Supertweeters?

So my infinity Kappa 9s have a s-emit tweeter or super tweeter. Not sure if it's snake oil or not. I didn't think there was a lot of sound coming out of them but my friend said take a paper towel roll the cardboard roll and stick it between the tweeter and my ear and there was a lot of sound coming out of them. I guess it complements the regular tweeter.
 
I too have Kappa 9's with the s-EMIT supertweeters, as well as several other pairs of speakers with Ti domes and ribbons that purportedly go well above 25KHz. I know that at my age and history of not using proper hearing protection over the decades, that I cannot hear anything near 20KHz, but there is a "presence" that I can sense from those extended high frequency drivers--I don't know if this makes any sense, or if I drank too much of the "Kool Aid" over the years, but the effect is real to me.
 
My Infinity WTLC have the Walsh super tweeter and it definitely puts out some nice sizzle. Really brings cymbals to life. But my ears aren't that old, they've been well protected, and my hearing tests came back as excellent. :) They may be less useful to some people.
 
I all ways wondered if I can hear the ones in my dahlquest dq10s. People say you can't hear them but you can feel them.. hahah whatever that means. I know I turn the knob on the back and can't tell a difference
 
IMO&E they can add a lot to your listening experience when set up correctly. When I put together my horn system I loved what I was hearing but missed the highs that my Heil tweeters do so easily. I added some JBL 2404 drivers and now have all the high end detail I could ask for. YMMV
 
What frequency range are we talking about? Many tweeters don't actually go up to the limits of human hearing anyway, especially lower quality ones.

A lot depends on your ears (obviously). Some people might find a speaker too hot in the upper registers, others may not be able to hear the cymbals.
 
I added the JBL 077 tweeter to my 2 way L200's. Didn't alter the existing crossover, just have these pick up above 8khz where the LE85 horn starts to drop off. I may someday get around to build an N8000 crossover but for now this really adds to the listening experience.
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I just turned my 2405's into supertweeters removing the "veil." Makes a big difference, especially in cymbols and percussion. But also adds intelligability and air. :music:

Take a cap ~0.47 - 0.85 mfd and connect it to the crossovers pos input (amp output). Run a 4 ohm resistor in series with the cap, after the cap. Run a line from this resistor to the tweeter's pos post on the crossover. Put a 30 ohm resistor at the junction of the cap and 4 ohm resistor and run the other end to ground. This provides a high frequency by-pass, assuming that you have some attenuation in the tweeter network. Mine is all done at the external terminals without even opening the cabinet.

Modeled here using a 2 ohm resistor (a bit too bright) and a 0.58 mfd cap, but you get the idea. You would need to play with the values a bit to see what works best for what you desire, but the 30 ohm resistor works well to ground.

Actually, the attenuation at the high end is due to an in series 0.1 mH choke in the modeled (and original) circuit, that I found not to be necessary and removed. (This actually makes it a band-pass rather than a high-pass filter.)

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I just turned my 2405's into supertweeters removing the "veil." Makes a big difference, especially in cymbols and percussion. But also adds intelligability and air. :music:

Take a cap ~0.47 - 0.85 mfd and connect it to the crossovers pos input (amp output). Run a 4 ohm resistor in series with the cap, after the cap. Run a line from this resistor to the tweeter's pos post on the crossover. Put a 30 ohm resistor at the junction of the cap and 4 ohm resistor and run the other end to ground. This provides a high frequency by-pass, assuming that you have some attenuation in the tweeter network. Mine is all done at the external terminals without even opening the cabinet.

Modeled here using a 2 ohm resistor (a bit too bright) and a 0.47 mfd cap, but you get the idea. You would need to play with the values a bit to see what works best for what you desire, but the 30 ohm resistor works well to ground.

Actually, the attenuation at the high end is due to an in series 0.1 mH choke in the modeled (and original) circuit, that I found not to be necessary and removed. (This actually makes it a band-pass rather than a high-pass filter.)

Hi toddalin, I'm a bit of a rookie here with crossovers The first schematic is what I currently have now. Note I have the polarity on the 077 reversed as it seems to sound better that way.
The second is what I think you are describing but I was wondering if you could please confirm I have this right and hope you can make this out. Thanks
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Define super tweeter, then we'll be on the same page here. I define it as an auxiliary tweeter that extends past the range of an existing tweeter in the system. In addition it has extension that exceeds the norm, well past 20khz say.

I was lucky enough to get my 9s from the original owner and he had the brochure and owners manual. This is straight out of the brochure says the supertweeter is everything above 10k htz and the regular tweeter goes to 44k I thought it would be the other way around. Maybe someone else can explain as I'm not sure how it works

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Hi toddalin, I'm a bit of a rookie here with crossovers The first schematic is what I currently have now. Note I have the polarity on the 077 reversed as it seems to sound better that way.
The second is what I think you are describing but I was wondering if you could please confirm I have this right and hope you can make this out. Thanks
View attachment 996089 View attachment 996090


No, just go with your first drawing but put a 20 ohm resistor in parallel with the tweeter. That may be all you'll ever need.

This is what I am getting at. Except, change R2 to 4 ohms (less bright) and remove L1 and make it a solid connection.

Note that C1, L2, R3, R4, R5, and the L-pad are all existing in the internal crossover (basically an N7000/N8000 with a dividing network added to reduce the tweeter's volume) and C2, R1, and R2 are currently outside the cabinet between the speaker's input terminal and tweeter's terminals.

After I first made the crossovers, I added this dividing network, (ala Zilch) because I was using the 075 and it was too loud making most of the L-pad unusable (way too loud). After I changed these to the 2405s, I found the volume to be a bit lacking. This modification largely compensates for the difference in volume while adding a bunch of "air."

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I was lucky enough to get my 9s from the original owner and he had the brochure and owners manual. This is straight out of the brochure says the supertweeter is everything above 10k htz and the regular tweeter goes to 44k I thought it would be the other way around. Maybe someone else can explain as I'm not sure how it works

View attachment 996155 .

It sounds like they are essentially doubling the output from 10KHz to 44KHz with output from the super tweeter above that.
 
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