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Townshend Maximum Supertweeters

Yes, Maximum. I don’t come up with the names, I just review the stuff, okay? ;) And I got em because everyone keeps telling me I should, and once again they are right. Whew! That was easy!

Kidding! We will now laboriously delve into why you cannot live without these tweeters, that you can’t even hear.

For sure I can’t. My hearing rolls off somewhere north of 15k. If that. These things extend to 90k. Why? What difference can it possibly make?

Who knows? And since when has that stopped me?

So out they come and what have we here? Two heavy black bricks, with a screen on the front and a couple binding posts on the back. In between the posts is a little knob you use to turn them off and set the levels. On the bottom are rudimentary rubber dimple feet. Guess I was expecting Pods or something, this being Townshend. No such luck.

They go on top of the Moabs. Well there is already a BDR Shelf on top, and a HFT dead center right where this thing is supposed to go. Moving HFT even an inch changes the sound so executive decision, the Maximum Supertweeters go just outboard of the HFT. They are first just placed there not even connected, just in case this somehow messes with the sound. It doesn’t.

Okay so now you need to know my system is all messed up. No, not the usual mess I mean really seriously messed up. No turntable. Chris Brady has the bearing for some resurfacing and stuff. So we are slumming with the heavily modded Oppo. Not to fear, Ted Denney sent me some of his latest Atmosphere X (review to come) which with the right tuning bullet the Oppo now sounds....digital. Oh well. KBO.

The usual: Demag. Warmup. Listen a while. Hook em up. What level? Who knows? Moabs are 98dB. How ya gonna know anyway? How can it even matter? How do you even set the level of something you can’t hear? Level 3, good as any. Plug em in. No change. Not the slightest peep out of these things. Total dud. Knew it. Sit back down.

What the...? No way. There is not the slightest hint of top end coming from these things. They may as well not be there at all. Except the whole presentation is somehow different. Top to bottom. No way!

I get up and turn the black magic off. Sit back down. Crap. Flat, grainy, digital. Turn em back on. Deep, liquid, analog.

No, not analog like my turntable. They are just supertweeters after all not magic. But way more analog than it was. More dimensional, more solid, more liquid detailed. More black between the notes, and in the black it is now easier to hear the natural acoustic decay. I do NOT want to go back to listening to CD without this! I cannot wait to hear it with my table.

And I haven’t even had time to get them dialed in yet!



128x128millercarbon
ozzy's avatar
ozzy
7,493 posts
 
facten,
When I owned and used the Townshend super tweeters they seemed to add a level of air or spaciousness that was not obtainable by my speakers. 
Once I installed the Focal Sopra 2's they added the same amount (or perhaps more) of the same qualities that I heard with the super tweeters.

I just didn't think the Townshend's added anything more to the Sopra's.

ozzy
facten
2,882 posts
 
Txs ozzy
musicmann1
96 posts
 
Millercarbon
How are you able to get the Townsend ST to properly “ blend” with your Mohab? Aren’t the Mohab’s 9 dB more efficient than the Townshend?
Post removed 
millercarbon's avatar
millercarbon OP
12,531 posts
 
They don't really "blend" in the sense of a normal tweeter, because the output from these is almost entirely too high to hear. They use a switch with 5 levels. The first two are I think 4dB increments, the top three are 2dB. Something like that.

So you don't hear it as a tweeter, and none of the normal effects one would expect actually happen. Imaging, for example. Normally one would expect it to be ruined by adding a tweeter so far apart. If the output was in the tweeter band it almost certainly would. But in this case the output is so high it is not heard as a discrete source, not heard at all even, and so imaging actually improves. 

There is a point where if I turn them up too much certain things take on a harsh character. Cymbals go from ringing and sizzling to grating. There's a sense of more air and presence but also this harsh edge. Moabs at 98dB are pretty sensitive speakers, but Townshend makes them to go with horns, some horns can go to 104dB, so it makes sense the Level 3 mine are at is about right.

Even though they don't blend in terms of tone, there is still some work to do getting them down closer to tweeter level where they will probably integrate better. Hard to imagine the imaging getting even better, but we will see!
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