Is the Accuton driver that good?


It seems a lot of new speakers are using the Accuton or similar ceramic drivers (and I notice the diamond variant for tweeters). I've heard them (mainly in Kharmas), but not others. Evolution, Salk, Avalon, and like I said Kharma use them.
Do they have any particular coloration or quality that is making them gain popularity? In the Kharmas, it was pace and timing and a natural sound without overhang, but it was different than regular (non-metallic) cones & domes, which, fwiw, are less detailed but maybe more relaxing.
It's like for me with the Kharmas "this sounds great and real and not bright or hard either" but somehow it is not as relaxing as the Aerials or Von Schweikerts or Quad dynamics(or even Apogees) I have lived with). I can't put my finger on it.

I'm not sure if it was just the Kharmas or the ceramics in general, but I wanted to raise the question.
rgs92
Yes, I have used them in raw speaker designs and they are that good in my opinion.
They are an extreme - lightweight and extremely rigid. Unfortunately, this means they are not that good overall. The approach to building a driver is a balance of many conflicting properties. For sure they are extremely lightweight, so ceramic drivers absolutely excel at linearity (pistonic behavior) but the price you pay is in resonance from ringing. This tends to create what I call a splashy sound compared to well designed damped drivers (pulp/paper/doped/fabric/polypropylene etc.)

Those little dots you see on the accutons are there for a reason - to try and compensate for the overly strong ringing problem. Speaker manufactures will also use "notch" filter with lightweight highly rigid cones to help compensate.

Of course, all designs are a compromise but my opinion is that it is best not to go for an extreme in the diaphragm but to choose a material to try to balance conflicting objectives. A design that requires heavy compensation for unwanted properties is not good design to begin with.

Just two cents... I understand those who will say "oh but it measures so well" on a frequency response plot...