soft dome versus hard dome tweeters


As my internet window shopping continues, I was reading on some speakers that listed for the tweeter textile dome and also silk dome.

So then I used the 'search discussion' function on this site on the subject of soft versus hard dome tweeters and it seemed as if most of the members who offered opinions used that "harsh" and "fatiguing" and "ringing" to describe how they felt about hard dome speakers. In the admittedly short time that I spent reading, I was not picking up a lot of love for hard dome tweeters.

But there are reputable speaker manufacturers that seem to have gone the extra mile to make their hard dome tweeters as hard as possible using, for example, beryllium or artificial(?) diamond dust.

I wouldn't expect a consensus on much of anything audio, but did I just by luck to find responses by mostly people who prefer soft dome tweeters?  Because if they really sound that bad (harsh/fatiguing/ringing) in comparison, why would reputable manufacturers choose this route?  And I do realize that appreciation of a sonic effect is subjective, so did I just happen on responses by members who had mostly the same subjective perception?

immatthewj

Showing 1 response by avanti1960

Application Application Application

The best sounding tweeter I have ever owned was in a speaker made by Harbeth, it used a Seas aluminum dome with ferrofluid cooling. Cymbals had a magical shimmer to them, midrange had additional detail and the integration between woofer and tweeter was seamless and coherent.

Aluminum domes often take more work and crossover parts to make them sound so exceptional- namely the need for low pass filters on the very top end to squelch any rising breakup distortion.

Get them right and they are hard to beat. Get them wrong and they are impossible to listen to.