How I Transformed My Home Listening Experience (Part II)

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by Litejazz53, Apr 24, 2020.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. SandAndGlass

    SandAndGlass Twilight Forum Resident

    Back in the early 80's, I bought a small pair of ESS book shelf speakers. They had the Heil tweeters.

    It was the first time in my life that I would sit and listen to the HF from the tweeters in any speaker.

    Usuallt, too much HF tweeter influence meant a fairly harsh listening experience, with listening fatigue quickly setting in.

    With these Heil ESS speakers, the HF was deliciously crisp and detailed but without being harsh.

    It was the first time I learned to love listening to detailed tweeters.
     
  2. Classic Car Guy

    Classic Car Guy - Touch the Face of God -

    Location:
    Northwest, USA
    On my new upcoming dw cabinet, I'm gonna add a separate super horn tweeter just like yours "The mother of them all." at the far the end of my living room. I'm building the crossover from scratch 6 frequency selector switch and a rotary potentiometer for level adjustment. Just for the paper in oil capacitors it cost me almost $175.00. Ill gonna use a 1.0 inch driver. I'm not sure if I need to get the full horn or just the medium for I wanna put it inside a housing. I roughly have 1-1/2 moths from now to complete it since mr casey still making the cabinets. But the amp is coming in on Wednesday.
     
  3. Litejazz53

    Litejazz53 Perfect Sound Through Crystal Clear Digital Thread Starter

    Good luck with your projects, I know they will sound fantastic! There is nothing like a sweet, open high end!
     
  4. Mike from NYC

    Mike from NYC Senior Member

    Location:
    Surprise, AZ
    I owned the middle floorstanding model of the ESS Heil back in the 70s and sold them to my roommate when I moved back to NYC. I wish I knew then what I know now because I would have pulled them much further into the room to get the maximum from the Heils.

    Your perceptions (and mine) are the reasons why I will only use AMTs for midrange/tweeter reproduction - nothing beats them for detail, clarity, efficiency and the smoothest treble I have ever heard.
     
    jusbe, Litejazz53 and SandAndGlass like this.
  5. Vinny123

    Vinny123 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Florida
    I have the smaller model. I’m very pleased.
     
    Litejazz53 likes this.
  6. MondoFanM

    MondoFanM Member from ATX

    Location:
    Austin
    I Just got in the true aluminum model from Amazon this week. Have them set up with my Sonus Faber Chameleon Ts. Put my Elac 3010 subs back in after I installed SVS feet. Also put a couple of sound absorption panels behind the speakers but haven’t wall mounted them yet.

    Definitely hear the difference with vinyl. Played the new Getz/Gilberto reissue and the MFSL Kind of Blue. I am even feeling like there is more separation. I also played an OG Cure Mixed up and heard stuff I never noticed. Sparkle for sure.

    I wasn’t happy with my subs previously, but I don’t know what it is...these seem to make them gel.

    most of my listening right now (New baby, toddler) is through Tidal with an Apple TV / Samsung TV to the DAC in my MA8000. Not sure the difference is as apparent but still nice. I have not tried using my computer and USB for High Res yet.

    I wanted to do some type of change on my system. This did it for me and I don’t have to explain new full size speakers to the wife. If I had pricier speakers, not sure it would be worth doing but maybe?

    you can see pics on my Instagram: VinylFanMichael
     
    LakeMountain likes this.
  7. Classic Car Guy

    Classic Car Guy - Touch the Face of God -

    Location:
    Northwest, USA
    what's a true aluminum?
     
