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Looking for my Final Pair!!

Been through the high end maelstrom for over 30 years and although I have enjoyed the ride, I desperately want to find speakers that exude dynamics, tone and presence.  I want to be transported to the Village Vanguard where The John Coltrane Quartet are performing any night I desire.  I want to feel the timbre of his sax 🎷. When I close my eyes I want to be enveloped by the atmosphere of the space and awash with the impact and emotion being expressed by the musicians.  I don’t want to hear what the engineers hear after they mix a recording...I want to be in the studio when the tracks are being laid down!  So far, Tannoy Heritage Arden have come to my attention, Klipsch Cornwall IV’s, JBL S4700’s or perhaps Spatial Audio X3’s?  Help
128x128dave_b
dave_b's avatar
dave_b OP
3,159 posts
 
In the spirit of perpetual experimentation, I am getting a pair of planar magnetic ribbon super tweeters!  I will boldly go where most speakers have never gone before...to 40khz and beyond 🥸

BAT VK80i is coming today today
roxy54's avatar
roxy54
8,012 posts
 
daveb,
I actually tried a bought an inexpensive set of planar magnetic supertweeters to augment my speakers last year, and found them to be disappointing. The ones that I bought sounded sort of "dry". However, 3 weeks ago, I finally bought a set of the Townshend ribbon supertweeters, and I have to say that they are as good as I had heard that they are. 
dave_b's avatar
dave_b OP
3,159 posts
 
I may have to try them as well!
dave_b's avatar
dave_b OP
3,159 posts
 
Anything I buy from now on must be fully returnable...more fun that way and less stress when evaluating 🤔 
mijostyn's avatar
mijostyn
8,570 posts
 
Not a bad idea dave_b. I would never buy a Townshend product for the same reason I would never buy a Walker product. Their marketing is insulting and most of their products are totally worthless if used as directed. Adding supertweeters to loudspeakers is a matter of taste not accuracy. These tweeters run down to 6 kHz and will be very audible. This might make some people think they are getting more detail but what they are really getting is a brighter more confused treble. Unless you can get the super tweeter within 1/2" of the tweeter in the loudspeaker they will be perceived as two separate drivers. Can you tell if there is only one trumpet playing vs two? You want the speaker to speak in one voice. You will notice that in line source speakers using dynamic drivers like Bob Carver's Ultimate Line Source the tweeters are stacked in a line very close together. In this way the are forming a single line source. With an add on tweeter you will always hear it as a separate source and it will always sound...artificial. Experiments we did way back with Decca ribbon tweeters bore this out and we stopped selling them as add-ons. 
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