I have tried a few speakers - Q Acoustics Concept 40, KEF LSX, KEF Q550, Focal Chora 816, Focal Vestia N4, Wharfedale Lintons. Quite good most of them but I have seem this level now. I am wondering if there are lots more capable speakers that can reveal fine details which usually go amiss. I have heard good things about AMT tweeter and did consider Wharfedale Evo, but I doubt at 1-2L they are much better than Lintons or certainly the Focals. Has anyone had the experience of hi end tweeters which audibly blow the conventional tweeters out of the water.
I have tried the SB acoustics satori Beryllium dome tweeter, and it is indeed very nice sounding. Also as per a few well regarded speaker builders on the net, the capacitor feeding the tweeter is just as important as the tweeter. And most of them use high end capacitors some of which cost as much as the tweeter itself. So the crossover design and components have to be seen in conjunction with the tweeter and probably not the material of the tweeter alone when it comes to extracting performance.
The most detailed out there is supposedly the diamond deposited on silicon or magnesium dome tweeter. Accuton used to offer one for DIY'ers, but has been pressurised by speaker companies to only sell as OEM to them, so that "
Non premium paying DIY crowd" cannot reach this level of performance. Jantzen used to offer the "JDT-124" diamond dome tweeter which was discontinued due to low demand owing to high price. These go for a premium on the used market, so if interested need to keep an eye out for them.
But for real world reasonable money, probably the SB acoustics Satori Be is as far as we can push the boat out. Due to how commercial speaker distribution model works, the SB tweeter in a commercially sold ready made speaker will still be very expensive. There was an Indian manufacturer called Eight audio, who had a two way bookshelf with the above tweeter or you can buy one of the SB acoustics kits and get them built.
Apart from going DIY, I cant see myself getting my hands on speakers using high end drivers. So, I got some well regarded Accuton ceramic dome tweeters and Raal ribbon tweeters for my future builds. These might or might not be an improvement on the present Satori BE tweeters Iam using, but atleast I get to sample a change for changes sake, without breaking the bank
Now coming to your main question, my other speakers at home in different rooms, are PMC twenty 26, Qacoustics Concept 40's and KEF LS50 Meta's. And I find my present DIY speakers ( built by
@Hari Iyer sir of our forum ) with the SB Acoustics Egyptian papyrus mid range driver and Satori dome tweeter to be way better than all the other speakers I have. And it is not even close, they are not anywhere in the same zip code
So my advise would be to buy two pairs of the below SB acoustics drivers for a total of 1.06L. Then google Jeff-Bagby designs. He had a design with these drivers. Then get them built
https://audiofy.in/collections/mid-...ri-mr16p-8-6-5-egyptian-papyrus-cone-midrange
Features Beryllium dome for non-resonant high frequency extension Two part aluminium faceplate with integrated mechanical decoupling Dual balanced compression chambers for improved dynamics Dual copper caps for absolute minimum voice coil inductance and minimum phase shift High saturation...
audiofy.in
Below is a build by our very own
@sadik bhai
And if you really want to kick the ball out of the park, get the below pure silver wire from Xangsane for your internal cabinet wiring and maybe crossover too :
Get some excellent WBT binding posts :
Comparable design as the WBT-0702.01 except it is manufactured using cold rolled 68% copper alloy. Superb mechanical properties, solid design and two separate clamping nuts ensure high contact pressure and hence consistently low transition resistance levels.
www.madisoundspeakerstore.com
Get it all soldered with some silver :
All these small things make a cumulative difference, and really go into the making of a high end speaker. This will be way ahead of all the commercial speakers you are considering, they wont even be in the same town
And the best part is, doing the research, getting all the components, and then getting it built, is a lot more exciting and fun than swiping a card in a store. All the best
