SB Acoustics Textreme

Beryllium is really cheap too ;-)

I applaud SB for continuing development on the high-end drivers.
Before I'm judging the pricing, I would want to make sure it is the final price (like Oneminde says). The Satori line isn't exactly their value-for-money line either, but that doesn't mean I would be against it if they price the Textreme products as if they were NRX :p
 
Well there's absolutely nothing expensive about the textreme cone. It's carbon fibre. As cheap as they come really and not hard to manufacture either.

It might be more expensive than paper, but of course, it's only going to be a dollar or two more per cone. If that.

I think your point stands. It just comes down to whether or not the driver delivers the goods.
 
Post #54
Are you in position to mention/know how the pricing will be approached? Will it have a premium in the manner of beryllium tweeters or be more like top of the range paper cones?

Then Ulrik answered in post #55:
I don't have anything to do with pricing or sales, so I cannot give you the numbers here (though I am familiar with the price point). It is going to be somewhere in-between.

And now we are here - post #155
Pre-orders and pricing available at compacbel.be

MW16TX 249 Euro
TW29TX 219 Euro

SB Acoustics Satori TW29B cost € 275,95 through soundimports.eu while others charge north of € 300.

So looks like Ulrik did tell the truth even if he didn't give us the exact price. But again, just wana point out that its early day's so I'm not going to make a negative remark about the price, and I not sure I will do that either when the TX series is properly launched.

No matter, the Satori TX line is an option, not a demand. If you like it and want to work with or use it then you will be able too. If you don't like things, like the price, well then, you are most certainly free to stay clear of it ;)
And in response to the pricing so far, go an investigate what Accuton will charge you for some of their tweeters and midranges.
 
I would not say game changers. Similar is not same. Details details details...….
For me, how I see Satori drivers, they are synonym for balance. The looks, technical performance and the sound are here in harmony. And lets not forget reasonable price.
There was the only fly in the ointment in papyrus versions, which now seems to be solved in textreme (lets see this confirmed by some 3rd party measurements soon).
There may be drivers better in some specific parameter, but that balance is what I value.
 
I would not say game changers. Similar is not same. Details details details...….
For me, how I see Satori drivers, they are synonym for balance. The looks, technical performance and the sound are here in harmony. And lets not forget reasonable price.
There was the only fly in the ointment in papyrus versions, which now seems to be solved in textreme (lets see this confirmed by some 3rd party measurements soon).
There may be drivers better in some specific parameter, but that balance is what I value.

i understand that new products can be exciting and something to long for, but will these drivers really change that much, what will these drivers really improve that makes them exciting?
 
If the textreme actually manages to provide what the marketing stuff would indicate then the cone material will be ideal. No cone edge/surround resonance usually inherent to soft cones and the associate distortion peak. Then also no associated distortion peaks that are typically common with stiff cone drivers. It's like a marriage of the two worlds (stiff and soft cones) but without the downsides of either.

Then again SB already did that, to an extent, with their ribbed aluminium coned drivers.
 
Depends on the amount of filtering people want to use; for e.g. there are some who have an aversion to stopband notches or anything more than, say, a 2nd order electrical low pass (go figure, but to each their own).

Re the cost, in fairness it's worth noting that the material cost is rarely the cause of the end pricing; this chequerboard Textreme (to be honest, I find the appearance off-putting, but that's just my taste) may 'only' cost a couple of dollars more than the papyrus cone variations, but you've got development costs on top of that, presumably new suspension, possibly changes in the motor, and then the big one: tooling. This doesn't just magically appear, like mushrooms, nor is it cheap for large[ish] scale production units, above all when close tolerances are demanded, so usually has to be reflected in the end price. That isn't to say it represents fantastic value (or the reverse, for that matter), just noting the basic commercial realities.
 
^
Absolutely, the alu cones have a nice break-up optimization - one could actually argue that they are better than TX :) (look at the response graph).
The distortion of the alu cones are well controlled, among the best actually. Here is the 5". So if the TX has similar or better distortion as well as impulse and transient, we could see game changing drivers.

sb15nbac30-4_0.3m_2v_hpf2-50_hd.png
 
but you've got development costs on top of that, presumably new suspension, possibly changes in the motor, and then the big one: tooling. This doesn't just magically appear, like mushrooms, nor is it cheap for large[ish] scale production units, above all when close tolerances are demanded, so usually has to be reflected in the end price. That isn't to say it represents fantastic value (or the reverse, for that matter), just noting the basic commercial realities.

Yeah but all the tooling had to be setup anew for the standard SB range and they aren't expensive. The Satori range has already had its tooling and motor R&D done in the past and we've got prices on the Satori range that reflect that. The textreme versions are going to be minor modifications of the original Satori, much like when SB released the aluminium version of their standard range drivers vs the original paper. No massive price hike was necessary there, it shouldn't be here either. I just hope that we get to see more affordable cone options on the satori motor, like the aluminium cones in the standard range...that should be a very cheap alternative as the standard range already has it. Or maybe the textreme cone on the standard range replacing the rohacel version.