Ribbon Tweeter Wave Guide removal?

[deanxxx]

Hi,

I have some Beston Ribbon Tweeters that I'm going to use in an Open Baffle design. I just wondered if I should keep the plastic wave guide in place or remove it? What would be the effect on the sound and output? I guess it will narrow the dispersion somewhat but would it improve it in other ways?

This is the driver:
http://www.ribbonspeaker.com.tw/RT002A-dipolar 010213.pdf

This is the project I'm building:
http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/multi-way/210134-ribbon-ob-tl-hybrid-w-o-xos.html



Thanx in advance for your help,
Dean.

 

[mrkennyk]

I have some FR and distortion grafts here: http://http://http://techtalk.parts...-Beston-RT002A-Dipolar/page2&highlight=RT002a
Hope it helps.

 

[mrkennyk]

Reposting link: Beston RT002A Dipolar

 

[DF96]

When you say 'waveguide' do you mean horn? If so, that is probably an important part of the tweeter design - it provides acoustic impedance matching between the ribbon and the air in the room.

 

[AndrewT]

A horn can increase the moving element efficiency from lows of around 0.1% to 2% to anywhere in the range 5% to 50%.

That efficiency increase comes from the acoustic loading being very much larger than the element's electrical resistance.

A ribbon is typically very low electrical resistance.
Without the "horn" the ribbon is likely to be overloaded. Especially if one were to turn up the volume to bring back the missing treble.