When looking at car speakers, you might just find a brand you like and go with it because you know and trust that brand. If that's how you buy speakers, you should keep doing it. Stay loyal! But, what happens if you really like a certain brand speaker, but then you see that they have 2 or 3 models? Let's say that you have always had luck with Kicker speakers. You go to buy Kicker speakers but you see the CS Series, the KS Series, and the Q Series? Are the most expensive ones the best? No always. It is important to understand the the tweeter materials and how the material impacts the sound profile. With this information, you can make a more educated choice to ensure you get the sound qualiyt that you are looking for.

Hard dome tweeters are usually made of metal or plastic materials. These materials usually give you brighter, sharper, and more aggressive highs than soft dome tweeters. Typically hard dome tweeters are used on lower cost speakers as they are cheaper to manufacture than soft dome tweeters, and you get louder highs from the hard dome versus a soft dome tweeter. The brighter and sharper highs form hard dome tweeters aren't necessarily a bad thing though. The brighter the speaker plays, the better that speaker will cut through ambient noise from the engine, wind, and road. So, if you are looking for factory replacement speakers or you are running speakers directly off of your radio, a hard dome tweeter is going to be a good choice. Your speakers will play loud, without requiring as much power as a soft dome tweeter, and the sound will cut through the low frequnecy noise that comes from driving.

Examples of Hard Dome Tweeter Materials:

• PEI
• Aluminum
• LCP (Liquid Crytal Polymer)
• Titanium

Soft dome tweeters use textile tweeter materials instead of plastics or metals for the tweeter. These speakers typically require more power and will not play as bright, loud, and aggressive as a hard dome tweeter. Soft dome tweeters are known for their rich, warm, balanced, smooth, and almost buttery sound profile. Soft dome tweeters will still cut through the ambient noise like a soft dome tweeter, but not as well and it will also depend on how much noise you have. If you have a V8 that is straight piped, you probably want a hard dome tweeter to cut through that noise. Most Harley Davidson speakers use hard dome tweeters to cut through the noise. If you have a V8 with an performance exhaust, a silk dome tweeter will still cut through the engine noise. You just trade that aggressive, bright, loud profile for a smoother, balanced, warmer sound profile.

Examples of Soft Dome Tweeters:

• Silk
• Tetolon
• Anything "Textile"

A hard dome tweeter isn't necesarily better or worse than a soft dome tweeter, they are just different. You might love the bright profile of a hard dome tweeter while your best friend, brother, wife, etc. may like the smooth sound profile of a soft dome tweeter. There are really expensive speakers and very accurate speakers that use hard dome tweeters and there are really expensive speakers and very accurate speakers that use soft dome tweeters. There are many other factors to consider when purchasing speakers like power handling, efficiency, mounting depth, and brand preference, but now you have a little more information without a bunch of scientific and engineering speak.