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drice1234
Joined: 07 Oct 2006
Posts: 1309
Location: Allen, Texas
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| Posted: Tue Jan 05, 2010 11:18 pm Post subject: Radio Shack "Super Tweeters" |
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Back when I was right out of high school we had a stereo in the house a bunch of us guys lived in. We had a set of Radio Shack "Super Tweeters" that sat on top of the stereo speakers and connected to the same terminals as the speakers. I am by no means an audiophile and there was quite a bit of substance and alcohol abuse going on at this time but these things seemed to really bring out the high notes. I occasionally look on e-bay and Craigslists trying to find a set of these. Are these gimmicky cheesy add on's or do they really add something to the speakers?
Dan
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AnalogRocks
Forum Moderator
Joined: 08 Mar 2006
Posts: 26706
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
TV/Projector: Sony 1252Q, AMPRO 4000G
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| Posted: Tue Jan 05, 2010 11:43 pm Post subject: |
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I remember those! They were great for their time. I use to hang out at the radio shack and try everything in the store. 
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MikeEby
Joined: 24 Jun 2007
Posts: 5237
Location: Osceola, Indiana
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| Posted: Wed Jan 06, 2010 2:35 am Post subject: |
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I had a pair too....They held up very well....I vaporized the voice coil on way too many tweeters in my past. It no wonder I can't hear much above 6 khz now.
Mike
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Curt Palme
CRT Tech
Joined: 08 Mar 2006
Posts: 24396
Location: Langley, BC
TV/Projector: All of them!
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| Posted: Wed Jan 06, 2010 2:52 am Post subject: |
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This is pretty much what I think the 'center channel enhancement' is.
It is indeed a super tweeter, fairly efficient, and if your typical 1970s speaker only had a cone tweeter (like a lot did), this tweeter would indeed bump up the high end response. THe fact that you usually put it on top of the speaker cabinet also brought it closer to your ear. 
IT does for the top end what a subwoofer does for the bottom end.
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MikeEby
Joined: 24 Jun 2007
Posts: 5237
Location: Osceola, Indiana
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| Posted: Wed Jan 06, 2010 3:36 am Post subject: |
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Since I can't hear the high end anymore I thought I would try to feel the low end...Yesterday I ordered 4 Aura Pro Bass Shaker from Parts Express...They had them on sale for $29.00 each with free shipping if you bought 4. Oddly I check the price today and they went up to $39.78, that's a first for me, most of the time the price is cut by 1/2 after I buy it.
http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?partnumber=299-028&source=googleps
Mike
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Spanky Ham
Joined: 22 Mar 2006
Posts: 5643
Location: Comedy Central
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| Posted: Thu Jan 07, 2010 6:04 am Post subject: |
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You will get into an argument if you start asking whether a super tweeter extending beyond 20k is worthwhile. Most will say no. I can still hear out to at least 18k the last time I checked. The problem is how high do you have to crank it to hear it. As Curt said, it probably helped whatever speaker you were using at the time. You could buy a pair and send to John Krutke for testing to see how they measure. Of course, even after you bought them how would you integrate them with your current speaker? You would need to redesign the crossover.
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psychoacoustic
Joined: 28 Nov 2009
Posts: 26
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| Posted: Thu Jan 07, 2010 4:37 pm Post subject: Wait before you judge |
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| Curt Palme wrote: | This is pretty much what I think the 'center channel enhancement' is.
It is indeed a super tweeter, fairly efficient, and if your typical 1970s speaker only had a cone tweeter (like a lot did), this tweeter would indeed bump up the high end response. THe fact that you usually put it on top of the speaker cabinet also brought it closer to your ear.
IT does for the top end what a subwoofer does for the bottom end. |
This comment is very simplistic and should be made only if you expand it to say that they can each screw up the sound at both ends just as easily. Conversely, the price charged for so-called high end tweeters and subwoofers often does not necessarily correlate with the quality of sound they reproduce.
Specs are usually over-simplified for consumption by the non-technical. Take frequency response curves: they are meaningless on their own.
When you get the ETL tweeter samples I mailed you, I hope you will use an open-mind in reviewing them. The upper register frequency response is not the only factor that lets a high frequency device enhance center channel sound... if that were true, then any old tweet would do the trick, dismissing the diaphragm breakup and poor dispersion characteristics that most possess.
I am attaching some graphs to show the difference between a tweeter with and without ETL enhancement; but the real truth is in the sound.
Dave
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| This is a graph for a 1-inch dome tweeter without ETL alignment. |
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1inchtweeternoetl.pdf |
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| This is the graph for the tweeter you will get that employs Embedded Transmission Line technology. |
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TWEP51CO.pdf |
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