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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
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....

https://media.giphy.com/media/o9W9ILrxLrHpe/giphy.gif

oldhvymec
5,101 posts
 
My buddies leave the room or I shut the door for the rabbit if I'm blastin'.
I always have.  It's movement more than noise with the rabbit. BUT I always keep my voice down around Junior in any case. He loves a good rub.. Sure are great friends. Rabbit and the Dog what a pair.

I use several UHF. Mine do have a 25k limit, they are good to 30k I think.
Second VERY directional. Almost line of sight to get that high of a frequency to me, much less the animal..

Regards
roxy54's avatar
roxy54
8,066 posts
 
I have a Dachshund, a Siamese and an orange Tabby, and none of them seem to notice the supertweeters, but the Siamese hates it when the smoke alarm goes off.
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