ribbon tweeter's

[joetama 5,000+ posts]

I have heard some really good sounding Ring tweeters, but I just don't know if I like them that much. They lack something I like, but I'm not sure what it is. I've tried to explain it before to people and they just didn't get what I was saying, so I'm not going to try here...

By any means though, they can do some ultra amazing things with how wide band they are, and they do have good depth, and good imaging but only if installed right....

 

[Jaredl 10+ year member]

That's good to know. That tweeter did catch my eye when I saw it. That seems like a bargain compared to the ring radiators for 1/2 the price (but still really expensive, not to say scan drivers aren't awesome).

 

[Beat_Dominator 5,000+ posts]

One point I didn't see mentioned.... Ribbons are delicate and most likely would not hold up well in vibrating confines of the car. Add in the need for some sort of UV coating and a "mobile" ribbon probably wouldn't perform very well.

 

[jujumantb 10+ year member]

do they need alot of airspace or are they like dome tweets and fine with very little??

haha.... tweeter flex, they dont need airspace...

 

[Jaredl 10+ year member]

One point I didn't see mentioned.... Ribbons are delicate and most likely would not hold up well in vibrating confines of the car. Add in the need for some sort of UV coating and a "mobile" ribbon probably wouldn't perform very well.

Ribbons aren't that weak. There are plenty of people on diymobileaudio.com that use ribbons in their cars. As long as there isn't wind blowing on the ribbon element, you shouldn't have a problem.

 

[Beat_Dominator 5,000+ posts]

Ribbons aren't that weak. There are plenty of people on diymobileaudio.com that use ribbons in their cars. As long as there isn't wind blowing on the ribbon element, you shouldn't have a problem.

Heh, but as I would guess something that can never be "blown" on in a car wouldn't last very long..... drive with the windows open....WHOPS! //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif

 

[Jaredl 10+ year member]

Heh, but as I would guess something that can never be "blown" on in a car wouldn't last very long..... drive with the windows open....WHOPS! //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif

Kick panels, a-pillars? It's pretty hard to get something to blow on them unless you put a fan next to them or blow on them yourself, wind shouldn't be an issue as it will be blowing on the back of the tweeters if anywhere.

 

[req 5,000+ posts]

yea i would say the main reasons are the mounting issues, they are generally pretty **** giant.

couple that with terrible off axis response, and its definatly not good for car usage.

think of it this way, when you use ribbons in a HT, you set them on the same plane as the rest of the speakers (normally) and aim them perfectly at the listening area and they are usually quite a distance away. thats the normal application for them.

but in a car, you are maybe 2~5 feet from them at MOST, and integrating them into a cars dashboard or pillars and aiming them correctly woulod be extremly difficult - even without all the odd reflections from glass\dash\ect.

 

[Jaredl 10+ year member]

yea i would say the main reasons are the mounting issues, they are generally pretty **** giant.
couple that with terrible off axis response, and its definatly not good for car usage.

think of it this way, when you use ribbons in a HT, you set them on the same plane as the rest of the speakers (normally) and aim them perfectly at the listening area and they are usually quite a distance away. thats the normal application for them.

but in a car, you are maybe 2~5 feet from them at MOST, and integrating them into a cars dashboard or pillars and aiming them correctly woulod be extremly difficult - even without all the odd reflections from glass\dash\ect.

If they have such terrible off axis response, then there would be no reflections to worry about.

As I stated before, they have poor VERTICAL dispersion. They have excellent horizontal dispersion. Thus, they are ideal for kick panel mounting. You can mount them far back and get great response for the front seats without having to worry about under dash reflections.

 

[Beat_Dominator 5,000+ posts]

Most response measurements I've seen for ribbons show pretty weak off-axis response no matter the axis chosen. I'm not a ribbon freak so I'm not sure if there are some companies that make better ones than others.

 

[Jaredl 10+ year member]

I can't point to any specific data, but most ribbons I've seen are supposed to have good horizontal off-axis response (which would be logical as the ribbons are thin (in terms of width) and tall, and since they're tall the vertical response sucks).

 

[Beat_Dominator 5,000+ posts]

But they act in a pistonic fashion and generate sound from a flat surface (not a dome like most tweeters) I would think that makes them very uni-directional.

 

[dkmesa 10+ year member]

My friend had a pair, but totalled his car b4 he could install them. I could buy em and hook em up to 50 watts and tell you what they sound like //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

 

[joetama 5,000+ posts]

But they act in a pistonic fashion and generate sound from a flat surface (not a dome like most tweeters) I would think that makes them very uni-directional.

I don't think this is true, I think they produce the sound from vibrations acrost the whole plane, sort of like a wave or the whole plane moving as one.... They are very biased up and down but left and right are very wide, because of the placement of the "motor" structure is usually vertical.

I'm reading up on them to understand more, but that is what I always heard in them.... For example the axis would be 10 deg vertical and 270 deg horizontal...

Some links....

http://www.magnepan.com/maggie_tech.php

http://www.us.martinlogan.com/technology/technology.html

A company that builds kick *** hybrid designs. Check out the section on the ART technology....

http://www.adam-audio.com/professional/

 

[WeDgE 10+ year member]

I can't point to any specific data, but most ribbons I've seen are supposed to have good horizontal off-axis response (which would be logical as the ribbons are thin (in terms of width) and tall, and since they're tall the vertical response sucks).

As per zaphaudio.com: "Note that horizontal dispertion for all of these tweeters is excellent, and very close to the on-axis response curve," (in reference to ribbon/planar tweets).

Vertical off-axis tests: http://www.zaphaudio.com/nondomes/standard.html