Ok, Cone Tweeters suck! Will it screw up my speakers if I replace them? (1 Viewer)

[NathanP]

I've got some Sony & Kenwood 3 way tower speakers for my HT (see my long-needed-to-be-updated website for more details).

That serve me very well and I'm very much in love with them.

Now, the cone tweeters are *ok* and pretty un-noticed with movies, but in music, they suck.

I was listening to some Pavorotti (I like opera) a few days ago and when Lucino got up high, my tweeters started sounding really funky and terrible.

So, I'm thinking of buying 5 tweeters (fronts,rears,center) from parts express and putting them in there..

Question is: Will it make my speakers sound bad considering the crossover is for cone tweets?

A buddy of mine has a membership to Parts Express, so cost would be cheap.

Thanks!

Nathan

 

[Duncan Barth]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but the way I understand it, what you want to do would be quite hard.

Crossover networks have to be designed with specific drivers and enclousures in mind. The crossover in your existing speakers was designed with the frequency response, sensitivity, impedance, etc. of your existing tweeters in mind.

By changing the tweeter, you'll probably make the system sound even worse than it does now.

If you *really* want to swap in a new tweeter, you'll probably have to redesign the crossover as well. And if you're doing that, you're 90% of the way towards building new speakers anyway.

 

[Jack Gilvey]

That'd probably sound pretty bad.

Parts Express has "memberships"?

 

[Ryan T]

Jack
I have a dealer account with Parts Express not a "Membership". I told Nathan the same thing that Duncan said. I guess he just wanted to hear what you guys thought about it. I asked the same question when I first signed up here. http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htfo...threadid=12373
Then I sold the speakers to Nathan and bought some Paradigm titans.
Ryan

 

[Jack Gilvey]

I think you should keep the tweeters you have already in the speakers because...
1. They're functioning, no use in swithcing 'em yet.
2. They were made to function with the other two speakers in the box and you don't want to mix stuff up...
Heed my advice!

Guess who posted that in your thread? Gotta love it.

 

[Cam S]

HAHAHAHA, good research Jack
Take your own advice Nathan!

 

[Bill Lucas]

I'd be pretty surprised if male vocals were reproduced by your tweeter. More likely it's the midrange driver. How loud were you playing the music? At high volumes speakers will compress and break up if they can't play as loud as you would like. Every speaker has a maximum SPL that it will play. Sony and Pioneer speakers are not known to be built with high quality parts so the likelihood of this happening is high.

 

[NathanP]

I'd really like to replce my speakers, thing is, I'm really hung up on having tower speakers.

Call it an attitude problem if you wish.

MUST HAVE TOWER SPEAKERS!

 

[NathanP]

I think you should keep the tweeters you have already in the speakers because...

Um... that was my evil twin.

Is this another thread that is going to make me look like a fool?

 

[Patrick Sun]

To me, tweeters are like frosting on a cake, with the woofers/midwoofers being the layers of cake itself.

The tweeters make the cake 'sweet' or not.

Do this for a test: just play some music, but disconnect the woofer/midwoofer from the speaker, and just listen to the tweeters. If you do this, you'll ask yourself what is the big deal about tweeters. The bulk of music intelligibility is in the midwoofers.

 

[NathanP]

Sorry to disagree Patrick, but to me tweets are everything.

Why do you think Paradigm,B&W, and other higher end speaker companies focus on the tweeter?

 

[NathanP]

Wait Patrick..

Did you say the tweeters or midrange-bass were the most important thing in the speaker?

If you said tweeters, then I misread and I believe an apology is in order.

 

[Jack Gilvey]

If you do this, you'll ask yourself what is the big deal about tweeters. The bulk of music intelligibility is in the midwoofers.

I very much agree,btw. I'm using a couple DIY full-rangers in my music system, no tweeters, not much there above 10kHz but they get to the heart of things.

 

[Brian Bunge]

I too agree with Jack and Pat. I, along with Hank Frankenberg, am designing a Bose Beater system that uses 3.5" full range drivers. Their frequency response states ~ 90-20KHz. While they may not get all the way out to 20KHz I do not notice anything "missing" other than maybe the absolute highest of notes. But I have already confirmed with my Stryke disc that I cannot hear much past 17-18KHz anyway. Using them for nearfield listening at my computer the sound is absolutely stunning for such a small driver, IMHO. If you have a low powered receiver they make killer computer speakers as well as nice little HT speakers too.

I think great vocals and an unoffending highend is where it's at!

Brian

 

[NathanP]

What would lead you to believe they're "focusing on the tweeter?"

Haven't you seen what B&W are doing with their tweeters?

Take a look at the Nautilus series, regular paper-cone woofers with a KEVLAR dome tweeters.

Take a look at HT magazine, companies will use the usual woofers, but when it comes to tweeters they'll spend as much as possible.

IMO, it's tweeters all the way.

I know it sounds a bit foolish, but I think many people here will have my opionion.

Nathan

 

[Jack Gilvey]

IMO, it's tweeters all the way.

I know it sounds a bit foolish, but I think many people here will have my opionion.

"Tweeters all the way"? What does that mean? Yes, it does sound foolish. The fact is that the midrange contains the heart of the music. If you actually listen to a tweeter on its own, you'll see what Pat means.

 

[Chad Isaacs]

"I know it sounds a bit foolish"

As usual.Just do what you want and do not listen to any advice,thats how you tend to do things anyway.If you want good advice,quit wasting money on silly little things,save up and get a good set of matching speakers.With all the money you claim to make you should be able to outdo 99% of this forums members in no time.

 

[Dan Hine]

Take a look at HT magazine, companies will use the usual woofers, but when it comes to tweeters they'll spend as much as possible.

Have you looked at the prices of drivers recently? The "usual" woofers you are refering to are not the cheapy speakers that find on the shelf at Radioshack. Take a look at the Scan Speak and Focal drivers at parts express. Also note that some companies use drivers made specifically for them. I've looked all over Scan Speaks website and could not find the drivers used in a few of Vienna Acoustic speakers.

And like another user said, the male vocals are most likely being produced by the mids. So even if you like tweeters better, replacing them is not going to solve the problem.

Regards,

Dan Hine

 

[NathanP]

As usual.Just do what you want and do not listen to any advice,

Um, what are you guys advising me to do?

I just wanted to know if I can replace my cone tweeters with soft dome tweeters?

How we got into this discussion, I'll never know.

Actually, I did take your guys advice-- Going to purchase myself a Shiva sometime this month

Nathan

 

[NathanP]

Ohhhh, I see..

You guys are saying that it's my mid-range, not my tweeter..

Hmm. I'm okay with the mid-range in my speakers. It's the tweeter that seems to be the problem.