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Tweeters- Best ones

super98lsc

super98lsc

Well-Known Member
So I have been building speakers for 28 years or so. I can hear perfectly still at my 40+ age still over 22KHz in both ears. (shocking since I am a drummer as well) but always wore ear protection.

My main set which never cease to surprise me or anyone that hears them after 30 years is a home built set my father and I designed back in 83 and completed in 85. They are very well engineered with crossovers we modeled in the sidescan sonar lab at the aerospace company my father was a VP for back in the day. Hes a physicist and EE. We had some help from few PHD types as well.

There is the short story... we used radial horns in them original which had a -3db directly behind the driver in the test chamber. About 10 years ago one of them died on me so I swapped in these planar transducers and calibrated the x-over frequency to match. They are just flat obnoxious and extremely focused/directional. You have to be in "the Zone" or they just disappear.

Listening to my Polk Monitor 10's with the original Peerless, these really are clean impressive tweeters.

The Question:
Who makes the best, cleanest, not bright annoying, tinny tweeter of death treble that can handle some decent power? I was thinking of just finding some used Peerless units, however if there are better cleaner options I am open to that as well.

-R
 
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My guess is it depends?

you want a horn tweeter? ribbon?

in the horn world, TAD's are pretty well respected (though they have NO respect for your wallet!!)

I once heard some electrostatics that where very open/airy.... but had nowhere near the dynamics of horns. I'm a dynamics kinda guy so I like horns (and have TAD's)
 
If you want to go with horn loaded true ribbons, there are not many options, and they tend to not have high power handling.
They are however excellent tweeters!

Horn loaded:
GAMMA/Jordanov/Vissokogovoriteli VLD-12/13/40
DECCA DK30 and London

Non horn loaded:
Transmission Audio
Raven
RAAL
Howard Dawson HRL-1
Expolinear NDRL-1 and 2
GAMMA/ATD/Vissokogovoriteli VLD-80/VLDD-80

For cheaper alternatives go for Aurum Cantus or Fountek, but they can't keep up with the ones mentioned above.
 
Geez, there are so many! A few that come to mind are JansZen, SEAS, Scanspeak, Decca and ESS Heil. Focal inverted dome and Infinity Emits are good too.

My favorites are the SEAS 19 or 25 TAF/G and the JanZen electrostatic tweeters. They are very laid back- both of them.
 
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Well I am not stuck on ribbons at all. From what I have seen both ribbons/planar have terrible distortion characteristics which create that "open airy" sound. I like dynamics for certain. I will check out the TAD's. Thanks guys for the quick replies. The planar units I have now are just obnoxious.
 
super98lsc said:
Well I am not stuck on ribbons at all. From what I have seen both ribbons/planar have terrible distortion characteristics which create that "open airy" sound. I like dynamics for certain. I will check out the TAD's. Thanks guys for the quick replies. The planar units I have now are just obnoxious.
Click to expand...

Ribbons and planar drivers have little in common, and it's also common for true ribbons to have very low distortion indeed, mostly even order harmonics.
What gives them their airy sound is the extremely low mass of the ribbon giving them extremely fast transient response and extended upper frequency range.

Take the VLD-12's for example, they distort less then 0.6% at 10w 2.4-40kHz.

Yes some (Fountek and Aurum Cantus) ribbons do distort as much as your garden verity dome, but those use "multi turn" ribbons, with more then one conductive layer.
This increases power handling and efficiency, but also increases the mass of the ribbon and ruins the sound.

The ones I listed are all die hard true ribbons (except the Expolinear, I'm not sure about that one), they use a single conductive layer, distort very little, and sound as if they where not there at all.

I use the VLD-12's my self, they don't sound like anything, it's like no sound comes out of them, but they certainly do make sound.
 
When it comes to a soft dome tweeter the Hiquphon 20mm are my favorite.
I have used some of the Dynaudio and Seas domes but prefer the Hiquphon.
The off axis dispersion and life like sound is very musical.

I prefer the version with ferrofluid for it's high power handling.

http://www.ellisaudio.com/hiquphon.htm

http://www.ellisaudio.com/hiqcomments.htm

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super98lsc said:
So I have been building speakers for 28 years or so. I can hear perfectly still at my 40+ age still over 22KHz in both ears. (shocking since I am a drummer as well) but always wore ear protection.
-R
Click to expand...

Really!!? Given My small experiences in Physiology. I claim bull OR ,you sir must be a Mutant... X man?
Typical human Male is genetically predisposed to be at (if Lucky) about 16 khz by age 40, the occaisional sheltered life aberation is at 18Khz.
Driving about with the drivers' window down reduces top end acuity by a couple of thousand khz.. at least.
22khz is simply beyond human design limits. despite claims.
 
Mutant, actually was supposed to be 20KHz phone typo. I Just had a hearing test on Sunday surprised me as well. I have always been able to hear very high frequencies. I have a signal generator as well in my lab and ran it ip to 19.9Khz last night verified on my HP freq counter. Could hear it fine in both ears. I do have some loss in 1 ear around 4k -1.5db down. Your correct beyond 20k zilch.
 
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Back to tweeters. The true ribbon statement I agree the low mass is the key. The issue I have is the power handling ability. Fearful I'll melt them down. Those peerless in my old monitor 10s in my lab are surprising. Very clean and detailed even off axis. Softer on my ears even at higher volume levels.
 
super98lsc said:
Back to tweeters. The true ribbon statement I agree the low mass is the key. The issue I have is the power handling ability. Fearful I'll melt them down.
Click to expand...

Yes that is a problem, however, ribbons are easily (and cheaply) replaced in GAMMA (Vissokogovoriteli), DECCA and Howard Dawson tweeters, donno about the others (Howard Dawson sells replacement ribbons compatible with those models).
But it all depends on the crossover point, if crossed high enough, and powered by an amp that doesn't clip and doesn't output any DC, then the ribbons will probably outlast your woofers, the tweeter it self will probably outlast you.
 
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