View Poll Results: silk or titanium...which do you prefer?
silk dome tweeter
18
38.30%
titanium dome tweeter
19
40.43%
neither
4
8.51%
other
6
12.77%
Voters: 47. You may not vote on this poll
silk or titanium???
02-04-2009, 06:28 PM
#12
It depends on the installation/application..
If you are using passive components then you should use a tweeter with a low FS.. preferably at least an octave below your crossover frequency.. a heavier material like silk is generally preferable over titanium (or whatever) in this case..
Otherwise as long as the tweeter has smooth response in the passband you desire then it really dosen't matter IMHO.. Although I tend to always go for silk in car audio myself..
If you are using passive components then you should use a tweeter with a low FS.. preferably at least an octave below your crossover frequency.. a heavier material like silk is generally preferable over titanium (or whatever) in this case..
Otherwise as long as the tweeter has smooth response in the passband you desire then it really dosen't matter IMHO.. Although I tend to always go for silk in car audio myself..
02-05-2009, 06:47 AM
#13
0 Watt CAFz'r
Join Date: Jan 2008
Posts: 19
my old setup used ti domes. i didn't find them harsh or bright. When i looked at the on and off axis response curves of it, it played pretty nicely up to and beyond 20kHz. Some "warmer" sounding tweeters (generally soft dome) plots I've seen started dropping pretty quickly in the upper octaves. I think it really depends on tuning and placement. A lot of the 2 way component speaker sets with passive crossovers state in the manual to place the tweeter within a certain distance away from the woofer. I've heard some soft dome tweeters sound so "bright" it made my ears want to bleed and some hard domes. Sometimes you have to think about if those "bright" sounding tweeters are really to blame or if it's the recording itself and the tweeters are actually revealing and accurate; you know the saying garbage in, garbage out.
My next set of speakers will be a soft dome.
My next set of speakers will be a soft dome.
02-06-2009, 10:31 AM
#16
50 Watt CAFz'r
Join Date: Aug 2004
Posts: 405
If I had to pick between Ti and Silk dome then the choice for me would be clear, Titanium all the way!. How ever I have heard some titanium's that are a little to brash on my ears, in my current setup I am running a set of Canton Aluminum Magnese tweets and absolutley loving how smooth and neutral they are!
02-06-2009, 03:48 PM
#18
Tioxid 5 .. or aramid fiber, or Berylium 
.. Some silks can be very harsh too, the older Morel 1 1/8" domes come immediately to mind. what happens also with alot of large dome metal tweeters is the tin can effect. The peak of the dome actually deforms and "pops" sometimes in the audible frequencies too (like the titanium tweets JBL uses). Most good companies keep this added noise above the audible spectrum..BUT you can still have discomfort and listening fatigue and even hearing damage from sounds higher than audible ranges.
.. Some silks can be very harsh too, the older Morel 1 1/8" domes come immediately to mind. what happens also with alot of large dome metal tweeters is the tin can effect. The peak of the dome actually deforms and "pops" sometimes in the audible frequencies too (like the titanium tweets JBL uses). Most good companies keep this added noise above the audible spectrum..BUT you can still have discomfort and listening fatigue and even hearing damage from sounds higher than audible ranges.
02-06-2009, 09:24 PM
#19
Goalie Man
Join Date: May 2003
Posts: 1,412
ya dave,greg- i had a set of altec lansing tweeters back in the mid 90 and after hearing them once or twice in my probe i threw them as hard as i could against a wall, and the IMPACT from the tweeters was fabulous!!! i must say altec lansing has some amazing impact when used correctly
