago. A piston is a piston and one way or the other they break up about the same. Material choice has greater impact upon break up mode.

Do you really give a rats nut about any of this??? Most simply care about what products look cool and a very much small number care about what they sounds like. All you need to do is to purchase with your ears and you will be fine. Good stuff sounds good and it lasts a long time plus it retains its value a long time. Of course it costs you more but if you like there is all manner of cheap stuff to spend your time and money on. I prefer to try and do the end run and cut to the good stuff it is better in the long run. Best regards Moray James.