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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
pedroeb
493 posts
 
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.
millercarbon's avatar
millercarbon OP
12,531 posts
 
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.
jetter
3,050 posts
 
Tongue in Cheek
Audiophiles who understand the supertweeters impact on the physical enjoyment of listening to music by stimulating the ear hairs responsible for the range of sound that cannot be heard by humans will also understand the need to taylor the number of supertweeters used and their volume setting.

The proper matching of supertweeters to an individual audiophile can only be achieved by having the number of ear hairs responsible for non audible stimulation counted with an ear hair magnifying glass. Both ears must be submitted to this count as the number of relevant ear hairs per ear are often different, resulting in the possibility of a different number of supertweeters and settings per ear.

Then the best placement of the supertweeters can only be achieved by crawling around on the floor much like subwoofer placement testing until one senses that the sound he is not hearing is the best. Best to perform this testing when she is not home.
pedroeb
493 posts
 
Thanks millercarbon.

John Hannant has indeed been most helpful.

I'm not sure I'd ever consider going out of phase or bouncing off rear walls. Still to each his own.

As for hp, anything that does 0-60 in 6 seconds is fast enough. AWD is far better than more power!!!!

It was a testimonial on their site that said "Every speaker should have these! Stunning in every way."

I been dragged into going multi channel, but with 9.4.4, I can't imagine having 13 supertweeters. Overkill? My 9 channel amplification is all monoblock, so who knows! John is checking to see if they sell 'em separately so I can get one for the center channel.
tsushima1
1,165 posts
 
“For those with super tweeters and pets, have you noticed any annoyance/discomfort/ “

Yes....

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