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Amp frequency requirements for super tweeters?


tubesandhorns

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I have become intrigued with discussions of the reported improvements to system sound afforded by the addition of super tweeters- specifically the air and coherence.  Being in my late ‘50s, I am less concerned about the frequency extension and more concerned about how it affects what I can hear.  My question is this- my amp goes to 20kHz, do I need an extended frequency range amp for driving this? 

Same question for digital crossovers like the DCX2496.

 

 

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I have become intrigued with discussions of the reported improvements to system sound afforded by the addition of super tweeters- specifically the air and coherence.  Being in my late ‘50s, I am less concerned about the frequency extension and more concerned about how it affects what I can hear.  My question is this- my amp goes to 20kHz, do I need an extended frequency range amp for driving this? 

Same question for digital crossovers like the DCX2496.

 

 

Your amp probably goes beyond 20K, but the manufcturer only reports fq response to 20K +/- __dB.

 

How do you define a super tweeter?  In the past, practically anything that crossed over above 4K could have been labled "super."

 

Quality is probably more important than range.

 

If you do have a tweet that crosses over above about 4 - 6 K, you can increase "air" by turning it up, if you have control over the level.

 

Home theater and movie people often advocate rolling-off the high end of a tweeter.  Audyssey Reference (as opposed to Audyssey Flat, which, well, is flat) is at about -2 dB at 10K, and -6 dB at 20K.  I find that with a really clean, good movie soundtrack (or a good SACD) "Flat" sounds better, but with a bad one, "Reference" cuts out some of the garbage.

 

When some very high end speakers that are advertized as extending above 20K are tested in a real room by Stereophile, the extended response tends to fail to present itself.

Edited by Garyrc
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The DCX2496 specification sheet says that it goes to 35 kHz.  The Dx38 (ElectroVoice) can only go to 24 kHz (max) which is its Nyquist frequency.

Edited by Chris A
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Do you mean something that is add on that sits on top of your existing speaker? Something like the Visaton, which can be found here.

http://www.visaton.com/en/chassis_zubehoer/ht_horn/tl16h_8.html. They claim FR up to 35khz, the muRatas go up to 100khz but are 2k I believe.

I think it would depend on what you are running up front and what tweeters those speakers have, and your source material. If you are running CD primarily remember that there is no information above 20khz to reproduce, it is cut off there by design.

Sam Tellig ran Supertweeters with his LaScalla IIs he purchased. I will try to attach a reprint of his review.

Travis

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I believe the frequencies you want to hear for "more air" fall below the 20Khz range.

Probably falling between 5 to 17 Khz because you probably can't hear more than that.

It will depend on how the super tweeter reproduces those frequencies and at the

ampitude they have. 

The older Realistic Super Tweeter had a great top end and it was crossed by cap

at about 5 Khz. 

Edited by rebuy
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