New Phantom coming!!

[dkoretz]

I am bemused by the suggestion of a Ti tweeter. With few exceptions (Be, B) most engineering metals have more or less the same specific stiffness, that is to say ratio of density:modulus.
Titanium is quite a bit heavier than aluminium, so a titanium dome of the same weight as the existing aluminium dome will have to be thinner. Since the bending stiffness is proportional to thickness cubed that means a Ti dome will break up at a lower frequency than an Al one. On top of that anodising Al leaves a hard coating which may well increase its stiffness still further (I haven't checked the modulus of the aluminium oxide anodised layer).

So whilst this may be a better tweeter than the current one it won't be because it is Titanium.

As far as metals go only Beryllium has much better properties for tweeter domes than others, Magnesium may have a touch higher breakup frequency than aluminium, which will be slightly higher again Titanium if each are the same weight, since the less dense materials will be a tiny bit thicker.

f1eng,

Very helpful comments.  That would explain why there are so few titanium tweeters.  In that case, perhaps they are considering Beryllium.  I was interviewed a while ago by someone at Devialet and had suggested Beryllium. 

As to 4500 watts, my thought is that it may offer more control over the cones than increasing decibels.  More resolution.   

Also, paper woofers can sound fantastic. I currently have a speaker with small paper woofers which have a moving mass of just 1.9 grams and they are incredibly fast and resolved.  Just wonderful drivers.

They definitely said titanium, not Beryllium.

Also, they said there was actually quite a bit of demand for more powerful speakers, which I found surprising. 

I don't think for the overwhelming majority of use cases, people are looking for more sheer power. It's a about better sound and more reliable SW.

They said sound quality is going to get significantly better, so maybe the power isn't purely for power's sake?