Is there any consensus on what makes a good quality tweeter (other than correct implementation and Crossover design)? Please excuse my lack of knowledge but there is a huge range of products out there. From foil to dome, metal, silk etc. Is a larger ferrite motor preferable to a small neodinium one?
What could I expect if changing an existing tweeter with a marketed as high quality item one of the same electrical specification and am I correct in assuming that even something as the wave guide will have to be taken into consideration at crossover design and can't just be added to a speaker as a replacement later on? Thank you
What could I expect if changing an existing tweeter with a marketed as high quality item one of the same electrical specification and am I correct in assuming that even something as the wave guide will have to be taken into consideration at crossover design and can't just be added to a speaker as a replacement later on? Thank you
Research indicates that the type of material used in a tweeter has no bearing on its "sound" characteristics. Of course, peaks and dips in a tweeter's response will be audible, and these can be affected by the materials used and their damping properties. As waveguides alter the frequency response and dispersion characteristics of a tweeter to which they are connected, their effects must of course be considered in any design. If they aren't as linear as they could be, the magnet motor system and suspension system will also have a bearing on a tweeter's sound quality by producing distortion components, especially at higher sound pressure levels where non-linearities are likely to present themselves.
Owing to the variations in their sound pressure and impedance frequency response functions, changing an existing tweeter for a different one will generally require a redesign of the crossover network.
Owing to the variations in their sound pressure and impedance frequency response functions, changing an existing tweeter for a different one will generally require a redesign of the crossover network.
I have used and found both Seas and Scanspeak to be excellent.
Naim use a Scanspeak D2008 series with some added damping weights on the rear. It's in it's own enclosure on my SBLs so there is no prolem with interaction with the mid/woofer.
If you just swap the tweeter with no other changes you will have more or less treble depending on the relative sensitivities and further effects on the sound if the resonance and frequency range are significantly different.
If you identify the existing ones, lookup the spec online and then try to find replacement which are not too different. Otherwise you will have to redesign the crossover.
Naim use a Scanspeak D2008 series with some added damping weights on the rear. It's in it's own enclosure on my SBLs so there is no prolem with interaction with the mid/woofer.
If you just swap the tweeter with no other changes you will have more or less treble depending on the relative sensitivities and further effects on the sound if the resonance and frequency range are significantly different.
If you identify the existing ones, lookup the spec online and then try to find replacement which are not too different. Otherwise you will have to redesign the crossover.
Clearly this is wrong and very obviously so, material acoustic properties are all important to all acoustic transducers. You then go on to contradict yourself and say material properties do affect the sound...
Quality has several dimensions - how well the design achieves good performance, and how repeatably that performance is between units, how durable and rugged the device is, and how rare manufacturing defects are. I would say you need a good design, and good QC on the production line to claim "good quality" (after all there is little point having good quality control on a poor-performing device).
I suspect you might mainly mean good performance rather than good quality... Performance is more about R&D stages, not production.
More on the topic of tweeter material having a "sound":
"When eliminating frequency and phase response irregularities, baffle and room interaction, non-linear behavior, and distance effects, a blind-comparison listening test could not reveal audible differences between different types of tweeters. Neither the material nor the actuator principle, neither the tweeters geometry nor the specific form of wave fronts in the far field could be shown to be distinctive features of different tweeter types."
The above quote was taken from the conference paper titled "Audibility of tweeter performance beyond spectrum and phase", published by A. Rotter and A. Lindau, DAGA-2010, Berlin. https://pub.dega-akustik.de/DAGA_2010/data/articles/000314.pdf
"When eliminating frequency and phase response irregularities, baffle and room interaction, non-linear behavior, and distance effects, a blind-comparison listening test could not reveal audible differences between different types of tweeters. Neither the material nor the actuator principle, neither the tweeters geometry nor the specific form of wave fronts in the far field could be shown to be distinctive features of different tweeter types."
The above quote was taken from the conference paper titled "Audibility of tweeter performance beyond spectrum and phase", published by A. Rotter and A. Lindau, DAGA-2010, Berlin. https://pub.dega-akustik.de/DAGA_2010/data/articles/000314.pdf
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I think the most important thing is not to get seduced by the very expensive tweeters. Tweeters reproduce very little music, but we spend SO much money and energy thinking about them. Personally a fan of good ring radiators and soft domes ~ $50 each, as well as good AMTs, which get expensive (because the cheap ones are not good).
I like tweeters with very smooth responses that are flat past 20 kHz. There are many of these in the $50 to $150 range so you have a very wide variety.
Agreed that the $50 to $150 is a sweet spot for good value tweeters.
In my experience, one of the key considerations is a tweeter's distortion profile. Particularly at the lower end. In a 2-way, for example, one would want to crossover to the woofer in the region where the woofer has not yet begun to beam. A driver's directivity typically narrows in the upper frequencies, and has wide dispersion in the lower region. The better tweeters have extended bandwidth on the lower end, limited by its distortion profile (distortion typically rising towards the lower end). Thus, the two drivers are better able to be matched by directivity in the crossover region.
Tweeters featuring waveguides generally benefit from the added dynamic range in the low end that the waveguide produces.
Here is a popular website that publishes performance measurements of a wide range of drivers. It has a comparison tool with which one can compare various drivers.
https://hificompass.com/en/speakers/measurements
In my experience, one of the key considerations is a tweeter's distortion profile. Particularly at the lower end. In a 2-way, for example, one would want to crossover to the woofer in the region where the woofer has not yet begun to beam. A driver's directivity typically narrows in the upper frequencies, and has wide dispersion in the lower region. The better tweeters have extended bandwidth on the lower end, limited by its distortion profile (distortion typically rising towards the lower end). Thus, the two drivers are better able to be matched by directivity in the crossover region.
Tweeters featuring waveguides generally benefit from the added dynamic range in the low end that the waveguide produces.
Here is a popular website that publishes performance measurements of a wide range of drivers. It has a comparison tool with which one can compare various drivers.
https://hificompass.com/en/speakers/measurements