Ring radiator tweeters - the future?


A technology developed by Scanspeak that hasn't penetrated the audiophile market, but Polk started using them - and their fans say it produces better high end within the same price range. A brief froogle reveals JBL offers them as components. Could this technology end the perpetual silk dome vs. titanium dome debate?
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Showing 2 responses by bombaywalla

as Kal stated, this technology is old.
2ndly, I certainly hope & do not think that it will replace silk domes - I've heard it a few times now in Polk Audio speakers where they sound nearly as tizzy & incisive as the metal dome speakers & I hated it! I heard it in a Czech speaker called Xavian 360 where it wasn't as tizzy but it produced a feeling of artificial details in the music. In this particular instance I couldn't decide whether I liked it or not - on some tracks within a CD is sounded correct & on other tracks it sounded wrong. I've also heard this ring tweeter in Gamut Audio's latest L5 speaker where the entire delivery was so laid back that I was quite uninvolved w/ the music. I think that Gamut has either had the ring tweeter custom-made from Scanspeak or has modified it in-house. Somehow I feel that the L5 designer was aware of this "inconsistent" (for a lack of better word) freq resp of the tweeter & decided to "cure" the issue(s).
Yo Lush,
Maybe you need to have your hearing checked? Perhaps you like "tizzy" sound & call it laid back? Is that also possible? Just because someone doesn't agree w/ your analysis of the Polk speaker sound, doesn't mean he/she needs a hearing check!
It is possible that the amp &/or CDP were not up-to-par in both my auditions. I auditioned them in 2 diff audio stores both times & not in my own system.
However, heard the ring tweeter in one other completely different speaker that exhibited the same sharpness from time-to-time, I'll say that, for me, some of the fault does lie in the ring radiator tweeter. If I can help it, I'd rather not have it in my speaker.