Commentary
Aurum Cantus G3Si ($213) - Of the three true ribbons, the G3Si has the best low end performance. This isn't saying much since low end distortion is still horrible by dome standards. High tall order harmonic distortion, which is more evident in the single tone spectrum plots. Poor vertical off axis response. While the faceplate is metal, I still consider the build quality lower than the Fountek or LCY.
LCY 130 ($199) - Very low sensitivity. Excellent vertical off axis response. Very close in on-axis performance to the Fountek, but at a much higher price. Good built quality - You have to like red and black jewels on the terminals to designate positive and negative. One of my test samples had a misaligned ribbon, but it did not affect things so I assume it was not touching the magnets.
Fountek NeoCD2.0 ($118) - Comparitively durable ribbon element. Of the three true ribbons, this has the best performance above 4kHz. It has the worst performance at 2kHz, rendered somewhat irrelevant because they are all terrible at 2Khz. It's excellent 4kHz+ performance is more obvious in the HD sweeps than the single and multitone spectrums however. Smooth response curve. Poor vertical off axis response.
Bohlender Graebener Neo3 PDR ($55 w/flange) - This B&G tweeter outperformed everything here, in most cases by a large margin. Response curve is ok, but nonlinear distortion is excellent. This is a very clean and natural sounding tweeter. Note: these were tested with the rear chamber in place. Later, with a different pair, I also tested with the chamber removed. The tweeter was far too overdamped in that case, and I recommend leaving the rear chamber installed.
Silver Flute YAG20-1 ($40) - Every test has to have a loser. This is it. Fairly flat and controlled response, but the distortion kills it. In fact, it may be the worst tweeter I've ever tested.
Vifa D26NC55 ($29) - This cheap little dome tweeter outperforms everything here except for the B&G Neo3 PDR in the non-linear distortion department. It works well at 2kHz like the B&G, but has ever so slightly higher HD everywhere else. On the other hand, this tweeter beats the Neo3PDR in response smoothness and the resulting smooth CSD. (full results shown in the Tweeter Mishmash)