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 only one I have heard anyone say is better costs a lot more and is not made any more anyway. 
For those with super tweeters and pets, have you noticed any annoyance/discomfort/ or avoidance by you cat or dog?
Anyone have experience with a multi channel home theatre system? Is a pair on the main speakers going to help all speakers? I remember reading a comment that read Just put them on all speakers! Although I'm not sure that's the best approach.

It would be an expensive exercise if the benefit diminishes with the number super tweeters. I'm thinking a pair might be sufficient, although Atmos channels mostly output higher frequencies so perhaps they would benefit from their own.

Any help or guidance would be appreciated.
Townshend has several customers running multiple sets of super tweeters. Some are running them out of phase, some have them pointed backwards. Far as I know these are all 2ch systems. When it comes to what is sufficient seems to me this is no different than anything else. 500hp is sufficient to some, while others want 750.

If you can find someone here who knows, great. If not I would call and ask John Hannant. He works for Townshend, sure. But he has never been anything but on the level with me, and strikes me as a bona fide audiophile and knows a lot about how this stuff works in practice from tons of feedback over the years.