Types of speakers

[krneki]

Hi,

I have one question for which I don't know answer. Could you please answer it for me?

Which of the following speakers is used for reproduction of high-frequency signals?
a) Piezoelectric, electrostatic and dynamic
b) Magnetic and electrostatic
c) Only dynamic with special membrane
d) Only piezoelectric

I hope I translated them well.

Thank you for help in advance.
Regards,
krneki

[Phlog]

All of them.

I know this isn't very helpful, but at various times they have all been used for high frequency audio. Some of them have also been used for full range signals e.g. electrostatic; "magnetic" - thinking of the Wharfedale range from the 70s/80s (but then all standard speakers could also be termed magnetic, too).

[Mark.Yudkin]

You have omitted ribbon / quasi-ribbon, radia planar and NXT, although all of these are mainstream technologies. They are electromagnetic technologies, but do not use a mechanically coupled coil. Infrequently used technologies include the plasma (tweeter only) and the Radialstrahler.

Other than piezo-electric and plasma, all of the other technologies are also used for high quality midranges and have even be used for high quality full range speakers (examples: quasi-ribbon: Magnepan, electrostatic: Quad, radia planar: BG Corporation)

Electrostatic and plasma are the only technologies to completely eschew the use of magnetism.

[krneki]

Well,it wasn't me who though out this question. There aren't any other possibilities, so I need to select one option. Which one do you recommend?

[BlueWizard]

Tell us what you are doing and why, and give us your budget.

If you are building a do-it-yourself speaker system, I can recommend a forum specifically for building speakers.

http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/forum...?s=&forumid=22

The speaker types you listed are all for high frequency speakers.

For magnetic tweeters, cone are OK, and moderately priced.

Dome are similar to cone, thought generally better and more expensive.

Horn tweeter are much better than cone, and again moderately priced though more expensive that cone or dome

Piezo tweeters are very inexpensive and do a good job and have the advantage of essentially being their own crossover network. Though in most stereo applications they are still combined with some type of crossover or limiting network.

Planar, electrostatic, and ribbon tweeters are definitely the best, and have very wide sound dispersion, but they are also the most expensive.

In most modern speakers you are likely to find Dome mid-ranges and Dome tweeters. They do and excellent job and are reasonably priced, though not exactly cheap.

What you choose depends on what you are trying to do, and what other speaker you are trying to match to.

If you are replacing a tweeter, then you need to contact the manufacturer and see if they can give you a direct replacement. It is best to replace speakers in pairs. So, for example, if you blow a mid-range, you want to replace the mid-range in both speaker cabinets so they will have matching tonal characteristics. Speaker change with age, so one new speaker and an identical old speaker are not going to sound the same.

Does that help?

Steve/bluewizard