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Supertweeters - worth a wink?

gassor

gassor

There may be more posts after this.
I use a pair of Yam NS1000Ms and wondered if I could get a bit more detail across the audio spectrum with a bit of high-frequency extension. Can't see me paying £900 (or anything close to it) for the Townsend units so does anyone think there is anything more to the claims than suggesting some proverbial snake lubricant is at play. As with most hi-fi I'd rather avoid buying new so at this stage borrowing from a ship is not an option.
 
I have spent hours and hours playing with both a pair of Tannoy’s own supertweeters and a pair of (IMHO far superior) Decca Kelly DK30 ribbon tweeters. To my ears/taste what you gain in detail/dispersion you lose in coherence. I’m back to running stock and far prefer it that way. By saying that much of the Tannoy magic is down to their being an exceptionally coherent point-source speaker, so a supertweeter, especially one that has to reside a fair distance from that point-source, does rather screw up one of their key strengths.

PS If I was predominantly listening off-axis or was concerned about good sound for a room full of people I’d likely still have the DK30s setup. I’m only interested in the listening seat though, so all my decisions were made there. They do definitely improve way off axis listening where the Tannoys’ tendency to ‘beam’ is more apparent.
 
I once heard a with/without test with some Tannoy's and the supertweeters definitately brought an improvement . When the supertweeters were in use the instruments seem to have a little bit more space around them .
Only ever tried this the once so I don't know if it is a common thing with supertweeters but in this instance they certainly worked .
 
I’ve seen Tony say what he just said before, but for me, I don’t hear the incoherence using Townshend Supertweeters with either Quad or Spendor kit, but this may just that show I’m not a very good listener.

Sometime old speakers have tweeters which aren’t functioning 100% - supertweeters can be a useful bodge if it’s not easy to replace the old part. It’s a bit like a shot of life, energy.

Everyone will tell you that boosting the treble gives you the feeling of hearing more detail, and that’s what I’ve experienced. They will also say that this can make listening a bit tiring. I’m sure this is true, but whether it’s a problem or not depends on you, and how long you listen for at a stretch. I rarely listen to music for as much as an hour at a time.
 
I have tried the same pair of supertweeters ( the cheapo Japanese ones whose name has escaped me but is somethiong to do with a BAT) on both of my DIY WD 20T and WD25T floorstanders. The WD20 has a SEAS concentric driver and the WD25 has a conventional SEAS mid woofer and Millennium tweeter. My findings were, and later backed up by Peter Comeau on the Wd forum, that the improvement with concentrics was quite spectacular whereas the improvement with the normal set up was much less obvious. Peter says that the extra HF output can help concentrics because the treble output is often curtailed by its pòsition within the bass drivers dominions. I know what I heard - I leave the explanation to others more learned.
 
mandryka said:
I’ve seen Tony say what he just said before, but for me, I don’t hear the incoherence using Townshend Supertweeters with either Quad or Spendor kit, but this may just that show I’m not a very good listener.
Click to expand...

I seem very sensitive to both crossovers and driver positions and really struggle to enjoy speakers with drivers far away from each other, tall arrays etc. The most obvious I’ve owned personally were Isobariks, which unless you are a very long way away from them (further than any room I could afford) do sound like the individual drivers in a box rather than a coherent whole, i.e. you hear the bass at one height, the mid at another and the treble above. The worst speaker on the planet for this IMHO is the Naim NBL, it just doesn’t integrate at all to my ears. I’ve never heard it not be three very distinct drivers. I’m therefore drawn to either point-sources (Tannoys, Quad 63s, MEGs etc) or very small speakers with the bass and treble units very close together such as LS3/5As etc. It is just something that bugs me as once you dial into it you really can’t un-hear it!

PS Before anyone mentions that until very recently I owned Klipsch La Scalas, well yes, but they actually integrate better than one would expect from such a huge and non-time-aligned multi-driver loudspeaker as the mid horn covers so much ground (400Hz to 6kHz), so in some respects they are conceptually getting closer to a full-range driver with a supertweeter and sub. They are an infuriating loudspeaker, just stunningly good and just not right at the same time!
 
Gassy,

I have supertweeters on my old Tannoys and they do work well by adding a bit of sparkle and air, but if your system simply needs a little high-frequency tweak you might want to try a Schiit Loki. I got one to make bad recordings more pleasant, but it’s turned out to be useful all around. I tend to listen at lower levels and a little bass or treble tweak goes a long way.

Joe
 
I run raal 140-15d ribbons with my ns1000ms with the yamaha tweeter disconnected. Its pretty much a straight drop in sensitivity and impedance wise and doesnt suffer the hf drop off of the yam tweeter.

Theyre a solid 2nd hand buy and replacement ribbons are easy to fit and inexpensive direct from raal.
 
A friend was trying some Townshend Super Tweeters with his Tannoys. I went round for a listen not knowing if they were switched on or off.

The experiment proceeded, I listened. He then switched them on or off I had no idea which. Straight away I noticed the music had more life, vibrancy and attack. I said to my friend that's better, he agreed with my observations. I assumed he had switched them on and not off.

How wrong I was, he had actually switched them off. Suffice to say they were returned.
 
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