What is the best tweeter you have heard to date?

treitz3

....for pinpoint imaging and spatial locational cues? If you don't mind, what gear was it associated with?

FTGV

The ribbon tweets in the(now defunct) Clements Little D's and RT7s.

Dennis Gardner

In an electrostatic design my fave is the Quad ESL-989, in a ribbon, its hard to beat the Burmeister B99. In a conventional driver design, the diamond tweeters in the B&W 800 models had the best pinpoint imaging for me, in a short listening session, but I found that for longer listening pleasure, for me such imaging takes away from the overall enjoyment of getting involved in the musical performances. For those reasons I prefer the old "sticky" dome of my ADS L1230 for longer sessions. Its laid back, non pretentious nature allow me to focus on the performance not the speaker.

I guess this is where I find that I fall into a cursed area of being educated in musical performance along with my chosen vocation of live sound installs are in conflict with each other at times. Too much to focus on for my tired, old head.....

megasat16

Heard? No! Want? Yes!

https://www.madisound.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=1039

Dennis Gardner

megasat16 wrote: »

Heard? No! Want? Yes!

https://www.madisound.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=1039

Nice of them to give a 10% discount on a $29k order of those. You do know that you could have all of those shipped in a small box for around 10 bucks....

FTGV

James these are really what you want. http://www.raalribbon.com/products_flatfoil_70-10.htm

megasat16

Dennis Gardner wrote: »

Nice of them to give a 10% discount on a $29k order of those. You do know that you could have all of those shipped in a small box for around 10 bucks....

True! I think the shipping insurance will cost more than the shipping cost. :eek:

FTGV wrote: »

James these are really what you want. http://www.raalribbon.com/products_flatfoil_70-10.htm

Yep. I agree. It's No. 4 on my short list. Mike got a pair and I think he is building a pair of manly ribbon monitors.

TNHNDYMAN

The Heil Tweeter in the ESS AMT1A's is my favorite to date

leftwinger57

To tnhndyman, boy you just brought back some memories for me. If were talking the taller pyramid shaped w/ passive woofeer and that tweeter radiater on top that to was at a time my absolute favorite speaker for the mid 70s. At first when 901s came out and were all the rage I did not buy into them but when I heard the Heils teamed w/ a MacIntosh 2105 ,c-28 pre and a Dual tt it was pure audio heaven. I did see a few pairs on the Bay go for over $4-500 and up but what a speaker. The Heil tweeter was a very novel design that worked well and lastd.

steveinaz

The Scanspeaks in my Carbon 7's: https://www.madisound.com/store/product_info.php?manufacturers_id=148&products_id=912

Conradicles

While I have heard better, this is probably my favorite one I have personally owned and it lives in the LSi9.

The ring radiator tweeter...

DeadFeat1

The tweeters in the Allison line of speakers were awesome. Unfortunately, the company is gone. Many people have kept their Allison speakers for years and buy up any tweeters they can find. I have the Allison Fours...

george daniel

for me it was the lanasche,,I think it's a plasma tweeter--it just seems to get it right

dorokusai

treitz3 wrote: »

....for pinpoint imaging and spatial locational cues? If you don't mind, what gear was it associated with?

The true ribbon in the Magnepan 3.6R, using my CTC, Wadia 581 and Cary SLP-98 SE. It's the best rig I've owned to date and will definitely do it again.

reeltrouble1

I am still hooked on Sound Lab Stats my are Millenium series which is the same as the next level as far as the panel and backplates along with the MF tube Kw, BAT-pre, Wolcotts and MIT, the treble on this panel takes gobs of power as it dips severely to the +-1 ohm range but the seemless sound just has me.

Since the Wolcotts will one day be totally extinct I will change the amps but have no desire to change the speaker and this is by far the longest I have had a rig unchanged....well, I did use an Esoteric Player for a while with it which was quite nice but eventually left as I sold it to another member.

