Tweeters are an essential ingredient in audio nirvana, and while the choices of driver type, material, and price can be daunting, answering a few simple questions can go a long way toward finding the tweeter that’s right for you.

Let’s start with the project type. If you’re following a building plan from the Parts Express Speaker Project Gallery (with designs submitted by hobbyists, there’s something here for every skill set and budget!), tweeter selection is fairly straightforward—just follow the builder’s recommendation or select a product with nearly identical specs.

Likewise, if you’re replacing an existing driver, it’s fairly easy to narrow your focus. Tweeter type, impedance, power handling, and dimensions can be easily determined and then applied as filters when searching tweeters on parts-express.com. For example, if you need an 8 ohm, 2” cone type tweeter then just select those filters on the Tweeters category and the 174 available options will be narrowed down to 1. The Phenolic Ring Tweeter, this popular tweeter happens to be a drop-in replacement for many Marantz, Altec, AR, and other popular speakers from the 1970s.

If custom speaker design and building is your preference, things get a lot more technical. You’ll need, at the very least, tools to measure impedance and frequency response. Factors like listening environment, tweeter type and material preference, enclosure shape and dimensions, crossover points, resonant frequencies, woofer choice, and budget are just a few of the considerations. Tools such as Dayton Audio's DATS V3 test system and OmniMic V2 measurement system help drastically with your speaker designs. Since there are so many variables, it’s a good thing Parts Express offers plenty of help, from posting on the Tech Talk Customer Forum to talking with resident experts at tech@parts-express.com or 1-800-338-0531.

Cone Tweeters

Dome Tweeters

This category offers a wide range of choices to fit any budget or design. The majority of modern tweeters today are dome tweeters. Thanks to their small diaphragms and the rigid semi-spherical shape, dome tweeters can produce excellent response on and off-axis. Another advantage of small diaphragms is extremely low mass, this allows most dome tweeters the capability to maintain accurate response up to 20,000 Hz or more (some as high as 40,000 Hz). Although domes can be made from a variety of materials of varying hardness, each with their own advantages, premium sound can be had from almost any type of diaphragm.

Here are a few of the most common dome types:

Soft (Cloth) Domes

The most popular cloth diaphragm material used is silk, but other textiles can be used. Renowned for its warmth and refinement, cloth, or soft dome, tweeters are commonly characterized as creating a natural and smooth response. Soft dome tweeters can be found in everything from low-cost designs to some of the best speaker systems ever made. A couple popular offerings take center stage here.

Poly/Mylar Domes

The most cost-effective dome material is polymer or Mylar. This man-made material is molded into the dome shape and in many cases includes an integrated surround to increase surface area while keeping dome and voice coil size to a minimum. Poly dome tweeters can provide accurate response and low distortion. However, many poly dome tweeters have small diaphragms and a high resonant frequency, so they generally require higher crossover points. Poly/Mylar is the most common type of tweeter used in lower cost speaker systems from the late 1980’s thru today, but they can be found in many high-end designs.

Hard (Metal/Ceramic) Domes

Hard dome tweeters combine low mass and extreme rigidity to provide incredible high frequency accuracy and detail. Constructed from materials such as aluminum, titanium, ceramic, and more, these diaphragms can withstand significant deformation when exposed to high pressure. Like soft domes, hard dome tweeters can be found in everything from inexpensive systems to world class designs. Here are a few of our popular hard dome tweeters.

Ribbon and Planar Tweeters

Often, audiophiles will discuss these two tweeter types as if one (ribbons) is a subset of the other (planars). However, true ribbons are a separate class distinguished by a conductive thin foil diaphragm, while planars employ a plastic film upon which electrically conductive traces have been applied. Powerful magnet structures surround both of these radiating material types. Ribbons and planars alike offer advantages in resolution and detail; their low mass and flexibility facilitate ultra-fast transient response and the ability to accurately mimic the decay effects of stringed recordings.

Air Motion Transformers (AMT)

Horn/Waveguide Tweeters

Certain applications (i.e., pro audio and home theaters) favor efficiency and controlled dispersion over other considerations, and you can’t get more efficient than horn or waveguide-loaded tweeters. These high frequency systems consist of a driver that is mounted to a horn or waveguide which is designed to direct the majority of the output into a confined area. This directionality comes at the cost of dispersion, however in many cases controlled dispersion is preferred to minimize reflections. In addition, by directing more of the output forward, there is a significant increase in efficiency. Finally, horns and waveguides function as a sort of an acoustic transformer that can effectively extend the low frequency response of smaller drivers (larger horns produce more low frequency capability). These can come in a variety of configurations.

Some are simply a standard tweeter mounted to a wide dispersion waveguide, such as the Dayton Audio ND25FW-4 1" Soft Dome Neodymium Tweeter with Waveguide. These types of designs can still deliver good off-axis response, but they have a significant efficiency and low frequency boost over non-loaded version. You can find pretty much any type of tweeters in these designs: dome, planar, ribbon, AMT, etc.

Others consist of high efficiency compression drivers combined with a controlled dispersion horn. A cost-effective horn loaded tweeter is the GRS BT3-8 3-3/8" Neodymium Horn Loaded Bullet Tweeter. In many cases the compression driver and horn are sold separately, allowing you to create specific combinations to maximize the output and response capability to match the space and lower frequency drivers you have available.

Many years ago, compression drivers and horns had the reputation of being shouty or harsh. However, with today’s technology and computer aided refinement that reputation is a thing of the past. Many of the compression drivers available provide high-fidelity sound and low distortion that can compete with some of the best standard tweeters on the market…only much, much louder.

What’s Your Type?

No matter your tweeter preference, Parts Express has a product to fit every budget. And every purchase comes with free lifetime technical support. Browse today and get started on your next speaker project.

Learn More

If you are interested in learning more about speaker building and all things audio be sure to check out TechTalk and the Customer Project Gallery.

In addition, Parts Express has a large resource collection. When deciding on which tweeter is right for you we also suggest you look at the articles about crossovers and factors to consider when building a crossover.