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Tweeters- Best ones

Morel MDT30 series are my favorites. I am partial to fabric domes. They tend to roll off quickly after 20 kHz, but I can't hear past 18 kHz, so that doesn't bother me. Clean, clear, and not overly bright.

Second in line to the Morels would be the world famous Dynaudio D28, and many of its variants.
 
baco99 said:
Morel MDT30 series are my favorites. I am partial to fabric domes. They tend to roll off quickly after 20 kHz, but I can't hear past 18 kHz, so that doesn't bother me. Clean, clear, and not overly bright.

Second in line to the Morels would be the world famous Dynaudio D28, and many of its variants.
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My old MDT28 (I think) claims to go well past 20k, and I've confirmed that by measurement. Not that it matters- I watch the meters move but can't hear a thing up there.
 
These are what I have currently. Bought them back when I was on a VERY slim budget. Dayton Audio PT2C-8 Planar Tweeter

The BG-3 only have a 20w power handling and I know I will kill them quickly. My x-overs are around 10k up for the tweeters since these are 4 way cabinets with a 2 1/4" Soft Dome Ferro-Fluid cooled mid-range which offered near tweeter like performance. I know the brightness I am experiencing now is the result of the Planar playing down much lower into upper range of the mid causing some overlap. I could try moving the x-over point up on the planar but that wont solve the lousy dispersion characteristics. Fine if you your perfectly centered. Even offset 1 ft to the left changes the entire experience.
 
super98lsc said:
These are what I have currently. Bought them back when I was on a VERY slim budget. Dayton Audio PT2C-8 Planar Tweeter

The BG-3 only have a 20w power handling and I know I will kill them quickly. My x-overs are around 10k up for the tweeters since these are 4 way cabinets with a 2 1/4" Soft Dome Ferro-Fluid cooled mid-range which offered near tweeter like performance. I know the brightness I am experiencing now is the result of the Planar playing down much lower into upper range of the mid causing some overlap. I could try moving the x-over point up on the planar but that wont solve the lousy dispersion characteristics. Fine if you your perfectly centered. Even offset 1 ft to the left changes the entire experience.
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Try toeing in the speakers more, this will dramatically widen the sweet spot. But the sweet spot will always be the best seat in the house, this can't be changed unless you're willing to go the Bose route with their direct reflected sound pattern. This was and still is their major selling point, a wider more diffuse sound field with virtually no sweet spot. Many find this type of dispersion superior to a more conventional radiation pattern, who knows maybe you will also.
 
True ribbons with out horns have a very wide dispersion pattern even above 10kHz, and are very very durable if crossed around 10k with a 12 dB/oct filter.
 
Thanks guys again. I did the toe a few weeks ago and you are correct it did make a notable difference. Does anyone have experience w the Dayton drivers? I know they are cheap and likely beneath most of us. Also interested in the without horn ribbons. I notice the AMT are highly rated but noticed the power cap is super low. I run 370w RMS per channel but of course don't listen at that level but when in the mood or had a few I don't want to worry. :-)
 
For a high powered AMT, look at the Beyma TPL-150 and TPL-200, they are quite linear too, and very efficient, designed for PA.
They may very well replace your dome as well.
 
Again thanks for all the input and advice... I went a cheaper route and ordered a matched pair of EMIT-K for $99.00 bucks. Ill try them out and may still try another pair of Scan Speak or a few of the other models/brands suggested. Once I get the listening room completed, with all the traps and such setup and rebuild my CA-3000 preamp I can then more accurately tell what is "speaker related" vs other variables. I have had the current tweeters in there for 10 years and just never liked them in any room on any amp.

Does anyone know what the EMIT-K power handling is? Cant seem to locate a spec sheet anyplace for them.
 
super98lsc said:
Does anyone know what the EMIT-K power handling is? Cant seem to locate a spec sheet anyplace for them.
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Just put an inline 1A fuse to the positive side. Not sure on the handling but they play plenty loud. At the same time are a bit fragile. Great tweeter in a small package, that Emit-K. Only Infinities I owned were the RS-4000As with the Emit-Ks. They are very nice and do have the presence thing going on. Those were good sounding little speakers and suprised the hell out of me. I will always be on the lookout for any Emitted Infinity. I recommend installing an attenuator on them to raise and lower the output to match your other drivers. At full output you might find them to be too bright or sizzly. That was the case with me. It sounds like you and I like mellow tweeters. I liked the volume at 10:00 where they were blending nicely and not fatiguing. But you can also make provisions in the crossover to tone it down if needed.
 
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Installed the EMIT-Ks today. Wow I am impressed. Very crisp clean detailed not harsh in any way at all. They don't over power anything. Very nice! Thanks to all who pitched in here on this thread. Those Dayton planar transducers I was running were just flat out obnoxious.

I will install a fuse per suggestion. Already have L-pads on both mids and highs :-)
 
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Super3-1.jpg


My personal favorite is the one in my avatar. The old and mighty Super 3. It can be used to great success in front-firing and up-firing applications. Not only is it the smoothest thing I've ever heard, but it's also got the Midas touch with all things distortion-related (with the possible exception of heavily-saturated modern metal guitars). Power tube distortion, mic' distortion, feedback, overdriven guitar speakers/cabs, etc. For '60's and early '70's classic-rock/pop, funk/soul, R&B, etc., I wouldn't choose anything else. Plus, they take average (and even less than average) recordings and make them sound like the greatest thing since sliced bread. True masters of the mundane. And with the right capacitors, they can put out a killer soundstage at some VERY-low volume levels. A seriously-addicting driver. Only catch is, they need to be at ear-level for proper performance. The original W90 has two of them, one on the far-left and one on the far-right, and it's quite a thing in action with some good tube power. WIIIDE soundstage.

I also like the Super 5 tweeter as well.
 
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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.

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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No one will believe me, but I have to call it like I see it: I am convinced that how a driver is used, and how it fits the system requirements, has at least as much to do with tweeter sonics as the make and model. There are tweeters that I have come to like a lot over the years, but this has mostly to do with consistency, reliability, ease of use, cost-performance and well-thought out specs, as anything. Just as with cars and drivers, and chefs and food, average tweeters in the hands of a pro will almost always sound better than expensive, fancy parts in the hands of a someone without training and experience.

I used to judge various amateur speaker building contests, and got to listen to the best efforts of both first-time and well-known amateur designers, year after year. Submissions invariably used very well-regarded drivers, yet it was very rare for any of the judges to find a submission that would make it on the market at any price.

I'm not meaning to be snobby. Anyone can learn to be a great speaker designer. But, you have to learn, and you have to try dozens and dozens of different designs. Most importantly, you have to hone the skills to listen very quickly, analytically and brutally, and understand exactly how to correlate listening to engineering, without philosophical biases.

If you think that the finest drivers make the finest systems, you aren't paying attention!! Ingredients are only a start.

-k
 
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