Are ribbon/AMT/planar tweeters just eye candy at this point, a must have for boutique brands to justify their prices? What are their redeeming qualities again? I rarely see smooth treble response from them, and directivity is always sub-par. But I guess they bring that "sparkle"? I'm a skeptic, I think they need more advancement. A good dome tweeter in a waveguide for me.
Come on, the Heil drivers debuted in the ESS1 in like 1976. Granted a lot of additional work wasn't done until the 2000's when a bunch made their way into mainstream consumer audio, but those original ESS AMT's had quite a fan club-I remember the day and the time I first heard them almost the way average people might remember when John Lennon was shot. It was in a Fall Saturday morning, good weather, and I am in an audio store in Tustin, CA, and the clerk has just cued up some Peter Green guitar (Fleetwood Mac, Albatross). My jaw dislocates.
I've had a handful of audio experiences like that in my life--but that the tweeter was something very special was beyond any doubt, and my audio bearings as to what was possible just got revised.
So hardly new-fangled, need the warts worked out. You might look at the Aurum Cantus line of aerostriction tweeters which are
a) exceptionally flat
b) are extremely efficient and
c) can reach ear piercing levels (118-120dB) with no harm done to the drivers.
Find me a dome for 300 bucks that will do this:
BTW I've owned and measured a pair, the specs are accurate, at least down to 1200 Hz. I didn't want to risk damage.