Tweeters, do's and don'ts

Hopefully this mini guide will be helpful. I don't sell speakers.

Bet you have noticed the vast number of tweeters available, ranging from a few dollars and up and up (not to mention the high S/H). Ok here's the quick scoop on getting a good start in choosing or using the tweeters you have.

Things to consider:

    * Wattage, Power Handling. Bluntly you do not need high wattage. In fact high wattage tweeters tend to be poor at lower volumes.
    * Filter, a proper capacitor will allow the high frequencies to pass to the tweeter with far less distortion and graininess than the typical non-polarized electrolytic capacitors that are supplied. Remove the capacitors and throw them out. Search for and install a Mylar or Metalized polypropylene film capacitor. You'll be looking for values in the range of 1.8uF - 4.7uF
    * Loudness dB. The higher the dB value the much greater the volume output. Most often you must install a resistor to limit the tweeter volume to reduce the excessive volume.

Types:  (and what to do with them)

Peizo. Very cheap to produce and nearly always incorrectly installed. They are often very loud and harsh unless installed with a proper resistor.You can get usable sound out of them if you place a resistor inline with the tweeter. The resistor should be Metal 2Watt and a value of  56 or 68 ohms (if you use a high power system in a hall then use a non-inductive 10Watt resistor). This will tame the loud tweeter. Since these tweeters can produce very high frequencies (check each tweeters spec's) that might cause distortion or damage a pet's hearing, an option is to install a resistor (6 or 8 ohm 2W) and a capacitor (0.6uF) in a line, then place the lineup across the tweeter terminals.

Mylar. Usually of cheap design that produce ear ringing poor sound. These are found on many 2 or 3 way car speakers. Not much hope here except to use a good capacitor.

Hard Dome. Titanium, aluminum, or other metal material. Again a huge range in quality can be found here. The characteristic of these types are loud, long range, crashing. Low cost high power automotive surface mount tweeters are very harsh and often have serious flaws in music reproduction (holes in the frequency range). Always use a good capacitor. Hard domes will need a bit more work as you will need to install a L-Pad (a balance volume control made up of non-inductive resistors). Search online for Do It Yourself L-Pads.

Soft Dome. Highly desirable smooth clear sound. Great for living areas, automotive and a variety of volume levels. You can find surface mount soft domes that are great for automotive use. Often the dB value (loudness) will be higher than your woofer or full-range speaker. Use a good capacitor and a protection resistor (for example 22ohm 2W metal) . For best results use an L-Pad. An optional use of the tweeter for a video system where you want more vocal clarity or boost, just increase the value of the capacitor a notch from example 4.7uF to 6.8uF

Ribbon. Simply great but costly.

Enjoy better sound.