Metal vs Silk tweeters

[bobo244 10+ year member]

What is the difference between silk and metal tweets??(sound output wise)

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[bhsswrstlr 10+ year member]

usually metal tweeters are known for people harsh, some call it "bright". some people like that. silk tweeters usually have a much smoother response, personally i prefer the silk tweeters.

 

[232Stanger04 10+ year member]

had metal domes, they were nice, but they were much to "bright". I am using silk now and I love them. Get silk, they sound SO MUCH better with a wide variety of music. I listen to rock, hard rock, and rap/r&b. My tweets sound absolutely amazing!

 

[klassic 10+ year member]

Metal tweeters may be brighter and some harsh but they are also generally speaking able to produce finer detail and handle more power. If your mounting your speakers low in the doors the brightness may be beneficial as well.

 

[elduderino 10+ year member]

Metal tweeters may be brighter and some harsh but they are also generally speaking able to produce finer detail and handle more power. If your mounting your speakers low in the doors the brightness may be beneficial as well.

1) No, metal tweeters tend to overemphasize certain notes due to "ringing". Think about hitting a bell. It continues to vibrate after you hit it. The silk tweeter has better damping, or a lower "q", and adds less to the music.

2) It's possible that a metal tweeter radiates heat a bit better, but neither enjoys much of a benefit in power handling.

3) With a 1" diaphragm, it is much easier to get a silk dome to have a lower mechanical resonance - you can get it to play lower and still sound good. Since cone mids have worse off-axis dispersion the higher they go, lower-playing tweeters are important for door mounting (less so for on-axis mounting - kicks and home speaks).

This is why Dynaudio, Morel, DLS, Rainbow, Alpine/Scan-Speak, Phass/Scan, a/d/s/, etc., all use silk.

4) Over time the harsher ringing at the bottom of the range (the upper mids/lower treble) becomes tiring and contributes to listener fatigue. I have MBQ with the Musicomps in my Honda, and I have the Alpine/Scan-Speak in the Acura. After listening to the Acura, I can hardly listen to music in the Honda for more than 20 minutes without starting to hate those titanium tweets, and they are low in the door, too.

 

[m3rK201 10+ year member]

Rub silk and aluminium foil on your ass...choice which you prefer..

 

[hoss 5,000+ posts]

the differences between the two are all generalizations... both can share the qualitites listed, but not all are going to have those qualities.

rubbing tweeters on your ass isnt a bad idea either. just make sure you glue whizzer tweeters to your nipples first.

 

[m3rK201 10+ year member]

the differences between the two are all generalizations... both can share the qualitites listed, but not all are going to have those qualities.
rubbing tweeters on your ass isnt a bad idea either. just make sure you glue whizzer tweeters to your nipples first.

GOD i love the word Whizzers //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif

 

[3.5Max6spd 10+ year member]

I prefer silk- smoother , more enjoyable- more natural response and smoother frequency dispersion

Most look at the astronomical freq response of a metal tweet and dont realize one cannot hear past the 16k-20k range every silk tweet is more than capable of reproducing. Although some metal tweets are quite nice, all suffer from resonance, need eq'n and are more involved to install/image right.

 

[m3rK201 10+ year member]

Plasma Tweeters...Always wantd to hear one, any one get a chance ? hears cool page about them, http://web.mit.edu/cjoye/www/elec/

 

[hoss 5,000+ posts]

Most look at the astronomical freq response of a metal tweet and dont realize one cannot hear past the 16k-20k range every silk tweet is more than capable of reproducing.

while most humans cant hear past 20k Hz, and most males cant even hear past 18k Hz, those extended upper frequencies can be percieved, and play a role in the sound stage. while not as vital as the actual freqs that can be picked up on by the human ear, they do have their place in the grand scheme of things.

also, not all metal dome tweets suffer from resonance... i have heard several that had no problem whatsoever.

 

[DFW40 10+ year member]

Obviously there are benefits to both or else there would be just silk or just metal. Some people feel that silk are dull and some feel metal are harsh. Just listen to both with one of your cd's and go from there.

 

[hoss 5,000+ posts]

also not mentioned... there are textile dome tweeters.

 

[DFW40 10+ year member]

Would textile be another type of fabric like silk? If you read through partsexpress you realize that there are about 10 different tweeters available, many are for home type applications.

 

[hoss 5,000+ posts]

textile domes are synthetic materials, most commonly a plastic polymer. and there are several variations of textile domes and their thicknesses.