I have not compared them directly. I listen to textreme tweeters daily (TW29TXN-B) in my main system. I have occasionally listened to Be tweeters in a Revel speaker, and also to the Bliesma T25B driver in Headshake's DIY project.
Based on what I have experienced, I would be inclined to agree with HiFiCompass opinion.
Based on what I have experienced, I would be inclined to agree with HiFiCompass opinion.
Erin's Audio Corner reviewed the Perlisten 4B here:
Perlisten S4b Bookshelf Speaker Review
It uses Textreme *and* Beryllium drivers from SB Acoustics.
I can't imagine this company will last long, because their driver costs must be out-of-this-world.
Perlisten S4b Bookshelf Speaker Review
It uses Textreme *and* Beryllium drivers from SB Acoustics.
I can't imagine this company will last long, because their driver costs must be out-of-this-world.
The tweeter arrangement is particularly interesting. It looks like a beryllium tweeter in a waveguide, with upper and lower tweeters in an array. It almost seems like the upper and lower tweeters are part of a multiple entry waveguide, or perhaps just partially injecting into the waveguide? Not something we see everyday...
I first became aware of perlisten when I saw the S7T reviewed by Stereophile.
Perlisten S7t loudspeaker | Stereophile.com
The woofer arrangement is a 4-woofer 2.5 way. Like Patrick, I thought the drivers were SB Satori, and I was puzzled by the driver cost relative to the retail price: more than $4500 in drivers for the pair, but the retail price is $19k, which does not sound profitable to me. But then Augerpro reminded us the drivers are not Satori based on the look of the motor.
Interesting speaker...
I first became aware of perlisten when I saw the S7T reviewed by Stereophile.
Perlisten S7t loudspeaker | Stereophile.com
The woofer arrangement is a 4-woofer 2.5 way. Like Patrick, I thought the drivers were SB Satori, and I was puzzled by the driver cost relative to the retail price: more than $4500 in drivers for the pair, but the retail price is $19k, which does not sound profitable to me. But then Augerpro reminded us the drivers are not Satori based on the look of the motor.
Interesting speaker...
I just spent about an hour over on the Perlisten web site and I will say they look like they have some very nice offerings. The woofers look exactly like the SB's from the outside but they don't use neo mags like the SB's. I'm assuming they source the cones from the same company though. The guys over at Audioholics are going nuts over these speakers so I imagine they are pretty good.
It looks to me, as Perlisten's drivers are from Seas. Looks like a Seas basket on the woofer, and the small square faceplate on the tweeter/mids match some of Seas front plates.
Peerless does have square fram tweeters tho, but the woofer baskets doesn't look like that, only Seas does from my memory.
The stickers doesn't match Seas tho, but probably well could be by Perlisten's wishes.
Peerless does have square fram tweeters tho, but the woofer baskets doesn't look like that, only Seas does from my memory.
The stickers doesn't match Seas tho, but probably well could be by Perlisten's wishes.
Oh come on people, with regards to tweeter sound, you can make any of them sound however you wish with the crossover. Tweeters cannot sound warm, they do not play low enough to affect the sound in that way. They can make a speaker sound less warm by being tuned too hot but to add warmth themselves? Nada.
So long as two, similarly capable tweeters, such as the TX and BE domed tweeters from SB, have the same dispersion profiles they will sound almost the same.
So long as two, similarly capable tweeters, such as the TX and BE domed tweeters from SB, have the same dispersion profiles they will sound almost the same.
But in reality they won't because breakup profiles in different materials are different and they affect performance.
Silk dome tweeter vs alu dome tweeter that has a phase shield? Absolutely these will sound different and just because the off axis performance of the two is different. This is why I mentioned the dispersion, I HATE tweeters with wide dispersion, they sound awful and melt my ears off. Other people love them. If the off axis performance between two, otherwise identical, tweeters is in any way different then you're going to hear this.
The trouble with people giving their opinions on how a tweeter sounds is it's the system they are passing their opinion on, not the tweeter. Like I heard the BE tweeter in a three way at some audio event and the TX in a mates 2 way a week ago. No. You cannot use these as comparisons that mean anything.
