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!



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The effect in terms of the resulting sound is similar. The Supertweeters lean more to improved presence and drive, Schumann more to the smooth liquid side. Both improve imaging and depth. But the similarities end with the way they work. Supertweeters are acoustic, SG electromagnetic spectrum. But, yeah. The same only different, as the French would say.
I always put my supertweeters on the middle of the rear top edge of the speaker, firing "backwards" to add air and ambience.  Only caution is that for this to work you can't have your speakers crammed up to the wall behind them,
I used Townshend Maxs for several months--they do indeed add atmosphere and improve the soundstage as advertised. Front firing they added a bit of "glare," however, and seemed to give me a headache. I switched to rear-firing, aimed upwards at the ceiling corners, after lots of experimentation. Eventually I switched to Audiokensis Sound Generator Horns that aim toward ceiling corners behind the speakers as well. They sounded more natural to my ears and in my system they helped the high end on my full-range speakers. Both products are excellent and the best choice depends on the rest of one's system.
I got glare only when running them too high level. At the right level not only is there no glare, but the sound is even more liquid than without them. That is only with CD. Real keen to hear with analog when my bearing gets back next week.
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