crystal tweets?

[pk222]

hey guys, stopped by a stereo shop a couple weeks ago and was kind of lost on something they had. I forgot the brand but they were crystal tweeters. There was no voice coil or dome or crossover, anything. I was told it is a crystal that vibrates. Their only selling for $20. Any ideas on how good they are?

Also thinking of putting some phoenix gold rsd's in my camaro and was looking for an idea on an amp for them? I was thinking an autotek sm2-400. Would it sound ok with just door speakers or should I run the sail panels and hatch speakers too? It sounds ok now but I know the factory monsoon system wont last much longer.

[pk222]

wow

guess these are so new not even you guys know about them

[justinlc3]

You are talking about a Piezo tweeter.

A piezo (or piezo-electric) tweeter contains a piezoelectric crystal coupled to a mechanical diaphragm. An audio signal is applied to the crystal, which responds by flexing in proportion to the voltage applied across the crystal's surfaces, thus converting electrical energy into mechanical (and hence acoustic) energy. While piezoelectric tweeters are cheap and rugged when compared to typical voice coil tweeters, most are not capable of the same level of linearity and accuracy of reproduction compared to high quality conventional tweeter designs. Piezoelectric tweeters are most commonly found in inexpensive stereo and public address speakers, where cost and reliability are more important than accuracy. In some high quality hi-fi speakers, most notably the Dahlquist DQ-10, piezoelectric tweeters have been used as supertweeters, reproducing frequencies beyond the limit of most dynamic speakers, although this is not a common practice.

In many cases in lower cost equipment, typically portable stereos (boomboxes) or car audio, flat disc piezo elements are employed as tweeters, although their sensitivity (and hence output level) is very low. Including these devices allows manufacturers to claim their speakers are 2- or 3-way systems. That the output is almost inaudible may be a good thing, since these devices are resonant discs unsuitable for use as genuine tweeters.

[pk222]

ok, judging buy that it sounds like their pretty much crap. my friend hooked some up directly to his amp and you can tell their there and sound better than just the door speakers but they only sound good on certain songs. On most they sound like their distorting.

ok any ideas on the autotek amp for the rsd's and how it would sound compared to the factory monsoon 6 speaker system? I was thinking it would take a while to blow the stock speakers but its not the speakers that are going, the factory monsoon amp is cutting in and out on one side.

The set up I have now is the monsoon speakers and amp a pioneer i think 6800 head unit boss 3500d amp and 2 planet audio torq 12s. I know this is low end stuff but it turned out decent for a budget system.