The only way you can try and pass opinion on tweeter performance is if you've used the same tweeter in exactly the same design, used them with identical acoustic high-pass filters, in the same room, same equipment and have EQ'd the on-axis responses to within 0.1dB of one another. Otherwise you will hear differences. Differences that have nothing specifically to do with the tweeter but are to do with the implementation. Ideally you'd be able to do the swap/comparison within a couple of minutes of one another because our aural memory is that bad that anything meaningful will be forgotten between tests and you'll just be tricking yourself.
Basically buy a tweeter based on your budget and the technical properties that it possesses, ie it suits the application. You can then make it sound however you want, short of altering its dispersion, through your implementation.
The trouble with people giving their opinions on how a tweeter sounds is it's the system they are passing their opinion on, not the tweeter. Like I heard the BE tweeter in a three way at some audio event and the TX in a mates 2 way a week ago. No. You cannot use these as comparisons that mean anything.
The only way you can try and pass opinion on tweeter performance is if you've used the same tweeter in exactly the same design, used them with identical acoustic high-pass filters, in the same room, same equipment and have EQ'd the on-axis responses to within 0.1dB of one another. Otherwise you will hear differences. Differences that have nothing specifically to do with the tweeter but are to do with the implementation. Ideally you'd be able to do the swap/comparison within a couple of minutes of one another because our aural memory is that bad that anything meaningful will be forgotten between tests and you'll just be tricking yourself.
Basically buy a tweeter based on your budget and the technical properties that it possesses, ie it suits the application. You can then make it sound however you want, short of altering its dispersion, through your implementation.
Totally agree that it is very hard to describe the sound of a driver separately from the system in which it is used. Especially a tweeter. The system response and radiation pattern is what we hear.
I also feel that it is more important to spend money on woofer (and midrange driver) performance rather than tweeter performance. If you have to save some money, the tweeter is often the best place to do it. There is less difference between a good $50 tweeter and a good $100 tweeter than there is between a good $50 6" driver and a good $100 6" driver.
I also feel that it is more important to spend money on woofer (and midrange driver) performance rather than tweeter performance. If you have to save some money, the tweeter is often the best place to do it. There is less difference between a good $50 tweeter and a good $100 tweeter than there is between a good $50 6" driver and a good $100 6" driver.
I tried the Bliesma T34B against the Seas DXT on top of a MW16TX at a friend's place in separate boxes. I clearly liked the DXT instead of the Bliesma - mainly because the Bliesma sits on top of the faceplate, "illuminating" the room with reflections all over. The DXT gave a much more precise and centered sound stage with that nice phantom center I like. This is why I replaced my RS125 as midrange and kept the tweeter.
We of course measured and EQ'ed before we switched around. I know it's not blind... but I'm very pleased with the Textreme/DXT combo - I just chose the MW13TX, since I found it theoretically easier to mate with the DXT and obtain a smoother directivity. Crossover is LR4 at 2kHz.
Maybe it's difficult to see, but there are three lines - one for on-axis, 20 and 45 degrees.
No smoothing and simply lifted the speaker up in the middle of the room and using gating with around 3ms window - duvet on the floor
We of course measured and EQ'ed before we switched around. I know it's not blind... but I'm very pleased with the Textreme/DXT combo - I just chose the MW13TX, since I found it theoretically easier to mate with the DXT and obtain a smoother directivity. Crossover is LR4 at 2kHz.
Maybe it's difficult to see, but there are three lines - one for on-axis, 20 and 45 degrees.
No smoothing and simply lifted the speaker up in the middle of the room and using gating with around 3ms window - duvet on the floor
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This mirrors my experience too. All the extra off-axis energy of a naked tweeter creating reflections that muddle up the imaging accuracy. Adding in a wave-guide, even just a small one, helps to reduce this significantly. I'm sure you'd enjoy waveguides even bigger than the DXT if you're anything like me.
Precisely 👍 I've already bought a set of SB26ADC to try out with a printed waveguide by Augerpro. The SB TW29TX seems to be a nice tweeter... but the waveguide is to small to really do much.