Sensitive ears to speakers. Help!!!

Regarding tweeters, I feel like I'm hearing a dome attached to a coil, when I hear metal dome tweeters, even the best ones (and especially the Focal ones). However, with the best soft domes, if you can ever hear a characteristic, it just seems to be from the coil itself. In other words, the sound seems to come from a light weight coil and its ring shaped former, and the soft dome out in front literally has NO character at all. Other types have this type of characterless sound, like ribbons, but ribbons don't dynamically come to life like the best soft domes. I suggest you try a speaker that uses the Scanspeak Revelator tweeter, and you'll hear what I'm talking about. They're used in models from Nova Audio, PBN Montana, and the top of the line Sonus Faber Amati Homage...besides many others. Dynaudio also makes very good soft domes. One of my own speaker systems is an excellent model from Shayne Tenace at Paragon Acoustics, called the Radiant. The 3/4 inch Dynaudio tweeter in this speaker (and also in the larger hourglass-shaped Regent) is perhaps the best dome of that size in the world, with the Scanspeak model this size being a close second (used in most of the ProAc line).

Yep Jel, once upon a time I went down the same road you're on. My rig sounded impressive and amazing but it was way analytical. I could hear all the details, but musical coherence was lacking. Everytime a new instrument re-entered the mix I'd go crazy evaluating its sound trying to decide if it sounded 'right' or not. It's probably a common high end phenomenon. In my case I chalked it up to the character of the speakers and the front end source. Once I found my way out, what a revelation! Expressiveness is at the top of my desireable trait list now. But I'd never have gotten to this point without getting lost on the analytical side for many years. So there's still hope for you, haha. Being able to relax and enjoy is where it's at for me.

Hi Carl, Which Dynaudio tweeter are you referring to in your post above? Is it the D-21/2? I though the Esotec and Esotar was better?

You might try a pair of Biro L/1's. I own a pair and they aren't as superdetailed as some stuff I've heard. They do use metal domes but I wouldn't let that stop you from giving them a try. Personally, I don't think that they are the god of all speakers, but I haven't really heard anything that much better, especially for the money. I've had my pair now for over a year which is an achievement for me. I'm running them with all Van alstine electronics in a dedicated listening room with full acoustical treatment. The nice thing with these is if you want more detail, buy better equipment and the speakers will reproduce it without ever being harsh or grainy. And the bass is ultra-tight; but of course most decent speakers would be with 160 watts of hybrid tube-mosfet circuitry running it and four 16" by 3' bass traps. Don't buy a speaker by the drivers. Yes, there are generalizations that can be made, but the quality of the engineering can make drivers perform in ways one wouldn't normally expect. I believe www.avahifi.com has a 30 day return.

You need to list your equipment and room acoustics. Your overly sensitive ears may also be a sign of hearing damage, which might be a slim possiblity. Hopefully, that's not the case.