Ask a room of installers what the best tweeter is and you will get four answers — dome, bullet, horn and piezo — because each construction solves a different problem. The GRANVOZ tweeter family is the deepest in the catalogue at 122 models, and twelve of them carry full published specification tables. This guide uses those twelve as the evidence base and the four constructions as the map.
Dome: the controlled choice
Dome tweeters disperse widely and behave predictably — the factory-replacement and quality-retail choice. The specified domes: the TSP-166 (silk cone, neodymium magnet, 30 W RMS, 92 dB, published response 35 Hz–20 kHz), the TSP-066 (20 W RMS, 89 dB — the catalogue's economy specified tweeter), the TSP-250G piezo dome (80 W RMS, 92 dB, 2 kHz–30 kHz) and the TS35 (aluminium housing, silk cone, 40 W RMS, 103 dB — a sensitivity figure that embarrasses many bullet tweeters). The TSP-203A completes the specified dome-adjacent group as a piezo horn design at 30 W RMS and 98 dB.
Bullet: the output choice
Bullet tweeters trade dispersion for level — the diaphragm sits in a short flare that concentrates output on axis. The specified HST series is titanium-diaphragm bullet territory: the HST-44G (25 W RMS, 103 dB), the HST105-1B (25 W RMS, 99 dB), the HST-46P (75 W RMS, 103 dB) and the HST107-2S (90 W RMS, 105 dB) — plus the TWN-50W bullet tweeter at 80 W RMS and 99 dB. For high-output car builds and pro doors, this is the documented shortlist.
Horn and driver-style tweeters
At the top of the family the tweeter shades into the compression driver: the HDN-30-44 is a neodymium driver unit in tweeter clothing — a 44.4 mm titanium-diaphragm voice coil, 100 W RMS, 105 dB. Models like this serve horn-loaded and high-SPL systems where a dome or bullet runs out of headroom. If your programme lives there, read the driver family as well — the boundary is commercial, not physical.
Piezo: the crossover-free option
Piezo models — including the specified TSP-250G — replace the voice coil with a piezoelectric element, presenting a capacitive load that typically runs without a crossover network. That makes them the low-cost, high-simplicity choice for utility and replacement programmes. Their ratings are not comparable unit-for-unit with voice-coil tweeters, so judge piezo candidates on samples and confirmed quotation figures.
How to choose, in order
- Replacement and retail quality programmes: dome — start with the TSP-166 and TS35.
- High-output and competition-style builds: bullet — the HST series, judged on RMS and sensitivity from the tables.
- Horn-loaded and maximum-SPL systems: the HDN-30-44 class and the driver family beyond it.
- Utility programmes where wiring simplicity rules: piezo, sampled and confirmed.
- Every route: confirm MOQ and terms per model — the TWN-50W and HDN-30-44 publish FAQ terms of 500 pieces with an OEM box and 200 without.
The economy end: what 89 dB buys you
The TSP-066 deserves a paragraph of its own, because it is the specified tweeter a value programme will actually ship: 20 W RMS, 89 dB, a 13 mm voice coil, and an 89 dB sensitivity that looks weak beside the HST series until the system context is priced in. In a head-unit-driven door system with a modest coaxial or midrange, a tweeter does not need 105 dB — it needs to match the level of its partner at the crossover and survive the environment. The TSP-066's published band (3.5 kHz–20 kHz) sits exactly where a small dome should work, and its economy positioning in the manufacturer's own description is a feature for programmes where the tweeter tier must hit a price point without leaving the documented set. Judge economy models against the system's real levels, not against the flagship's headline figures.
The mounting question nobody asks early enough
Tweeters fail programmes at the mounting stage more than at the listening stage. A dome tweeter destined for a factory sail panel must match its cup diameter and depth; a bullet tweeter for a pro door build needs a cutout and clearance behind the panel; a horn-format unit needs its flare space. The specified tables help here — they publish overall dimensions (the HST-46P at 100 × 100 × 74 mm, the compact TSP-166 at φ54 × 22 mm) — so shortlist against the actual apertures in your target vehicles before the listening test, not after. A tweeter that wins the bench test and loses the door is a programme delay measured in months.
Sensitivity matching with the midrange
A tweeter does not play alone; it plays at the level the crossover hands it. When the midrange publishes 100 dB sensitivity (as the MD-65S23-06 does) and the tweeter publishes 92 dB (the TSP-166), the system designer must pad or power accordingly — a mismatch the figures predict before a single sample is wired. This is the practical case for choosing tweeter and midrange from the same documented set: the tables let you level-match on paper, and the samples then only have to confirm voicing. Programmes that mix an undocumented tweeter with a documented midrange discover the mismatch in the first vehicle, with the production clock running.
The best tweeter is the construction that fits the system's job, documented well enough to specify in a retail programme. In this catalogue, that documentation exists for twelve models — start there.