RT1

stuwee

Best ever with these ears was the infamous Plasmatronics at a stereo shop in St. Louis about '79 or '80, they had just got them in, man were they awesome :eek:,they were hooked up to an amp designed by the dude who made the speakers, playing a MFSL Lp of DSOTM on a AR turntable, I can't remember the cartridge, but I remember the sound very well, the alarm bells on 'Time' made everyone in the room Jump then :biggrin:'s set in, I was with my Dad and a friend, yeah we were a little buzzed, but still, they just were almost as unreal as they looked, smelled and cost :eek:!! Probably where my fetish with 'stats came from. http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/25/plasmatronics-helium-driven-speakers/

I've got older Martin Logan's Sequel now, and with the right recording they can get the 'tings' on the hi-hats just about perfect, and the Hammond B-3 too, the B-3 is a great test of your highs to upper mids.

I've also got some JBL L-56's with the '034' tweeter, very close in realisim.
The little Roy Allison designed paper cone tweeter in the AR's are very good for what they are. 'Ol Roy was a genuis

I don't have any Polks, but I've heard some SDA somethings in a MacIntosh system, tubed, very nice as well.

I'm a firm believer in lowest mass possible for the highs to really sing.

tonyb

I dunno, I stopped listening to tweeters years ago. I listen for a complete sound top to bottom. It is possible to have a great tweeter in a bad speaker. I wouldn't base any speaker buying decision based on a tweeter anyway. Thats just me though. However if I had to make a call, ribbon tweeters seem to like my ears these days.

xj4094dg

TNHNDYMAN wrote: »

The Heil Tweeter in the ESS AMT1A's is my favorite to date

These guys are still making speakers (including the Heil Air-Motion Transformers):

http://essspeakersusa.com/

I had a pair of AMT 1d's for about 10 years (1985 to 1995 I think). Everybody that heard them LOVED them. I wish I still had them. I sold them after I bought some LS90's.

zingo

ScanSpeak Revelator: very nice.

FTGV

By far the best "budget" unit I've heard. Incredible for the price.
https://www.madisound.com/store/product_info.php?cPath=45_229_250&products_id=8352

At 3x the price these are even better and the best metal domes I've yet heard.http://www.seas.no/images/stories/prestige/pdfdatasheet/h1212_27tbfc_g_datasheet.pdf

polkfarmboy

I have to say it was the folded motion tweeter from the electromotion series of speakers but I soon found out that ML juist copied it from a guy named wolf years ago

I am drunk so who cares lol

dorokusai

Another tweeter that stands out to me is the original A/D/S soft dome, which was depending on the year, straight Peerless. It's not to be confused with Polk's version and model as they sound completely different and if their was a perfect extension and midrange transition, they had it down for sure.

They're often overlooked on the used market by the speaker uneducated but that's ok for others. No, again, not a perfect speaker but for a sealed design they define smooth midrange and while it's a German(?) loudspeaker, classic "British" sound. Either way, it's a brand that you should pick up and get your ears on while doing your audio rounds.

[Deleted User]

Ah yes, Dr. Hill's Plasmatronics I remember those. He and his wife were touring the country showing what his speakers could do. My partner and I rented a tank of helium from a place in B-more and drove it to Silver Spring. But we couldn't go through the tunnel so we had to drive around the beltway and there was some kind of traffic jam that made us late. Anyway we got the tanks hooked up to the speakers and started listening. Talk about transient response! The tweeter is, for all practical purposes, massless. But, we had to pass on carrying them, we didn't think anyone would want to have storage tanks needing to be refilled in their system. Plus the rest of the speaker didn't seem well matched to the top end. But, I'm glad we heard them.

treitz3

I listened to a pair of MBL plasma speakers at Jolida's HQ's up in MD with another CP member when I was up there for a CP meeting a year or two ago. I can agree with you on the transient response and the rest of the speaker not melding with the tweeter. I'd also like to add the observation that they did a great job of "throwing" the sound out in a multi-directional area. It wasn't necessarily a pinpoint image and the reflection issues that plauge many speakers became ten fold.

