Super Tweeters - Fact or Flights of Fancy?

[goraman]

Thanks, Mark
They do sound nice, they do bring CD's and lose-less files a little closer to the sound you would expect from a nice LP (lots more sparkle at the top) and not overly in your face.

A big step up from the Vifa soft domes and ring radiators I have had in the passed.

[Welder]

I'm not particularity fond of sound of many metal piston hi frequency drives.
As a sweeping generalisation they are a bit like D Class amplifiers; wonderful until they step out of their comfort zone.

http://www.nutshellhifi.com/library/...r-design2.html

[Reid Malenfant]

I wouldn't have ever touched one John until I heard The Yamahas. Like yourself I just don't like the colouration caused by breakup

[goraman]

I'm not particularity fond of sound of many metal piston hi frequency drives.
As a sweeping generalisation they are a bit like D Class amplifiers; wonderful until they step out of their comfort zone.

http://www.nutshellhifi.com/library/...r-design2.html

That was a great read,written 10 years ago. Since that time I'm sure some refinement and improvements have been made.
These tweeters sound far better than my Vifa soft domes ever did.
I also had the Vifa 1 inch Ring Radiator tweeters and they really never seemed to smooth out,where in my face and dispersed like a lazer beam.

It sounded like Audax created the soft dome so they must know something about tweeters. OOPS SOUNDS LIKE POLK INTRODUCED THE SOFT DOME,Looks like Audux just refined them.

[Welder]

Things have moved forward a bit since then
For most of us mere mortals we would be hard pressed to tell the difference between modern ferro cooled, doped silk composite, dome tweeters and the exotic metal variety.
I’ve always got on well with ScanSpeak mid range and hi range

[YNWaN]

Well, if you are using CD then it can't be producing anything above 20kHz because there is a brick-wall filter that means no signal exists above 20kHz or below 20Hz.

The last so called super-tweeters I heard were producing huge amounts of output well below 20kHz.

[Clive]

Well, if you are using CD then it can't be producing anything above 20kHz because there is a brick-wall filter that means no signal exists above 20kHz or below 20Hz.

The last so called super-tweeters I heard were producing huge amounts of output well below 20kHz.

I agree, their main function seems to be to boost the upper end of stardard tweeters. The 20kHz+ part being mostly irrelevent.

[Reid Malenfant]

Well, if you are using CD then it can't be producing anything above 20kHz because there is a brick-wall filter that means no signal exists above 20kHz or below 20Hz.

Sorry Mark, but Red book is capable of less than 1Hz, in fact it can go to DC or as near as damn it I agree just about with the top end though, nothing doing over 22KHz 21Khz in a lot of cases with steep rolloff filters & 20KHz still with steep rolloff filters

It's not perfect...I seem to remember someone or lots of people saying it was

I have lots of CDs here that have sub 20Hz output, while you are supposed not to be able to hear it I'd suggest not listening to those that say you can't

You just need speakers that can reproduce it...

[YNWaN]

I have speakers that can reproduce it (20Hz) - I just don't have CD (and I'm not likely to either ).

I understood that the Red Book specification for CD limited its frequency range to 20Hz (but apparently it doesn't) to 20kHz - I know SACD allows output up to 50Khz.

(no need to be sorry Mark, CD isn't my thing and I don't consider myself an expert regarding it)

[Darren]

Good tweeter design means more than the materials used. Some well designed aluminium tweeters are known to have their first break up modes way out of the audible range. Also titanium has been similarly 'engineered' Remember JBLs pleated titanium tweeters? It's simply not true to say that aluminium tweeters begin to break up at 16kh - it's just too sweeping a generalisation.
For a long time I owned a pair of Amphion Xenon three ways - these had a wide bandwidth produced by an all aluminium driver compliment.
I am interested to hear that class D amps are OK within their comfort zone. I guess this depends on how large their comfort zone is... Any amp will sound nasty when driven into clipping. Ive never heard my Tact power amp sound anything other than fantastic, even when driven very hard indeed into my Magneplanars or Sonus Fabers.