  8. MondoFanM

    MondoFanM Member from ATX

    Location:
    Austin
    Classic Car Guy likes this.
  9. Classic Car Guy

    Classic Car Guy - Touch the Face of God -

    Location:
    Northwest, USA
  10. Litejazz53

    Litejazz53 Perfect Sound Through Crystal Clear Digital Thread Starter

    I'm glad you are enjoying the ribbon tweeters, I initially purchased the planar magnet tweeters (2 pair) and then moved up to the ribbon design, and enjoy them immensely, with most of the music I listen to. The super tweeters really do strengthen the upper frequencies and make the music much more enjoyable, better soundstage, everything improved, YES! I will also add, if you don't want to invest in the ribbon design, I can tell you the planar design tweeters are wonderful, the ribbons are a nice refinement but the planar design is wonderful, you will be very happy with either design. :righton:.
     
    LakeMountain and SandAndGlass like this.
  11. MondoFanM

    MondoFanM Member from ATX

    Location:
    Austin
    Everyone still happy with these? Getting a pair of Harbeth 30.1 soon. Should I use these too? or let the Harbeths do their thing?
     
  12. Litejazz53

    Litejazz53 Perfect Sound Through Crystal Clear Digital Thread Starter

    I am loving mine for sure, and I have an extra set, as I upgraded one of my sets.
     
  13. Litejazz53

    Litejazz53 Perfect Sound Through Crystal Clear Digital Thread Starter

    This might be a good time to offer some feedback in regard to long listening sessions with both the Aperion Super Tweeters, both the Planar Magnetic design as well as the Full Ribbon Design. Lately I have been enjoying some of the really cool YouTube Audiophile channels. I have no idea what the fidelity of these channels is, but wow, most of them really sound nice. I suppose the people that put these together find the best of the best to present on their channels. The super tweeters add a sparkle and define the high frequencies so beautifully.

    Anyway, back to the Aperion Super Tweeters. I now have one pair of the Planar Magnetic design as well as the more expensive Full Ribbon design and on these YouTube Channels they sound so nice, the high frequency extension is absolutely remarkable.
    People look for a way to enhance their listening experience, and this is one of the very best tweaks I have ever done, worth every penny, and both models are totally adjustable, both frequency roll off as well as loudness attenuation. What a fantastic product!
    This is certainly one tweak I will never grow tired of.
     
    Classic Car Guy and LakeMountain like this.
  14. Xarkkon

    Xarkkon Would you like a Custom Title?

    Location:
    Asia
    which channels are these? would like to check those out, sounds interesting!
     
  15. MondoFanM

    MondoFanM Member from ATX

    Location:
    Austin
  16. Litejazz53

    Litejazz53 Perfect Sound Through Crystal Clear Digital Thread Starter

    Just WOW! I purchased the original planar magnetic, now look what they have the planar magnet in the greatest colors, I love that rich burgundy color, RICH! They now have the MKII Full Ribbon at $649.00 and the one you mentioned a DUAL Full Ribbon Design at $1,000.00, they just continue to get better and better. My MK I ribbons are absolutely wonderful, I can only imagine what the dual ribbon sound like, it's just a fantastic super tweeter, however at $1,000.00 per pair, it's a bit over a small tweak, but I'm sure it's fantastic, certainly looks great and it has so many adjustments for absolutely any system:righton:

    Mine are first generation planar magnetic design as well as the first generation Full Ribbon.

    [​IMG]



    [​IMG]

    Aperion Audio Dual AMT Ribbon Super Tweeter Speaker Pair
     
    Last edited: Feb 21, 2021
    SandAndGlass likes this.
  17. Litejazz53

    Litejazz53 Perfect Sound Through Crystal Clear Digital Thread Starter

  18. LakeMountain

    LakeMountain Vinyl surfer

    Location:
    Netherlands
    Nice and interesting. Normally, companies would put the top version of a product on the market first to obtain a positive reputation. In this case it is the other way round!
     
  19. SandAndGlass

    SandAndGlass Twilight Forum Resident

    They most likely put their products on the market in the order that they developed them.
     
    Litejazz53 likes this.
  20. Litejazz53

    Litejazz53 Perfect Sound Through Crystal Clear Digital Thread Starter

    Larry, that is exactly what I thought, they are just getting better at their game!
     