One thing about them drove me absolutely nuts. Even with no music playing, they emitted an extremely high frequency that was constant, unwavering and annoying as hell. As I walked between the speakers to change the song or adjust something, I had to hold my hand in between the tweeter and my ear otherwise that sound got way too unbearable to these ears.

You couldn't pay me enough to listen to that again.

Evrythngmatters

The best I have heard is the Steinway Lyngdorf. Just amazing. Never got any critical listening done as this was set up in store. They had a turn of the century Steinway concert grand playing and would do a back and forth with it and the system. Was there a clear winner you ask? Sure there was, me. I got to listen to both.

dorokusai wrote: »

Another tweeter that stands out to me is the original A/D/S soft dome

I second that. I currently have 2 pairs, the little L300c and the larger L710. What's so surprising is that these are not big speakers and yet they are almost larger than life in sound. Just a sweet blissful listening session with A/D/S imo. Something you have to hear to understand. On a side note I am picking up a HCT integrated tube amp later to try out with the A/D/S and a pair of Polk Monitor 7. Should be fun.

dkg999

Totally agree on the Magnepan 3.6R! That speaker just floats the treble out in space with incredible detail and spacial effect yet is listenable to for long sessions.

I owned ESS AMT-1C's for a while. With the right gear, they do have an incredible tweeter.

I had forgotten about the A/D/S speakers mentioned. I did not own them, but remember listening to them in various places and always being impressed.

mantis

Pretty tuff question. The Diamond Tweeter from B&W is silky smooth and extremely detailed. Dynaudio's C series tweeters are incredible.
One other that comes to mind is Focal's Beryllium Tweeter , an amazing sounding top end.

cnh

I've heard two of the three tweeters Dan mentions above (Dynaudio and Focal). And I fully agree with Dan's assessment. The Focal Beryllium, in particular, is really 'something' to behold; clean, transparent, fast (good decay and recovery), detailed, and never 'harsh'. The Dynaudio series also has a very nice high end.

cnh

treitz3

tonyb wrote: »

I dunno, I stopped listening to tweeters years ago. I listen for a complete sound top to bottom. It is possible to have a great tweeter in a bad speaker. I wouldn't base any speaker buying decision based on a tweeter anyway....

I was expecting this. I actually held my finger over the enter button for about 30 seconds before I posted this thread for this very reason. I know nobody listens to just the tweeter. You should know I'm a 2-channel, full range kind of guy....just looking to isolate a bit.

The whole reason for my inquiry is that I'm looking for folks in the know's preference. It seems as if ribbons, Seas drivers and a handful of others have made the list so far. My personal top two are the Seas Revelator and the Seas Millennium [I currently have this in the Tyler's] tweeters for what I am looking for in reproduced music. Just wondering what others have heard throughout their audio journey.

I would like to [and have wanted to] audition the Steinway Lyngdorf's mentioned before. I like the fact that they compared it to real music and not something else for the demo. My kind of demo without a doubt! Atlanta, here I come! [closest location to demo]

I have my reservations with the pinpoint imaging from the Maggies and the Focal's but this is why I asked the question. It has been suggested to me lately that I listen to [once more] those speakers that I may have already listened to in the past and others. I will entertain that but I do not want to waste my time. Hence, my question.

The top end is obviously not the be all to end all concerning audio reproduction. That said, it is one of the most important factors along this point of my audio journey. If a speaker can not get the top end right with the spatial locational cues, imaging, sound stage, along with the basic frequencies, roll off, texture and overall musicality? Why bother listening in the first place? Many folks here [just look at the posts above] have already traveled the road I have been on and they know what it is that pleases them and some of them even know what it is I'm looking for when it comes to reproduction.

Thank you all for your answers and please keep them coming. It is appreciated more than you know.

Face

Focal Be so far, should hopefully get my ears on RAALs soon.

treitz3

LMK. Please. You know what I'm looking for.