Diamond drivers


Out of curiosity I was wondering why diamond speaker units seem to be on the rise. Brands like Marten Design and B&W and many more are selling speakers with diamon tweeters. So what does make a diamond tweeter so good? Or is it just marketing hype. Although I doubt Janzen en Accuton are just making diamond tweeters for marketing reasons.

Yesterday evening I spend two and a half hours listening to the new Raidho D-1 speakers, they use a ribbon tweeter and a diamond mid/bass unit. I have to say this is the best monitor speaker I have ever heard. It is also a 17.000euro monitor speaker so for that price it better be very good.
mordante

Showing 1 response by mark_nz

Diamond tweeters are for real. While they do make for good marketing and unfortunate price increases, they deliver.
I have owned the following loudspeakers over the last ten years: B&W CDM1, CDM2SE, CDM1NT (Aluminium tweeters), Jamo Concert 8 and 11 (Silk dome tweeters), 804S (Aluminium tweeter), 803D and 803Diamond (Diamond tweeters).
As context for my observations: I am very sensitive to any tweeter harshness.
I like the silk dome tweeters, but not so much Aluminium dome tweeters - they tend to have a residual metallic sound. The better Aluminium versions will only occasionally highlight a distortion artefact, as opposed the less accomplished versions which are almost unbearable after a few minutes.
However the diamond tweeters are clearly superior: better transient response, cleaner, more precise sound-staging, transparent to quality of recording and audio equipment, consistent sound quality across their frequency span. And yet they are easy on the ears - I can listen for hours without fatigue to the 803D and 803Diamond loudspeakers.
I have heard many other loudspeakers at dealers with different tweeter technologies including Beryllium and Ribbon. I haven't heard anything at dealer that would indicate an obvious weakness with the B&W Diamond tweeters. However, as always, a definitive comparison will require extended home auditions.