Ribbon tweeter

My new toy Sonus Faber Auditor M SE version is using the Ribbon Tweeter. What is it? From the web, Ribbon tweeter is
A ribbon tweeter uses a very thin diaphragm (often of aluminum, or perhaps metalized plastic film) which supports a planar coil frequently made by deposition of aluminium vapor, suspended in a powerful magnetic field (typically provided by neodymium magnets) to reproduce high frequencies. The development of ribbon tweeters has more or less followed the development of ribbon microphones. The ribbon is of very lightweight material and so capable of very high acceleration and extended high frequency response. Ribbons have traditionally been incapable of high output (large magnet gaps leading to poor magnetic coupling is the main reason). But higher power versions of ribbon tweeters are becoming common in large-scale sound reinforcement line array systems, which can serve audiences of thousands. They are attractive in these applications since nearly all ribbon tweeters inherently exhibit useful directional properties, with very wide horizontal dispersion (coverage) and very tight vertical dispersion. These drivers can easily be stacked vertically, building a high frequency line array that produces high sound pressure levels much farther away from the speaker locations than do conventional tweeters.
I was told by the salesmen that Sonus Faber will be using these new Ribbon tweeter to replace their existing models. The advantage is that the music produced will be more dynamic and less sluggish....

There are many different types of ribbons with different resistances, thicknesses, responce times etc.. but in general they have a much lower mass then any cone or dome tweeter, respond faster and stop faster then any cone or dome driver and lack coloration. They can have a very high powerhandling with no audible distortion on good designs with good magnets..

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