    SandAndGlass likes this.
  21. fish

    fish Senior Member

    Location:
    NYS, USA
    Wow, Ive been looking into this type of thing for a while now!
    I got Very use to listening to ribbon tweeters and fast set amps.
    Now I'm trying all solid state and picked up (and refurbished) a 20+ year old pair of KEF Reference Model Fours. (KEF Reference Series Model Four loudspeaker )
    They have the typical KEF house sound (LS50s are Not the typical house sound for KEF BTW), polite high end and the Fours have tremendous amount of bass being tamed by a Marantz amp. KEFs tend to not have allot of "air" around instruments and Id like to be able to add some of that back.

    Did you guys look into other brands of Super Tweeters like this one?
     
  22. SandAndGlass

    SandAndGlass Twilight Forum Resident

    Hope so, as it appears that they are getting "better" on their prices!

    At first, they were an add-on to add some sparkle, like how you use them. Now at $1K, I think you might be better off with buying better speakers in the first place that don't need $1k tweeter upgrades?
     
    bever70 and LakeMountain like this.
  23. LakeMountain

    LakeMountain Vinyl surfer

    Location:
    Netherlands
    I looked at a few, but I found the Aperion great value because of the wide range of available settings, like starting frequency and amplification and a reasonable cost. All thanks to Litejazz53!

    I didn’t audition any, because I thought in my ignorance that they would all sound quite similar, as we are talking very high frequencies and indeed just adding a sparkle. I am still not sure how much of a difference a $200 and the $1000 will make?
     
  24. SandAndGlass

    SandAndGlass Twilight Forum Resident

    I have found that ribbon tweeters can have a clarity that fone tweeters lack. I used ribbon tweeters in my 1978 Trans-Am.

    On the flip side, many ribbon tweeters in speakers are strident and have a pronounced edge to them (while many others do not).

    Also, ribbon tweeters have a tendency to wear out, requiring replacement after a decade of use.

    I don't think it is out of ignorance. Once you get up in the super-tweeter territory, there is no fundamental source program material present in the mix, only harmonics. In a normal room, how much of a extra tweeter do you really need to "add" sparkle to the mix?

    Even most large towers have only a single small tweeter. The other larger drivers are necessary to pressurise the SPL in larger listening spaces.

    These are my front mains. The inside towers are the same LSiM707's that @Litejazz53 owns. The outside pair are Zu Omen Definitions. The Polk's have a ring radiator tweeter design that is on the mellow side and thus could benefit from some extra sparkle here and there.

    Before I bought the Zu's (which I bought used), I saw a video with Shawn Casey holding the tweeter. It was a large, heavy tweeter. On Zu's, it is used only for frequencies above 10-kHz. I used to wonder why such a massive tweeter, that is really a super tweeter, would be required in a home audio environment?

    (This is the old rear projection TV, which was replaced in the summer of 2017.)

    [​IMG]

    As it turned out, I found that this tweeter is way to "hot" and pumps way to much HF into the mix for my preferences.

    On the other hand, I have vintage restored and upgraded Altec Lansing A7's, which, with non-metallic horn diaphragm material, naturally rolled off above 10-kHz.

    Because of this, I have JBL, 2404 "Baby Cheeks" super-tweeters to enhance the high end.

    [​IMG]

    They wear hats, so that I can raise or lower the hats to provide the desired level of HF attenuation. They have a passive crossover for them and are not agressively forward sounding.

    Being that the Altec's are large real horn theater speakers, it is understandable to have a substantial horn type super-tweeter. But in an ordinary home living room, I fail to see the point?
     
    LakeMountain likes this.
  25. lobo

    lobo Music has always been a matter of Energy to me...

    Location:
    Germany
    Subwoofers and super-tweeters the rich man's smiley eq. I just pull treble and bass to the right, cheaper and occupies less space.
     
    SandAndGlass likes this.
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.

Share This Page

molar-endocrine