Looking for tweeter: dynamic sound, good tone.

I am building monitors with the Vifa ne123 4" as mids. I like this vifa.

I am looking for a tweeter that is going to have dynamic, impactful sound and a nice rich tone. Something between the sound of a compression horn tweeter and a large soft dome and still bearable for long term listening.

I tried the vifa ne19vts 3/4" soft dome. Garbage sound that is like dragging a stick across a cyclone fence. Tizzy soft and zero tone. This is the opposite of what I want.

Tried Morel CAT 378. Better but I'd want a bit more impact, and it's still slightly tizzy.

Any recommendations? Hard domes that are not harsh?

appreciate your help.
Herman
 
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Any recommendations?
Herman

Hi Herman,

You have made qualifications about products without any mentioning
how or what you did to overall design.

I guess you must be doing something very wrong. Small Vifa type tweeters
are meant for MTM designs, usually come with weaker motors so their Qts
is higher making the response not smooth and in combination with the wrong
filter, I guess a bad sound is only natural.
 
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I've got DMS-37's (predecessor of the CAT-378) I originally only had a single cap on them. with nominal 2.8Khz 12db / octave acoustic slope.

They did come unstuck at higher levels with "dense" music (specific recordings only). I think it was primarily IM distortion caused by too much low level signal getting through to them. edit: there is the possibility though that it was actually the breakup in the mids rather than the tweeters, I've just always thought it was the tweeters causing the issue!

I ended up going with a 4th order acoustic at 2.8Khz and it cleared up the problem.

Tony.
 
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What type of capacitor are you using?

Start out by picking up some low values, like 3.0uF. You can always add some cheaper caps to get you to your target.

The Clarity MR 400V series is very nice sounding.
Jantzen Superior Z, or the Jupiter line are also nice.

Once you've heard the difference a good cap makes, especially on the tweeter, you'll be hooked.
 
Using a dsp crossover so any slope and freq is possible. I would say that the vifa ne123 mid has good dispersion up to 5-5.5k
Morel cat 378 is not bad to my ears and is a step in the needed direction. Has anyone experienced neo3 or good metal domes or domesticated compression tweeters?
 
<snip> there is the possibility though that it was actually the breakup in the mids rather than the tweeters, I've just always thought it was the tweeters causing the issue!

I ended up going with a 4th order acoustic at 2.8Khz and it cleared up the problem.

Tony.


I'm down with Tonys experience, I've had zero complaints with low Fs = 700Hz Morel 28mm domes, & I bought a case load of them.
perhaps a well placed notch filter in the mid can knock the HF hash down.
 
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Since its introduction in the '90's(?), I've never lusted over any other tweeter as much as the Peerless HDS, today known as 'ScanSpeak Discovery D2608/913000.'
What's not to like? And it's not even $80! Attached are Zaph's distortion test:
 

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Since its introduction in the '90's(?), I've never lusted over any other tweeter as much as the Peerless HDS, today known as 'ScanSpeak Discovery D2608/913000.'
What's not to like? And it's not even $80! Attached are Zaph's distortion test:

You've seen Dave Pellegrenes waveguides for that tweeter?

https://plus.google.com/photos/101632266659473725850/albums/5803783166911314161?banner=pwa

Might reduce distortion even further and give you controlled dispersion.
 
Comparing a good compression tweeter on a horn with a 3/4" soft dome tweeter I have, there is a big difference, at low listening levels. Soft dome sound like static electricity from your sweater. No tone, no dynamics, no impact. The crossover make no difference -- I tried everything, different slopes, freq, EQ etc on my DSP processor.

The Morel CAT 378 is a bit better! I am not specifically looking for low Fs.
Anyone try the SEAS Prestige 27TBCD/GB-DXT ?
https://www.madisoundspeakerstore.com/horn-tweeters/seas-prestige-27tbcd/gb-dxt-h1499-tweeter/

How about Neo3 or Audax metal tweeters?
 
The Morel CAT 378 is a bit better! I am not specifically looking for low Fs.
Anyone try the SEAS Prestige 27TBCD/GB-DXT ?
https://www.madisoundspeakerstore.com/horn-tweeters/seas-prestige-27tbcd/gb-dxt-h1499-tweeter/


no low Fs merely provides some extra assurance that yer tweetr HPF is isn't doing bad things. I think you missing the point, the extra sounds yer complaining about could be from another source. switching parts ad nauseum?
a lot of time the midbass uses the acoustical LPF + the crossover LPF for the final response, when using wider band mid drivers you lose something.
 
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You've seen Dave Pellegrenes waveguides for that tweeter?

https://plus.google.com/photos/101632266659473725850/albums/5803783166911314161?banner=pwa

Might reduce distortion even further and give you controlled dispersion.

Thanks for showing me!
I think kids today don't appreciate the significance of the 1 inch HDS tweeter having a moving mass that is HALF that of any other 1inch dome. (Prove me wrong.) And then 1mm linear p-p xmax? Ironically its sound is characterless, thin, and forgetful -- which is just what one wants!
 
I am building monitors with the Vifa ne123 4" as mids. I like this vifa.

I am looking for a tweeter that is going to have dynamic, impactful sound and a nice rich tone. Something between the sound of a compression horn tweeter and a large soft dome and still bearable for long term listening.

I tried the vifa ne19vts 3/4" soft dome. Garbage sound that is like dragging a stick across a cyclone fence. Tizzy soft and zero tone. This is the opposite of what I want.

Tried Morel CAT 378. Better but I'd want a bit more impact, and it's still slightly tizzy.

Any recommendations? Hard domes that are not harsh?

appreciate your help.
Herman

Tone? What is that? An instrument has "tone". A transducer, unless horribly flawed or very poorly implemented in the loudspeaker should have no "tone". Tone is one of those words that is flouted by snake oil salesman that won't stand behind other words that can be measured and compared, like those that characterize the time or frequency domain response in a standardized way.

Also, the fact that you invoke "tone" seems to suggest that you are the type of experimenter that tries to do everything "by ear". Is that true? My experience is that the experimenter or tinkerer have no real "data" to present about the sound because they don't gather any. It's all personal "feelings" about the sound. I say: Measure, measure, measure. If there is something that your measurements can't seem to explain, then you are probably not making enough measurements (in room, quasi-anechoic, on and off axis, impulse, etc. etc.) or not making the right measurements that would illuminate the problem. The experimenter/tweaker uses heuristics and can sometimes get things to work but is completely flummoxed when the "tried and true" methods don't work. Must be the driver!

I am looking for a tweeter that is going to have dynamic, impactful sound and a nice rich tone.
Really... a tweeter with a "rich tone"???! WHAT IS THAT?