All about tweeters
Subscribe to Ask Paul Ask a QuestionAlmost every loudspeaker in the world features a tweeter for the highs, but which are the best? Soft dome, hard dome, diamond, etc. Senior loudspeaker designer Chris Brunhaver of PS Audio gives us the lowdown.
Have you ever listened to a JBL 077 Slot radiator (compression driver internally)? Mine are part of my JBL L-300 and JBL 4343 and are used on many other large JBL Studio monitors.
I wonder how it is possible to discuss about the performance of tweeter without having defined the frequency range the tweeter has to cover and without considering the phase shift at the crossover point between woofer and tweeter. I guess it is nearly impossible to get a perfect match between a “massless” plasma tweeter (which generally plays above 7 kHz) and the associated woofer. The most convincing argument I heard concerning the selection of different drivers for a multi-way speaker was: the most important driver must cover the complete frequency range of a human voice! For deep bass or organ power you can add (active) subwoofers. This probably is the main reason for my preference of crossoverless single driver widebanders. Maybe some can explain the audible effect of a tweeter on perceived sound quality when playing above 12 kHz while my ears today only recognize sine-wave tones below 12 kHz. Some 35 years ago I could perceive 19 kHz from a vinyl test record. However who knows which spectrum of tone was finally generated by the speakers fed with the 19 kHz sine wave from a cartridge-tonearm-platter system most prone for self-oscillation. (Today I enjoy my system far more than 35 years ago despite the hearing loss!)
2The Focal inverted dome originally developed by Winslow Burhoe at EPI could be the best tweeter on the market. They can handle a lower crossover point into a first order crossover which allows them to act as an upper midrange as well as a tweeter driver providing very nice energy, speed, and seamless dispersion of sound in this critical area making for great 2 way speaker’s. Human Speaker’s use these tweeters in their own design or for the old EPI speaker’s. They rebuild them with the original material or aluminum diaphragms.
I have two pares of Avantone Pro Studio Monitors hooked up to two vintage Fisher tube stereo receivers in my bed room.
Both pares of monitors, uses the AV10-HFM tweeters and the AV10-LFM woofers.
If you want to look these up,you can look them up at:
http://www.avantonepro.com
The tweeters are soft domes.