Why does the Exotica 3 use a dome tweeter versus a ribbon? At 1.5 times the prices of the SS8s, wouldn't you be taking a downgrade to the high end performance?
Good question. While price does not necessarily equate to quality, the Exotic tweeter is more expensive than the RAAL ribbon tweeter we use.
When we built the first Exotica 2-way monitor, it was at the request of a customer who wanted to use these drivers. I was a bit skeptical that they could be worth the price. But as soon as I fired them up, I was very impressed with what I was hearing. I had heard quite a few high-sensitivity drivers in the past and they always left me wanting. These were clearly different.
Was it the high sensitivity that I found alluring? Was it the cone material? Or was it the Alinico magnets? (It turns out that many of the most sought after vintage drivers used Alinco magnets. So it is likely that this was not just a coincidence.) Regardless, there was just something that drew me into the sound.
When contemplating a 3-way using the Exotic woofer, I thought about switching to the RAAL tweeter which is one of my all-time favorite drivers (we use more RAAL tweeters than any other). But what part of the magic I was hearing was due to the Alinico magnets in the Exotic tweeter? I certainly wouldn't want to lose any that magic. And there really wan't anything in the high treble I found lacking.
The T35 tweeter was designed to mate with the Exotic woofer. And they work very well together. So I saw no compelling reason to switch to the RAAL for this model. (If someone wants the Exotic/RAAL combination, we could certainly build it.) The other reason we stuck with the Exotic tweeter (and developed the woofer section the way we did) is that I was unwilling to give up any of the sensitivity of these drivers. Of course, the RAAL would not have, but most other tweeters we could have used would have.
So while I am a huge fan of RAAL ribbon tweeters and they probably would have worked in this design, I saw no particular compelling reason to switch. As the saying goes, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it."
We received comments from a number of different individuals who thought that the sound in our room at AXPONA was superior to any other time they had heard us at an audio show. So the speakers (and electronics) must have been doing something right.
I short, while I am obviously a huge fan of RAAL ribbon tweeters, I don't regard the use of the T35 as a "downgrade to high-end performance." It is just a different route to arrive at the same place...audio nirvana.
- Jim