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RE: Price for Sawafuji Drivers?

It is a unique design. Kind of a complex thing, I wonder if these are hard to make.

I think the diaphragm acts more pistonically than other planar or ribbon tweeters- that flat diaphragm's motion seems likely to be more like a piston than a rippling ribbon. I think this is the reason for the lower distortion over similarly sized ribbon or planar type drivers.

I think there is also some advantage in damping, these drivers have various mechanical features that limit degrees of freedom.

By the same token, I think we have a slightly higher moving mass than a true ribbon or aluminum-on-kapton planar, so it's performance in the top octave - while very good - does not sound quite as "open" as a "true ribbon."

The upper treble is better than domes ( IMHO ) but not quite as "open" as a real ribbon. However, the performance in the 1~4 kHz range is so wonderfully detailed and "fast" that the sound of a 2-way using one of these is kind of remarkable. Ribbons generally don't work crossed over below 2 kHz, they distort at the bottom of their ranges, I've found that ribbons work best above 3~4 kHz. Except, of course, for the really big ribbon in the MG 3.6 etc, that driver is so large that you can get good low distortion performance down to 1,200~1,500 Hz. With those little silicone dots anchoring the diaphragm along it's length, the Magneplanar ribbon tweeter acts kind of like a big vertical line array of ribbons. Not exactly like a line array of individual ribbons, but KIND OF like that. Anyway, the Magnepan ribbon tweeter is very good over it's entire range. Wonderful tweeter. Maybe the **BEST** tweeter. I've wondered if Magnepan could make a midrange driver using the same design- a wider ribbon? Might be too fragile, though.

Have we veered far enough off topic yet? :-)
Science doesn't care what you believe.


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