benchmark and apogee

Shadorne: What do you mean by "metal or ceramic drivers"? What are the others? I suspect that every tweeter has many points of resonance to different extend.

I don't know how to make waterfall plots - have to read about it. Wouldn't spike at 9kHz show with frequency sweep?

Frank_sm - My Benchmark was on the bright/brassy side with aluminum dome tweeter. After replacing with soft dome tweeter it is way better. Tweeter (Morel Supreme 110) is a little on the hot side but also much cleaner (underhung motor).

Shadorne:

Thanks. It shows as one hot high sibilant - audible at first but much better now (but still there). I will think of notch filter at 9kHz. In spite of that it is still a lot cleaner than $25 Vifa it replaced.

I would not do this again - it is way to complicated and requires equipment (and experience) I don't have (not to mention room acoustics). I updated crossover components and was planning to continue further (Dueland resistors and capacitors) but it's another $400. I want to listen to new Revel Studios 2 and possibly get used one within few years.

Shadorne: Morel Supreme 110 is a soft dome tweeter. It has huge magnet but for another reason (underhung coil).

Making notch filter seems to be easy but tuning it might be difficult. I have decent microphone (Blue condenser) but have to find computer program for plotting.

Revel Ultima2 uses Beryllium tweeter that, according to Stereophile review, reproduces deep brassy sound of cymbals - not the shimmering alone. I noticed deeper/fuller sound of cymbals at the concerts than played thru my (and others) system.

Shadorne:

That is a very good question. People compare to sound at the concert as reference point. It doesn't work well for popular music or jazz (bad acoustics). Symphony orchestra might be the reference if you can afford good seats.

Getting back to Benchmark - It was compared to few other DACs in the studio by playing instrument (guitar) and comparing recorded sound played thru DAC to direct sound. Benchmark scored the highest.

Shadorne - I haven't done any tests - it was review I read.
What is good for me might (like neutrality) be bad for somebody else. Good example of this might be sound of the guitar that is often described by presence, projection, separation, sustain and tone. Most of people care for tone. Classical guitarist needs presence, sustain and separation while flamenco guy doesn't care about presence, hates sustain but needs huge projection. There is no instrument that would satisfy everybody.