super tweeters

typonegative911

any of you guys run super tweeters and what do think of them.

Tour2ma

Have only come across them twice, my original Lafayette Criterion 80's (now long gone) and my current DQ-10's.

To my ear they add more hiss than music.

dorokusai

Super Tweeters , typically Piezo's I think, suck. I am happy that they are disconnected on my DQ10's. You haven't disco'd them Tour?

Tour2ma

Not so far...

I had to replace the woofers on mine (surrounds shot) before I ran them and was not up for dismantling them again. So I just trimmed the treble a bit to smooth them.

Will do me until it's time to dismantle for a dusting.., (idea ===> PM to doro...)

nadams

My tweeters are super

Joey_V

So super-tweeters are no good? Why do they put super-tweets on high end speakers like the Onix Reference 3? There has to be a purpose.. someone enlighten me please.

I thought that super-tweets relieve the tweeter of some work and allows it to work at a narrower freq. band while giving the luxury of being able to be crossed over lower.

MacLeod

Super tweeter are extremely prevalent in car audio and in almost every case they suck ****. They are way too bright and get very harsh at high volumes. Its kind of a dumb idea to put supertweeters in an environment with that much glass! Kenwood makes a 6x9s with ST's that sounds pretty good and of course the Polk 6x9's I used to run are the best coaxial speakers on the market so they got it right too. Still I try to avoid them if I can.

My Sony bookshelf speakers that came with my mini system have ST's also and theyre not very harsh but have too much treble in them. I would prefer a simple 2 way setup.

aaharvel

sounds rather gimicky to if you ask me. Must sound like horns or something.

audiobliss

Ineteresting subject. Don't think I've ever heard but one pair of speakers with supertweeters (some kind of 20 year old Onkyo speakers with a huge woofers and passive radiators), and I was only listening to the jaw-dropping bass, then.

aaharvel wrote:

Must sound like horns or something.

:eek: :mad: :mad: :eek: :mad:

unc2701

they work well in systems where you take a traditional single driver like lowther or fostex, and run it w/ no crossover, then augment the top end with a supertweeter run through a high pass (freq to flavor) and the bottom end augmented with a sub, usually crossed over under around 50-60hz. The full range driver gets about 99% of the signal, and the other two just pick up where it drops out with its natural rolloff. Set up wrong, it's REALLY bad, but set up right its pretty killer. Depending on your music & the full range you use, they can be kinda unnecessarry, though.

I think blueMD has them on his Cains???

dorokusai

Super Tweeter's are hype.

BMP utilizes a full range driver, which is miles above a "super tweeter".

unc2701

Yeah, but I'm talking about tacking one onto a full range... Guess it wasn't BMP, but I'ev seen plenty of full ranges w/ them added on.

I agree that anything past about 20k is pure hype, but if you have a system where you want to cross over at a higher freq than typical (ie full range driver and 10k crossover), they do fill a nitch there. Otherwise, I've got no use for 'em.

dorokusai

You don't need a "supertweeter" to fill a niche....you can use another regular tweeter and utilize a different crossover point. You also keep the same tonal character, as most ST's are ribbon types and sound nothing like a dome tweeter.

unc2701

In a normal system, I couldn't agree more- you'd have to attenuate them way down to match the lower efficiency of the bottom end and you'd need a midrange that'll hold together at least till 5khz since the supers don't do too well below there, plus the tonal issues you mention.

However in a system with full ranges, a dome tweeter ususally won't have the 93db+ efficiency to match with the full-range drivers and the cross freq is high enough that the tonal differences don't really come into play. So why not use the super and take advantage of the flat response well past where normal tweets start to break up (frequently under 20khz)?

Regardless, there's not much use for a 50,000hz super tweeter in 99% of the systems out there, but I've heard some full range drivers w/ and w/o them and the super tweeter filled out the system nicely.

...but as with most things, it'll come down to personal taste.

dorokusai

I agree in the purpose and idea, just not the fact that the ST is the answer. I bet you would have enjoyed those FR drivers with a regular tweeter, as much as the ST.

I have yet to own a speaker with all the drivers utilizing the same "efficiency". That characteristic is just one of many that must be considered in the build process.

unc2701

dorokusai wrote:

I have yet to own a speaker with all the drivers utilizing the same "efficiency".

God, that would make crossovers soooooo much easier. Anyhow, I've got a pair of fostex's 8" FR's that i've been playing with, so I might give it a try with some silk domes I've got laying around. I'll probably biamp and just crank the domes that much more instead of pulling the Fostex's down to 89db (it's hard saying goodbye to 96db efficiency).

dorokusai

That sounds like a neat experiment I wish everything was of much higher efficiency, you aren't joking.

unc2701

Yeah, I was about to pull the trigger on a set of the fostex t90a supers to dick around with in the FR setup, but I should probably at least try out the domes & see how they work. save myself a few hundred, anyway. Of course, I _really_ need to work on the bottom end first. My ghetto'd MDF ported cabinet just isn't hitting that last octave like I want it to...