The AudioSmile Supertweeter

New Supertweeter

MONO AND STEREO HIGH-END AUDIO MAGAZINE

The AudioSmile Supertweeter has been designed to supplement narrowing dispersion of existing speakers in the high frequency range. It features two low distortion isoplanar ribbon units made from conductively etched lightweight kapton film suspended between a neodymium push-pull magnet system. The dual units are at a 90-degree angle to each other to radiate sound optimally into the room. This configuration also allow the AudioSmile supertweeter to be used with dipole speakers such as electrostatics. The result is increased spaciousness, imaging and vibrance to the sound.

The body is a beautiful high gloss black acrylic with each ribbon element highlighted inside a frosted section. The front and back are made from solid, hand-finished american walnut.

SupertweeterSpeaker Matching

Every loudspeaker has different characteristics so the AudioSmile Supertweeter has been designed to offer the greatest flexibility in positioning and settings. The body itself can be placed in numerous orientations allowing the user to control the wet/dry balance of HF energy. In addition there are 3 filter settings (14KHz, 16KHz &18KHz) and 6 volume increments. Integration of this supertweeter can be tuned to the finest degree.

Supertweeter Position

Supertweeters - How do they really work?
The supertweeter attracts some debate in audio circles about how it can possibly work - it's all above our hearing range, right? Are listeners hearing ultrasonics through skin conduction, are modulation products occurring due to non-linearity in air itself, or perhaps the extended response improves transient reproduction? These are mostly theories cooked up by marketing departments with just a snippet of evidence from papers about entirely different topics.

The primary reason for hearing a change in sound when adding a supertweeter is that most supertweeters produce output in the audible range (<20khz a="" all="" an="" and="" at="" attenuate="" audible="" below="" but="" cut="" filter="" for="" frequencies="" gradual="" hear="" inside="" is="" it="" level.="" listener="" lower="" means="" not="" p="" point.="" range.="" reduction="" simply="" sound="" supertweeter="" that="" the="" there="" this="" to="" will="" within="">
In this case, how is a supertweeter different than boosting the treble with EQ? The answer is that a dedicated high frequency driver can have a more desirable dispersion pattern than one that needs to work rather lower. If we consider a driver of a specific size, as the frequency reproduced gets higher the dispersion pattern becomes more narrow. This means there is less sound energy in the room at higher frequencies than mid-range and in particular, reflections from around the room will be dull compared to the direct sound from in front of the speaker.

Research by Olive and Toole shows that listeners prefer speaker systems with an even dispersion of sound across all frequency ranges. It is the job of a supertweeter then, to supplement the narrowing dispersion of the main system in the high frequencies and help reproduce music with an equal spread of all sounds both on and off the listening axis. It is easy to understand why this is desirable when we consider that a listener will not only hear the direct sound of the speaker, but also reflections of sound from around the room creating the experience of spaciousness and soundstage. This is how our hearing system identifies sound location and our enviroment.

Specification:

Body: Black gloss main, walnut cheeks, frosted ribbon lozenge

Drivers: 2x Isoplanar Ribbon
Extension: >40KHz
Distortion: ~0.4% (90dB 1m)
Size: 14cm x 7.5cm x 18cm (WHD)

Adjustment:: 14KHz, 16KHz, 18KHz filter with 6 position volume control

Connections: Binding posts (bare wire, 8mm spade, 4mm banana) Cable channel under ST body

Price: £580 + VAT

http://audiosmile.co.uk/supertweeter-mkii.html

Mono and Stereo ultra high end audio magazine. All rights reserved. 2006-2014. www.monoandstereo.com.