Super Tweeters - Fact or Flights of Fancy?

[twelvebears]

Thoughts chaps?

Does any one own a pair and/or have experience with them?

S.

[The Vinyl Adventure]

I been reading about them recently too, I'd like to have a go with a pair if they were cheaper ... The logical bit of my brain says that surly they just add to treble in the audible frequency they cover and then how can they possibly add somthing above the frequencys that a cd produces... But then the other part of my brain says balls to logic, everything that is available on the Internet to read about these things says good things so they must do something... Right??
I'm kinda suprised marco doesn't have some of those tannoy st**'s on top his speakers ...

[UV101]

One of my pals is running a pair of Cambridge R50s. They use the famous Kef set up similar to Linn Isobarik (B139 oval solid styrene bass driver, B110 and T27's like in LS3/5a) but they also run ribbon supertweets.He's changed both the tweets to ? and supertweets to ? expensive ribbons. He swears by them. I've heard them and his system is fantastic. As to if the supertweets make a differerence I don't know. I've read that the extended range at the top can give the impression of extended lower freq response but I cannot comment as his the R50's are TL and go down way low in any case. I've often wondered if the likes of Townshend supertweets are really worth the pricetag or if it is largely hype?!?!?

Like all things, I suppose it depends on the rest of the system.

[Themis]

All my friends (some of them objectivists, I must say) who have supertweeters can't live without.

The problem is that once you put them, there's no going back : in that, they all agree.

[Rare Bird]

Coles 4001. best ever super tweeter

[The Grand Wazoo]

I played around with some Coles a few years back - don't know how they'd compare to the new breed of modern ones though.

[Ali Tait]

They definately seem to add air and space.At one of our DIY do's,a pair was tried with some DIY Jericho horns,using a Fostex fullrange driver,and the difference was not subtle, very obvious.As Dimitri says,you won't go back!

[Kris]

My hearing goes upto about 16-17kHz. I physically cannot hear anything above that, so supertweeters cannot possibly make any difference to the sound I hear, even if the material I play has higher frequencies recorded.

But there again, I am not ashamed to say that no matter how much I try I cannot hear any difference between 32kHz and 44.1kHz, or 48kHz (given the same high quality source material), despite being able to hear differences in quality elsewhere in the chain, and between different Dacs. I accept that some can, but I also feel that many people can't, they are just too ashamed to say so.

Needless to say, I will not be buying any supertweeters this side of a lottery win!

Kris.

[Rare Bird]

I played around with some Coles a few years back - don't know how they'd compare to the new breed of modern ones though.

Celestion 'HF1300', Coles '4001' combination Spendor 'BC1'/'2', B&W 'DM2'/'4' etc

[Themis]

My hearing goes upto about 16-17kHz. I physically cannot hear anything above that, so supertweeters cannot possibly make any difference to the sound I hear, even if the material I play has higher frequencies recorded.

But there again, I am not ashamed to say that no matter how much I try I cannot hear any difference between 32kHz and 44.1kHz, or 48kHz (given the same high quality source material), despite being able to hear differences in quality elsewhere in the chain, and between different Dacs. I accept that some can, but I also feel that many people can't, they are just too ashamed to say so.

Needless to say, I will not be buying any supertweeters this side of a lottery win!

Kris.

You should try. All the people I know can't hear much above 14kHz either.
Can't comment easily about the sample rate differences, there are too many variables involved. I can say that I can't hear them through headphones, though. It's easier through speakers, and easier if you don't necessarily look for them.