Proac SuperTower replace metal tweeter

[ducchau68]

Hi all Speaker DIY Expert...I have just a question regarding the metal dome tweeter in the Proac SuperTower. Mind you this is not the Proac SUPER TOWER MARK II. Hence, the original SuperTower has a metal dome tweeter that is very strident and harsh to listen to.

I was wondering is there anyone who has done this before or have any idea if I can find a soft or silk dome tweeter that I can replace or plug into the Proac to reduce the harsh sound,at the same time maintain the same crossover and box. This speaker is really good. Frequency across the board is nicely flat and imaging is good. Only bad thing was just what I mentioned above ( strident , harsh voice, where you can hear the hiss sound at the end of a voice, especially female).

I remember that even Stuart Tyler of Proac has to replace these tweeter later on with some kind of silk dome Seas driver because the metal domw tweeter was unbearable. THanks so much, Ducchau. If you can see all of Proac's later model uses soft dome tweeter.

The other drivers are pair of mid-woofer ScanSpeak. I don't want to clog up the discussion so much, but I'd also like to know in case I need to replace the mid-woofer, what driver would I be able to use. Remember this speaker is vintage , around the late 80's.

[sreten]

Hi,

more information would be useful, and you cannot change the
bass/mid units without doing the crossover design from scratch



The tweeter looks like an Isophon or ITT to my eye.

http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showd...number=270-035

could be worth trying. Square flanged tweeters are very rare.

http://www.visaton.com/en/high_end/h...sm25ffl_8.html

See : http://www.zaphaudio.com/tweetermishmash/

/sreten.

[sdclc126]

Bear in mind that metal cone/dome material does not in itself make for a poor sounding transducer - it's the overall design of the unit including the motor; there are lots of lousy soft dome tweeters out there too.

When you evaluate a driver, look at frequency response and distortion characteristics rather than diaphragm material.

Poorly designed crossovers can result in harsh sound also, if driver FR and resonance peaks have not been addressed; tweeters will distort when crossed too low.

[Nanook]

cut out a metal plate to the same specifications as the proac tweeter plate. Then select a tweeter with similar x-over needs, but perhaps a newer style silk dome. Generally the newer designs sound better and can be crossed over at lower frequencies. so the real requirement is to find out what was used in the loudspeaker and find something with the same Thiel Small parameters as required.

Madisound used to have a "drop in replacement list" for some common replacements.

[ducchau68]

I know that metal dome or soft dome are both subject to a good cross over network. However, for the size of my listenning room ( which is pretty small), I get a lot of sounding boucing off the walls and glass so I was just thinking of a simple way that will reduce the brightness without changing the room.

So since the a newer version of Proac SuperTower, Stuart Tyler uses a soft dome tweeter and the claim from everyone is less strident, less harsh. I want to be able to find out the exact model of that Seas driver. But then again , of course , Seas probably don't make it anymore. Still I just wanted to find out more.

Sorry for another stupid question, but since there are so many DIY projects on the Proac Res 2.5, would it make sense for me to even consider putting in the tweeter driver from the Response 2.5 into my Proac SuperTower. I guess not, right ? Thanks ahead of time. Ducchau.

[ducchau68]

Nanook, would you happen to have the Madisound URL ? Or Madisound still have that list of "drop in replacement" ? I think that is a great marketing tool. Thanks for all the response...Ducchau