The only real (meaningful) difference in the cost of that particular Scan Speak tweeter is the Neo magnets. Those companies in China will program a CNC to whip out those rear mounting plates for free. All they have to do is order a bunch of them and its a done deal.
So Scan Speak orders a bunch of those parts made and then they use them on all of their new upper end tweeters. Just look at them. They all have that same motor structure.
I guarantee you that the back plate that holds all the magnets cost them less than a buck.
Usually drivers are compared to each other by measured parameters, materials and build quality and in the end, actual performance.
I don't think that a driver that looks similar to another driver is enough basis for meaningful comparison.
Steve, even the parameters are not that far off. All they did was go to a different motor design and add a copper sorting ring. Regardless of the performance (which BTW is not that different either) the cost to produce is still not that different.
What about the RAAL 70-20XR? I've heard great things about it, though it is expensive.
I'll have some here shortly.
And the tweeter that I proposed is a VERY good tweeter. There is more difference and a greater performance variance in the use of different capacitors then there is between the tweeter I proposed and a Seas Millennium.
To be fair, they do offer an upgraded crossover which eliminates the slug. Or you can get the schematic for free and put whatever components you want in it.
You are still paying a premium for their pride and name and getting nothing in return on the performance end.
What Scan Speak is doing is setting an artificial value level. So when I go to them and say with a commercial client that wants to use them in their new product line that I just designed for them, and they offer to order 5,000 units form them, then that cost magically drops to about $40 each or less. Then the commercial manufacturer can say that they can say that they use a $220 tweeter in their speaker....