WILSON ALEXANDRIA XLF SPEAKERS-

Wilson has done the silk dome thing before with the Duette I think. I also agree the move towards using a silk dome is a good idea for a host of reasons.

Possible reasons for moving to soft dome tweeters:
1.) Generally soft domes of today have much higher frequency response then the ones of yesteryears(try ~40Khz rather than 20Khz). They may not be as extended as the best diamonds or berylliums(60 – 100Khz) variety but those also come with their own evils.
2.) The best soft domes of today tend have lower distortion points than the best metal or diamond.
3.) The best soft domes tend to have wider dispersion characteristics at higher frequencies than metal or diamond due to the more rounded dome shape which helps in high frequency cancelations.
4.) The best soft domes tend to have lower resonance frequency points which determines where you set your crossover point. The lower your crossover point the better you transition to the midrange unit due to directivity issues that start to occur on the upper bands of the unit. You also want the crossover point to stay as far away from the resonant cone break ups that also occur in the upper frequency bands of the midrange unit.

Positives:
- More imaging specificity
- Greater lower to mid treble clarity
Negatves:
- Loss of upper octave “air ” and/or “shimmer”. Although this problem has been ameliorated by the addition of the rearward facing ScanSpeak Revelator super tweeter which has an extended frequency range to ~60Khz.

I can’t claim to know DV’s thought process, neither am I claiming that this particular driver was used or was not modified, but the ScanSpeak Revelator R29 series is as close to idealistic as it gets for an ambience tweeter. Its output rises in the upper frequency band and it has rather high sensitivity(94.5dB @ 2.83v/1m) to match the Alexandria's. The only thing it has going against it is its increasing directivity at higher frequencies which is inevitable with most tweeters.

When it comes to well known soft dome brands(ScanSpeak, Seas, and Morel) their mid to top of the line models feature ressonance freq around 470Hz to 580Hz which is as low as it currently gets for 1" dome tweeters.

BTW – Maybe I'm mistaken but I thought DV used electrostatic arrays instead on the WAMM?