Joined
·
4,838 Posts
AudiocRavings, by Wayne Myers:
2 - Can't Tell an MP3 from a FLAC? You Might Need A Better Tweeter
It's Easy - Under The Right Conditions
Recently I was at Dennis Young's place - Tesseract - listening to various tunes via Tidal Streaming over his Vapor Audio Sundog (Black) speakers, with their gloriously clean high end, courtesy of RAAL tweeters. The Sundogs were delivering such a pristine, crystal-clear treble, that was the first thing I noticed when I sat down, even though I was seated off to the side, several feet from the prime Listening Position (LP).
While we were listening, out of curiosity we switched among the three grades of audio available: Normal, High, and HIFI - you have to stop and restart playback to get the audio grade to switch after changing your selection, and we did this each time.
The Normal and High settings were certainly not bad sounding, but the high frequencies were simply not as clean as with the HIFI setting, which is lossless (FLAC). With the two lossy sound grades, the highs sounded slightly messy, or hashy, compared to the HIFI, which was completely free of such effects. I could hear the difference very clearly. I will let Dennis give you his own impressions. With cymbals, bells, and sharp percussive sounds with lots of high frequencies, it was easy to hear the difference. And on a saxophone track, I could readily hear the difference in the highest harmonics of that instrument's rich tones.
Good, Better, Best Tweeter Types
There are those who claim that you cannot hear the difference, or cannot hear it easily, or that the difference is so small that it does not really matter - there are many possible ways to put it. I suggest that if you can not hear the difference easily, that you just might need speakers with better tweeters. Here are a few impressions about tweeters in general. These are roughly listed from Good (bottom of the list) to Better to Best (top of the list).
Note that there are exceptions to the order of this list. I have heard Metal Dome tweeters that sounded fantastically transparent, for instance. But as a rule, these impressions hold true probably 80% to 90% of the time.
The Transparent Tweeter
I believe that the main tweeter design detractors from transparency are (in no particular order):
Dispersion and Crossover Integration can also be factors. There can be numerous contributors beyond the tweeter type itself, so they are outside the bounds of this discussion.
...and in general, the better tweeter types avoid these types of problems by way of:
Next Time You Buy Speakers
My advice: When you are deciding on a new speaker, make the tweeter type a high priority on your list of selection criteria. Then when there is a discussion about subtle effects like the difference between FLACs and MP3s, or between lossless and lossy tracks, you might just be able to chime in with, "I can sure hear the difference." Your ears will love you for it.
Welcome to AudiocRavings, my blog of audio-related thoughts, musings, ideas, discoveries, suggestions, rants, and ramblings. With luck, a portion will be somewhat useful to someone somewhere somehow.
Wayne Myers
2 - Can't Tell an MP3 from a FLAC? You Might Need A Better Tweeter
It's Easy - Under The Right Conditions
Recently I was at Dennis Young's place - Tesseract - listening to various tunes via Tidal Streaming over his Vapor Audio Sundog (Black) speakers, with their gloriously clean high end, courtesy of RAAL tweeters. The Sundogs were delivering such a pristine, crystal-clear treble, that was the first thing I noticed when I sat down, even though I was seated off to the side, several feet from the prime Listening Position (LP).
While we were listening, out of curiosity we switched among the three grades of audio available: Normal, High, and HIFI - you have to stop and restart playback to get the audio grade to switch after changing your selection, and we did this each time.
Hybrid Electrostatic Speaker, a two-way design, all high-frequency (HF) content
is handled by the electrostatic panel. Very low mass, very low distortion.
Ribbon Tweeter. Very low mass, low distortion, smooth HF response.
is handled by the electrostatic panel. Very low mass, very low distortion.

Ribbon Tweeter. Very low mass, low distortion, smooth HF response.

The Normal and High settings were certainly not bad sounding, but the high frequencies were simply not as clean as with the HIFI setting, which is lossless (FLAC). With the two lossy sound grades, the highs sounded slightly messy, or hashy, compared to the HIFI, which was completely free of such effects. I could hear the difference very clearly. I will let Dennis give you his own impressions. With cymbals, bells, and sharp percussive sounds with lots of high frequencies, it was easy to hear the difference. And on a saxophone track, I could readily hear the difference in the highest harmonics of that instrument's rich tones.
Here is a view of part of Tidal's streaming service GUI,
showing the lossless HIFI option is active.
showing the lossless HIFI option is active.

Good, Better, Best Tweeter Types
There are those who claim that you cannot hear the difference, or cannot hear it easily, or that the difference is so small that it does not really matter - there are many possible ways to put it. I suggest that if you can not hear the difference easily, that you just might need speakers with better tweeters. Here are a few impressions about tweeters in general. These are roughly listed from Good (bottom of the list) to Better to Best (top of the list).
- Plasma - Best, and - you guessed it - VERY expensive
- Electrostatic - Best
- Planar Magnetic - Best
- Ribbon (including Horn-Loaded) - Best
- Folded-Motion (including Horn-Loaded) - Better
- Horn-Loaded Compression - Better
- Cone - Good
- Silk Dome - Good
- Metal Dome - Good
Note that there are exceptions to the order of this list. I have heard Metal Dome tweeters that sounded fantastically transparent, for instance. But as a rule, these impressions hold true probably 80% to 90% of the time.
The Transparent Tweeter
I believe that the main tweeter design detractors from transparency are (in no particular order):
- Distortion
- Stored Energy
- Rough Frequency Response
Dispersion and Crossover Integration can also be factors. There can be numerous contributors beyond the tweeter type itself, so they are outside the bounds of this discussion.
...and in general, the better tweeter types avoid these types of problems by way of:
- Bigger Surface area - less motion, lower distortion
- Lower Mass - faster response, less stored energy, lower distortion
- Higher Efficiency - less motion, lower distortion
Next Time You Buy Speakers
My advice: When you are deciding on a new speaker, make the tweeter type a high priority on your list of selection criteria. Then when there is a discussion about subtle effects like the difference between FLACs and MP3s, or between lossless and lossy tracks, you might just be able to chime in with, "I can sure hear the difference." Your ears will love you for it.
Welcome to AudiocRavings, my blog of audio-related thoughts, musings, ideas, discoveries, suggestions, rants, and ramblings. With luck, a portion will be somewhat useful to someone somewhere somehow.
Wayne Myers