69sixpackbee
Well-Known Member
Well,
On my never ending quest to see what makes things "tick" I decided to tear into the "ever elusive & mystical" Pioneer HPM "Super Tweeter" that is in my newly acquired and recapped & gold binding post-modified x-overed, HPM-100's (that was the first thing I did to them!). I wanted to see if they do in fact actually work. I did in fact play a test tone of 16kHz with both of the attentuators turned off to drop out the mid and tweet and lo and behold...there was sound! Albeit faint but sound none the less. I have read numerous posts with incessant ramblings coming from both sides of the fence about the validity of these components and their ability to deliver an audible tone as well as some aesthetic nuance. I popped them open and there are no "opposing magnets" or "magic fairy dust" or anything else that has been speculated upon. I want to dispel the rumors and de-sway the naysayers once and for all (good luck with this one, I know
) Here's what is inside:
There is a Mylar sheet stretched across a very soft, open-cell foam sheet that is layered above a piece of open mesh aluminum and the underside is stuffed with nothing more than fiberglass insulation. No magic here. The Mylar is stretched in a way that it is taught enough over the whole array so that the electrical impulses cause it to "dance". Think of it as tightening a guitar string and then strumming it. I believe the tighter it is the better to transfer the sound against the substrate; in this instance, the foam backing, as the fret is to the guitar neck. The mass and the length of the Mylar sheet dictates the sound range much like the varying diameter of the guitar strings (here again, my "theory" as I'm sure more physics come into play). The ends of the Mylar are glued to the bottom of the backing plate and the "conductors" are nothing more than embossed aluminum foil layed across a small piece of urethane and when the whole thing is screwed together it makes contact.
What I did with the one I had, and this is just this author's speculation, is that I removed the Mylar sheet, scraped the old adhesive away and re glued the sheet across a bit tighter so that the semi-degraded foam would conform more tightly around the Mylar possibly increasing it's ability to deliver sound.
When I put it back together and did the same test there was a marked improvement on the amplitude of sound that was emitted by the "Super Tweeter" !
So, I have come to the conclusion that these magical devices do in fact work and that the ones that are perceived non-functioning can be directly attributable to either,
A. The crossover is at fault---either one of the .15uFd non-polar e'lytic cap, 10Ohm resistor, .1 mH coil or the 1:8 x-former that drives this (no attentuator is involved.
B. The tweet has degraded as speculated in my aforementioned "test".
or:
C. The person making the test cannot hear above 12kHz anyway.
They do work folks!! :thmbsp::yes:
Bud
On my never ending quest to see what makes things "tick" I decided to tear into the "ever elusive & mystical" Pioneer HPM "Super Tweeter" that is in my newly acquired and recapped & gold binding post-modified x-overed, HPM-100's (that was the first thing I did to them!). I wanted to see if they do in fact actually work. I did in fact play a test tone of 16kHz with both of the attentuators turned off to drop out the mid and tweet and lo and behold...there was sound! Albeit faint but sound none the less. I have read numerous posts with incessant ramblings coming from both sides of the fence about the validity of these components and their ability to deliver an audible tone as well as some aesthetic nuance. I popped them open and there are no "opposing magnets" or "magic fairy dust" or anything else that has been speculated upon. I want to dispel the rumors and de-sway the naysayers once and for all (good luck with this one, I know
) Here's what is inside:
There is a Mylar sheet stretched across a very soft, open-cell foam sheet that is layered above a piece of open mesh aluminum and the underside is stuffed with nothing more than fiberglass insulation. No magic here. The Mylar is stretched in a way that it is taught enough over the whole array so that the electrical impulses cause it to "dance". Think of it as tightening a guitar string and then strumming it. I believe the tighter it is the better to transfer the sound against the substrate; in this instance, the foam backing, as the fret is to the guitar neck. The mass and the length of the Mylar sheet dictates the sound range much like the varying diameter of the guitar strings (here again, my "theory" as I'm sure more physics come into play). The ends of the Mylar are glued to the bottom of the backing plate and the "conductors" are nothing more than embossed aluminum foil layed across a small piece of urethane and when the whole thing is screwed together it makes contact.
What I did with the one I had, and this is just this author's speculation, is that I removed the Mylar sheet, scraped the old adhesive away and re glued the sheet across a bit tighter so that the semi-degraded foam would conform more tightly around the Mylar possibly increasing it's ability to deliver sound.
When I put it back together and did the same test there was a marked improvement on the amplitude of sound that was emitted by the "Super Tweeter" !
So, I have come to the conclusion that these magical devices do in fact work and that the ones that are perceived non-functioning can be directly attributable to either,
A. The crossover is at fault---either one of the .15uFd non-polar e'lytic cap, 10Ohm resistor, .1 mH coil or the 1:8 x-former that drives this (no attentuator is involved.
B. The tweet has degraded as speculated in my aforementioned "test".
or:
C. The person making the test cannot hear above 12kHz anyway.
They do work folks!! :thmbsp::yes:
Bud
Last edited:
