# My tweeter audition review



## SQ_Bronco (Jul 31, 2005)

OK, my turn  I was lucky enough to go second and due to a combination of USPS taking forever and my hectic weekend schedule I didn't get around to reviewing them until now; sorry it took so long. Anyway here is my write-up. Keep in mind that I am very cranky from the cardinals losing 6 in a row so I am not prone to sugar-coating anything.

I still do not have a system in my new car (the devil works for Infinity!) so I had to test them at home. My setup was as follows:

source - denon dvm-1815 5 disk dvd changer (dual 24 bit burr-browns)
CD- netrebko "la triviata" (see below)
crossover- us-amps us-x3 powered off car battery, set to 2-channel mode
eq - ppi eq31. I set this to level and only tweaked if there was a glaring problem that I thought I could fix that would help the tweeter do better.
amp- mmats LM4065 [email protected] ohms (T03 output stage), powered off battery
base system (one channel driven) 2x MTM dayton RS180's in 2cf ported tower, forgot the exact specs, think it is ported to around 40 hz. morel mdt-33 in center with 1 inch space between tweeter flange and woofer, not offset.

daytons were run [email protected], mdt-33's from [email protected] to "audition tweeter freq", then audition tweeter was used as supertweeter. dayton-morel transition was handled with passives in towers. 

I don't like test tones, so I skipped them completely. Instead, I picked one song (track III, "Di Madride noi siam mattadori" from the recent anna netrebko/Rolando Villazón recording of Verdi's "La Triviata") and listened to it repeatedly. The song has an excellent introduction with flutes and piccolos and violins in rapidly rising sequences, repeated, with human laughter, female vocals and a large group of people clapping in unison at several seperate places in the piece, which makes it a good one for this type of listening. And it is short, 2:50, so I was able to get through the whole test in about an hour.

My technique was simple- I listened to the complete song on the mdt-33 with no lowpass, then listen to it again with the audition tweet crossed at 5k, then one last time with the crossover freq steadily lowered until distortion became audibly annoying. Volume was at a very high level, near the threshold of pain/neighbor banging on wall level. Audition tweeter level was set with the gain control on the mmats amp and was set during the first run-through; basically I just turned it up and down until it sounded "right". After each run through I listened to the base mdt-33-only system so I would have a steady reference.

1) baby dayton (ND20TA-6). By far the cutest tweeter ever; I wanted it to do well because it was so shiny and round and tiny, and it made me happy to look at it. If i was trying to design a mass-produced cheap speaker set that got sold at best buy I would probably use this tweeter simply because the build quality is so high; it looks "solid". Unfortunately, it sounded awful. There was some kind of very annoying hiss that was not there on any other tweeter. Sensitivity was low, and somehow sounded better crossed at 3.5k than it did at 5k - the hiss was less prevalent. This tweeter, more than any of the others, had a distinct "tweeter is right... there" feel to it- I could walk across the room, close my eyes, spin around a couple of times and point, and usually be within a degree or two. The off-axis response was better than I expected, but it was the same degree of "bad" tonality off axis as on. This tweeter got a big benefit from a 3db boost at 16k, but it still sounded like a cheap speaker. sigh.

2) Funky heat sink tweeter (fhst):
Not sure which one this was, as it had no label. Maybe the DiYMA tweet? The piccolo and flutes sounded "excellent" when crossed at 3.5k; not as good as the seas though, but very nice. Clapping was the best out of any tweeter reviewed. FHST came close to matching the morel on the clapping, except that the larger tweeter sounded "fuller"; clapping sounded very realistic with the FHST, but did not have the "echo" quite right. I believed someone was in the room though, and my dog's ears perked up. Female vocals were excellent, but a little thin. This tweeter was not very sensitive, but ironically got VERY loud effortlessly; it had a huge dynamic range and at times was a little painful. In retrospect I think I may have raised the gains higher than the other tweets to compensate for the thin midrange, which may have made the upper range louder on crescendos. Off axis response was superb. I would not hesitate to run this tweeter in my car, as I think by spending a little time with the eq I could make it sound really good. Unfortunately I don't think I would be able to fit it due to the large heat sink.

3) Vifa xt25SC50
This was the tweeter i was most excited about hearing, since I had heard so much about it on forums, and because it is so photogenic. it did not disappoint aesthetically, but sonically I was very disappointed. This one sounded very good on claps, but it just didn't have the output to keep up with the 2 rs180's. It distorted very audibly when crossed at 3.5k at full volume, and sounded very "honky" on woodwinds. It was better off-axis than I expected, but that didn't make up for the major flaws. Boosting 16k made it spitty and harsh. I could not make it sound "good" on woodwinds with eq even crossed at 5k.

4) vifa D26NC-55-06
Claps sounded tinny. Everything sounded tinny. I hated this tweeters tonality. Off axis was horrible, faded very quickly, and at 30 degrees or more it was noticably lower in output. Midrange was better than the lpg silk, very detailed, and at one point where there was human laughter on stage (1:33) I heard "mumbled" conversation that I couldn't hear with any other tweets besides the mdt-33. This tweeter got extrememly loud without sounding worse, but it did not sound "good" at any level. This might be fixable with eq, but I'm not going to buy a pair of these to try.

5) metal seas (27TAFNC/D H1397-04)
These were nice. There was a bit of an "echo-ey" feel to them; I kept thinking I heard things that weren't there in the music, due to coloration, but after a few minutes of listening it seemed to go away, I absolutely loved the way these made piccolos and flutes sound- I played the flute for ~10 years and I know how it sounds to have one stuck in your face, and this was the closest that any came to being "right". For some reason french horns sounded really good with these- I can't think of any reason why that would be, but it was true. Female vocals were very good, very dynamic, but they did not blend well (you could tell where the speaker was in the room) and when I lowered the xover to 3.5k they sounded very nasal. These needed 4k+ to sound good and needed a cut at 6k to blend well; without that they sounded harsh. There was a noticable attenuation at >30 degrees off axis. 

6) Metal LPG - I tried one of these in my truck, and did not like them, so i was a little biased in favor of the silks. Surprisingly, the metal domes did much better in the home system. The piccolo was piercing- not so much "realistic' but it did sound "piccolo-ish" to an extreme. More-piccolo-than-piccolo. They seemed to be ok down to 3k. Female vocals did not sound realistic and the claps sounded really tinny. At one point during the listening session for these my dog began howling - not sure if it was because I had listened to the same song 15 times and it was annoying him or if there was something else. I was pretty tired of this song by then myself...

rank ordered:
seas
diyma?
lpg
both vifas
dayton


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## dual700 (Mar 6, 2005)

Awesome review..
Thank you sir!


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## Rudeboy (Oct 16, 2005)

SQ_Bronco said:


> I could walk across the room, close my eyes, spin around a couple of times and point, and usually be within a degree or two.


I think we need video of this test  Seriously though, great review.


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## KingSVT (Jul 30, 2006)

yes very nice, an excellent song choice as well, classic.


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## FoxPro5 (Feb 14, 2006)

Very nice! Ditto on the Seas Neos being crossed too low. 5K is about all I can take with a few dB attenuation.


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## ArcL100 (Jun 17, 2005)

Lol, reverse of how I ranked them. I was playing all of them several octaves lower, though.

-aaron


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