Which Tweeter preferred- dome natural material, Beryllium/Metal or Planar Ribbon? Why?

As has been said, any tweeter is only a good as the overall speaker design. The Focal Inverted Ti is a good case in point - a unit that can sound radically different in different applications.

However, purely to expand the field, plasma tweeters e.g. the Lansche unit do have some pretty special qualities.

I truly believe there’s no such thing as the best tweeter, especially if you limit to material only.

The best tweeter is the one that perfectly integrated to a given speaker and the other drivers. I’ve heard ribbon tweeters that sounded odd (poorly integrated), Sol tweeters that sounded lifeless and metal dome (and inverted dome) that was like ice picks. On the same token, I’ve also heard the complete opposite of all… it comes down to the designer and how that fits your preference. 

Arguably two of the best German speaker manufacturers, FinkTeam and Wolf von Langa, employ custom Mundorf AMT tweeters, and they sound fantastic.

Musadd- Funny  you should land on the sealed planar ribbon tweeters 

as your flavor. I find the Borresen speakers to be the best sound I've

heard- and by a pretty good margin. 

Danger-Danger!- Nelson Pass loves to tell the story about his Plasma

speakers which nearly killed him. 

Got beat to the punch, but agree carbon fiber is the way to go. ;-)

I enjoyed my Seas tweeters in my audio physic speakers.  After a move to a basement system instead of a joist supported floor, went to Martin logan montis.  I found the hi frequencies detailed without fatigue, yet missed the air movements produced by conventional drivers.  Present pleasure is compression horn in Fyne audio.    Still have the ml in ht

Custom satellite grade carbon fiber dome integrated into bespoke Scanspeak frame / motor matched to .25 db the pair, had tuned w filter network in anechoic chamber to match the reference. No breakup modes from midrange filter and 30 kHz.

@jperry

It really depends upon the execution of the design and integration in the speaker as a whole.

I'd say so too.

The best tweeter is one that does not draw attention to itself.

I’ve heard some cheap tweeters that didn’t and some expensive ones that did.

The worst case was the Seas Excel which introduced a very odd colouration to John Lennon’s voice on Across the Universe.

Before anyone gets upset, I acknowledge that it’s an great tweeter, almost everyone says so, but in this design, despite the high level of resolution it offered, it was drawing attention to itself.

The best I’ve ever heard were plasma at the CES show 40 years ago. They were that memorable.

I’m afraid I’ve heard them, in a cramped hotel room of course, and wasn’t that impressed. It would be nice to hear them again in a more ideal setup.

Great tech and review source is Hifi Compass.

My personal favorite is the Viawave Srt-7. 

Tom

The best I've ever heard were plasma at the CES show 40 years ago.  They were that memorable.  

The AMT tweeter with a SET amp are pretty magical

After 40+ years I am totally satisfied the the incredible sealed-ribbon tweeter that Raidho uses (and Borresen Acoustics) in its D series (old used D2s for me). (Mid/woofers ported, but a small floor-stander 'box' design.)

I liked my oldest, 16-yr mains, ML SL3 electrostatics, but the treble performance of the Dynaudio silk Esotar II was much better for the five years I owned the Sapphires, nice speakers but not the D2s I was fortunate to acquire. I do feel silk is very good for a dome, metal not so much, and diamond tweeters-ugh, never took to the B&W 800s a bit, too harsh for my ears.

The Heil AMT type sure offers some good examples and probably some so-so, like all styles as others have noted. Implementation of the design counts.

@mofojo I’m sure i can’t give you a top 3 of each, but from what I’ve heard:

Top AMT: Beyma and Mundorf

Top Ring: Scanspeak. Even their relatively inexpensive Discovery R2604 is a stellar performer, and has made it into a number of megabuck speakers, Krell, Magico, YG and Sonus Faber (if memory serves) and some incarnation makes it into modern Polk speakers, and for good reason. Even the cheap units have very low distortion and stunning frequency response that flies by 20 kHz.

Top BE: Scanspeak Illuminator D3004, basis of Magico’s tweets.

I’ve not heard Satori’s Be tweets so I can’t really comment on it. I have heard another brand... Transducer labs? And was really not taken by it. TL has a big following including by at least one speaker maker I respect but I just don’t dig it.

I’m not a fan of the Focal inverted dome’s for lack of natural air. To me a good tweeter absolutely vanishes. The Focal’s make their presence known.

I do want to say again though, that we pay far too much attention to tweeters given what a small part of the energy of a speaker they actually reproduce.  Many listeners can't even tell if a tweeter stops working. The price is often out of proportion with their value, and yet, yes, I spent 2x as much on my tweeters as my mid-woofers.  😂

What Eric said. In the 90's I was convinced metal domes were harsh and soft domes were smooth while amt's squaked off axis. I can no longer guess correctly what type of tweeter is playing just by listening to it.

Done right I love them all.Depends on the design of the speaker and the other drivers.

Almost all types of high-frequency transducers have their uses. It's a big mistake to isolate and focus on parts when loudspeakers are designed as a whole.

It really depends upon the execution of the design and integration in the speaker as a whole.

I’m a fan or the top Seas silk-dome tweeters used in, for example, Joseph Audio’s better speakers. They just sound very extended yet musical and natural to me.  I’ve heard metal/beryllium tweets in some of the best speakers in the world, and they just don’t work for me. 

Wow there are some very specific choices here-Thanks!

I should have specified that I am looking for  tweeters that

will work in a box speaker environment.

And thanks to all who had a reason why they preferred what

they chose. Without that the opinion is less useful.

Thanks!

Yitrium Dome Ribbon Silk Tweeters. 

Top 3 of each. 

Eric. Name them please. Really curious. 

2nd Be tweeters done right. The few ribbons I’ve heard were awesome but have no impact which is weird to say for a tweeter. Dynaudio soft dome ain’t too bad also.

I think dispersion plays a bigger part. A wave guide or wide baffle vs narrow baffle changes things a lot. Motor and back waves matter a lot too. 
 

For a direct answer I find silk domes are kind of dull in general (some exception in there) but in general I like BE tweeters done right. 
 

the standout performer for me is magnepan’s ribbon in the larger models but the lack of dynamics in the lower mids and bass does not do it for me as a whole. 

Aurum Cantus true ribbons and AMT. I love um. I like two horn loaded planar designs to. They were over 25khz

There are a lot of soft domes and rings I like to. They just don't have the range.

There is not a single hard dome I like, diamond, Beryllium, iron, magnesium, SS or tactile. YUK!

Mid range that different. There is a couple tactile domes I like 1 1/4" - 2" or so.

Regards

Silk is the best!  No wait, Beryllium is the best… Except for ribbons.  No wait, Maggie's are the best!  
 

I think its safe to say that there are fine examples of each.

This question is like which flavor of ice cream is best?  

Janszen ESL

There are several specific world class tweeters I can think of.  

In every category including ring, AMT and Be there are absolute garbage examples of each, so I decline to answer.

The best tweeter IMHO is the Magnepan true ribbon.