JBL LE25 one of the best tweeters ever made?

[BobtheBuilderMLG]

So I have a heard a couple JBLs.I have The L88, L100ti and have heard the L300. I also have heard and momentarily have had countless other brands such as the ESS AMT1, Infinity RS 5B and so on. I've built a few speakers and am a big fan of the Fountek ribbons (to me they sound excellent when crossed high).

With all that said I just can't shake the fact that out of all of the speakers I have had and heard (not a lot compared to many of you guys), I like the LE25 the best. To me, it sounds by far the most natural. The only other tweeter I would say beats it, is the Fountek ribbons, only because it has more high-end extension. I know some of the major downsides is the extension and beaming.

Does anyone else share the same experience? It seems like paper cone tweeters get a bad rap. Also, does anyone else know of some good paper cone tweeters to try out? I'm interested in hearing some more.

 

[Juhazi]

I have never heard them play, but Troels has
Vintage JBL LE20 and LE25 tweeters

 

[system7]

We like cone tweeters. I am working on one today...

That's a Visaton TW 70. Just tremendously musical sound and no real nasties like sibilance. The Monacor HT-22/8 is also a good modern sealed back contender. I haven't decided which I prefer.

Now back to work. Diyaudio is a tremendous time-waster...

 

[chrisb]

Can't disagree with your impressions of good paper cone tweeters, but they're few and far between these days, or on some brands distribution is not universal. A lot of folks are taking the approach of using smaller "Full-range" drivers (i.e. 2" or so), but those generally won't have sealed backs, so will require acoustic isolation from mid/woofers.

 

[jtgofish]

Some of the old Realistic Minimus cone tweeters were good.I had a pair of Minimus 25s in my office which sounded great.I preferred them to Rogers LS3/5a and Proac Tablettes.
The tweeters in the JBL Century L100 were probably the worst sounding tweeters I have heard.Sounded like arc welding to me .Some called it sizzle-I would call it zzzzzyzzzyzzzyk.

 

[system7]

Probably wasn't the tweeters that were offending your ears, jtgofish.

The whole thing was pretty rough... and the later JBL L100A was even worse... you were probably hearing the midrange breakup.

JBL L100 Century

Troels has done some amazing work on the JBL tweeters. He has taken the L26 to a higher level too: JBL LE26 tweeter-

But the previously mentioned article is the definitive one: Vintage JBL LE20 and LE25 tweeters

Keep the crossover above 3kHz, above the junk you can see in the waterfall, preferably third or fourth order, and those little cone tweeters sound fantastic.

The reason is that a good cone doesn't go into uncontrollable breakup. Simply that the radiating area diminishes at higher frequency.

Atkinson: You say that you think a cone tweeter might be a better way of going about it?

Marshall: Yes I do. Because when a dome goes into breakup, it's utterly, totally finished. Uncontrollable. That's it. There's nothing more to be had. When a cone goes into breakup, all that's happening, providing you can control it, is that the radiating area is diminishing. It's much easier to control that. There's a lot of work to do, of course. I wouldn't like to say that you can just take a sheet of paper and design a cone tweeter which is going to be a world-beater. But I'm sure there's a lot of scope. I shouldn't say this, should I? I should just go out and do it.

Robin Marshall: A Modicum of Genius Page 4 | Stereophile.com

I'm having a great time with my latest effort. Always admired the WLM La Scala, but just thought it needed a better crossover and a good impedance. So now it has one. And it just does everything I like in a speaker, an outstanding two-way, IMO.

I've tried metal, soft dome and mylar. They just don't sound so good. Maybe ring-radiators might be good too. But that's for another day.

 

[BobtheBuilderMLG]

Chrisb did think of that, I'll have to expand my horizons I think. I usually tend to stay away from fullrange from the lack of bass, but small fullranges in a line array open back with a highpass and a sub might be good. jtgofish I wonder if there was something wrong with the L100s, the L88s I had sounded soft and smooth and I think there the same tweeters. I noticed that system 7. I'm a fan of hard domes and there's a huge difference I think and I imagine that's the biggest factor. Thanks for the link Juhazi, really informative.

Do you guys know of any cone tweeters in a horn? I imagine that would help with the limited dispersion issues.