I'm looking to learn about Air Motion Transformer technology

AMT's are great designs IF you pay some attention to one thing. It is by far best for sound quality if the Diaphragm Former is made, as it usually is in any good design, from a silk material. The Former provides the physical support structure for the diaphragm material. It is meant to be as audibly transparent as possible and in fact has to be in order to do its job without resonating itself and adding its own coloration to the sound. The silk-derived Former is recognizable from its gray/whitish fibrous appearance, fairly semi-opaque or semi-translucent looking, although in some designs this might not be visible until the tweeter is disassembled. 

The problem is that some companies that make cheaper ATM's (often Chinese) use Kapton for the Former material. It's visibly a red colored plastic material and is pennies to produce. But, Kapton is not Nearly as audibly transparent as any silk-derived material and will noticeably color the sound, at least up to about 10kHz or so at which point it seems to no longer be resonating...but anything below that point is trouble.

Just avoid anything that advertises using Kapton and look for those ATM's that mention silk and you should be fine. This will bump up the price range your looking in, but it will be the difference between an ATM that lives up to its promise vs one that plainly doesn't.

In general, ribbon tweeters may sometimes have that last nth degree of uber detail or resolution compared to ATM's, but not by much at all. The difference may only make it a little easier to blend ATM's with the mid or woofer compared to ribbon. Ribbons tend to "beam" vertically more than ATM's - another thing that makes for easier driver integration for ATM's. 

Ribbons by design have the ribbon itself that is replaceable. It needs to be replaceable because it can get stretched if played too loud, at which point it can lose performance or even break. The cost of a new ribbon is much cheaper than the cost of a new tweeter.  ATM's don't have this problem, but they can take SPL's similar to ribbons without damage...but if you go Too far, you'll need to replace the whole tweeter - but, that's mostly only a problem if you're a metalhead or something :>)

No sweat, I can answer all your ATM needs.... :>)

FWIW, I took a peek at Wharfedale’s site and the Former shown in the exploded diagram of their AMT didn’t look familiar to me. It appears to be a yellow colored material and may possibly (I’m guessing here) be a more recent attempt to come up with a suitable Former material that performs better than Kapton, but is not quite as expensive to make as silk. Your guess is as good as mine on how good that one might sound.

Dyslexia is known to strike at random, but it's rare that you see it so consistently when it does.

I'm far from the last word on AMT's and agree that little if anything should ever be prejudged in audio. OTOH, I just think it also is at least of some benefit to have as broad of a technical discussion as one is willing to entertain in a forum with its members. 

It was just that it appeared from what you posted earlier that you might have been implying that, despite the OP's clearly technical question, we should not consider any of these things and only concern ourselves with what we hear firsthand. (And if we were to apply that to the OP here, then why not anyone's technical inquiry, and so on)...it was a bit like we should dispense with the whole idea of discussion and just rely on firsthand listening only.

John

@arion 

"IMHO, I wouldn't get caught up in what they are made from or whether the substrate is Mylar, Kapton or cardboard. Go experience a pair. Only you know if they are right for you." 


Mike, FWIW, I had no intention of saying that 'only I know what's right' for @jbhiller and I don't think I'd ever want to say such a thing to anyone here. He asked a direct question and I gave him my best answer.

I'd like to think we mere mortals are allowed that sort of thing in a forum.

Regards,
John

He's connected with Arion Audio, in Charlotte. 


I'm not trying to attack anybody at this point, I'm just hoping to get some clarification of what it was he meant to say, is all.

Regards