Diamond Tweeter?

[jimb]

.... I actually get a bit nervous handling these

I think I'd be nervous OWNING them!

[Mag_Neato]

Dave, do you think you and SEAS could work to create an Ascend-specific version of the Diamond tweeter that could reduce its cost as well as be exclusive to your speakers, similar to the RAAL project?

[theophile]

...I actually get a bit nervous handling these

No problem Dave...jewelers do it all the time!

[davef]

Dave, do you think you and SEAS could work to create an Ascend-specific version of the Diamond tweeter that could reduce its cost as well as be exclusive to your speakers, similar to the RAAL project?

I have discussed this in detail with Claus and I don't think it is possible. What makes this diamond tweeter so darn good is the combination of the vapor deposited pure diamond dome in combination with the patented hexadym motor system. Reducing the cost would mean sacrificing one of these features and what stood out to me most about this tweeter, besides how natural it sounds, was how well damped and clear it is. That damping is due to the motor system which is designed to dramatically reduce back-wave reflections from the dome. Remember soundwaves are produced equally from the dome, projecting forward from the dome and backwards from the dome. The back-wave is out of phase with the front wave and it is critical to stop the back-wave from interfering with the front wave (not an easy task). This is a major feature of what makes our NrT dome so good, the hexadym magnet system takes that to the next level.

We have reduced our cost on these as much as possible without any hits to performance. One was going with a custom machined aluminum faceplate compared to the stock Corian faceplate. Another possibility is that we purchase in bulk but I am obviously not a fan of that idea

If you are interested in a speaker with these tweeters, send me an email and we can discuss. I have another customer also interested and if we can time this right - perhaps we can make a bulk purchase with a mild reduction on pricing.

[Mag_Neato]

I have discussed this in detail with Claus and I don't think it is possible. What makes this diamond tweeter so darn good is the combination of the vapor deposited pure diamond dome in combination with the patented hexadym motor system. Reducing the cost would mean sacrificing one of these features and what stood out to me most about this tweeter, besides how natural it sounds, was how well damped and clear it is. That damping is due to the motor system which is designed to dramatically reduce back-wave reflections from the dome. Remember soundwaves are produced equally from the dome, projecting forward from the dome and backwards from the dome. The back-wave is out of phase with the front wave and it is critical to stop the back-wave from interfering with the front wave (not an easy task). This is a major feature of what makes our NrT dome so good, the hexadym magnet system takes that to the next level.

We have reduced our cost on these as much as possible without any hits to performance. One was going with a custom machined aluminum faceplate compared to the stock Corian faceplate. Another possibility is that we purchase in bulk but I am obviously not a fan of that idea

If you are interested in a speaker with these tweeters, send me an email and we can discuss. I have another customer also interested and if we can time this right - perhaps we can make a bulk purchase with a mild reduction on pricing.

I guess there's no short cutting certain technologies. Understood.

Yes, I am interested in the Diamond tweeter, but there's no possible way I could afford it! I am watching this as it develops out of curiosity. I hope whatever the results are with the tower, that it blows away anything near its price!

[davef]

Something really cool shipping to a lucky customer of ours on Monday....

[merrymaid520]

Me? Did I win?


They look outstanding!

[Mag_Neato]

Ooooooh! An $8,000 pair of Sierra towers!!

[davef]

Have been listening to the pair since I made that post and all I can say is WOW... Very RAAL 70-20xram-like with regards to smoothness and detail, but yet they have their own unique character to them, warmer, perhaps a tad bit less clinical, more energy in the 4-6kHz range but no fatigue or sibilance.

Ridiculously transparent and airy, Dina and I both are hearing things that we have never heard in the same recordings we have demo'd thousands of times. What immediately stands out to me is with regard to complex passages whereby many instruments / vocalists are playing together at the same time. There is no muddling together, everything is extremely detailed and discrete, very "live". The best instrument separation I have ever heard...

There are also some interesting technical advantages of this tweeter with regards to crossover design and while the customer and I discussed the possibility of using different midrange drivers -- it turned out that our very low mass under hung neo-motor mid blended perfectly.

These are definitely not for everyone though, besides being the most expensive tweeters that I know of -- they are hyper detailed and you literally hear everything. Listening to a Diana Krall song, during a few sections of a song - while she wasn't actually singing, we were able to hear her licking and smacking her lips together deep in the background.

Father's day is next week, I will be building myself my own pair of these

[jimb]

Very cool! Any chance to get a full set of measurements on them and see if you can correlate the differences you hear to features in the measurements vs RAAL Towers??? My previous experience with equalization in an active crossover showed me that very small differences had a discernible effect on the character of the sound.