[95bcwh]

A friend of mine who lives in Asia wanted to DIY the best speakers he can possibly do. He has been doing this for few years but so far he's only been playing with cheap drivers (less than $100 each). So now he wants to get the best possible drivers he can. His reference speakers is the $65k Kharma Midi Exquisite which uses some kind of inverted dome diamond tweeter with ceramic midrange. I did a quick search on the internet, and found that the mid range driver used by Kharma is likely to be Accuton C92-6 Ceramic 7" Bass-Midrange ($230 each).

Accuton also made a D20-6 Pure Diamond 3/4" Dome Tweeter ($2600 each) - WOW! Now that is quite some money! The question is, are they worth it???

Rgds
barry

[maxwalrath]

sorry, this is sorta off topic, but who buys $2600 tweeters and what are they used for?  Scientific purposes or something?

[JoshK]

The diamond dome seems like a good enough idea to making the dome stiff, but I am not sure that addresses the largest faults of the dome tweeter, such as power compression and lower efficiency.  But each person has their own goals in mind. 

[95bcwh]

But aren't most of these expensive speakers that cost $40k and up (e.g. Kharma, B&W) all using diamond tweeter???

Having said that I was at RMAF2006 last year and listened to the Kharma Midi Exquisite ($65k/pr) and I didn't really hear any sound worthy of "diamond", I guess my ears were retarded hence I'm asking for expert opinions

sorry, this is sorta off topic, but who buys $2600 tweeters and what are they used for?  Scientific purposes or something?

[JoshK]

p.s.  Accuton makes some good stuff no doubt.  But if you were any kind of friend at all, I'd encourage him to build his speaker with the C23-4 (or whatever) tweeter first, then if he speaker is working and sounds good then he can later upgrade it with the diamond tweeter later.  There is so many things that can throw a wrench in the diy speaker building that it isn't worth investing that kind of cash on tweeters until you got a working speaker first.

[Scott F.]

I heard the Diamonds on some B&W's (they were about $26k for the pair) and they sounded pretty darned nice. I've always been able to hear the crossover from the mid to the tweeters. On the new model with the diamond tweeters, they reworked the crossovers to be 1st order and I wasn't able to hear the transition at all. They were extremely smooth, open and extended. I liked them a lot.

That said, I'm not sure that I'd pay $2600 each for a tweeter but if I win the lottery....who knows 

[Kevin Haskins]

NO!   NO!  NO!

[Vapor Audio]

Personally I'd rather have a pair of Raven 3.2 MMX than the Accuton D20-6

http://www.orcadesign.com/products/raven/ravenr3.htm

[SET Man]

...but so far he's only been playing with cheap drivers (less than $100 each).

    Hmmm... what's wrong with cheap drivers? Nothing. If it sound good than use it.

Accuton also made a D20-6 Pure Diamond 3/4" Dome Tweeter ($2600 each) - WOW! Now that is quite some money! The question is, are they worth it???

Rgds
barry

     Are they worth it? Hmmm... only your friend could answer that. Well, the sound quality perception is in the ear of the beholder.


    Oh! yeah.... BTW.... if your friend decided to make speaker with those $2.6K tweeter, please let us know how the project turn out. 

Take care,
Buddy

[95bcwh]

This tweeter weight 35 pound each??!!!!

Personally I'd rather have a pair of Raven 3.2 MMX than the Accuton D20-6

http://www.orcadesign.com/products/raven/ravenr3.htm