SUPER TWEETERS-anybody heard them?

I have owned and used both the Sequerra and Apature super tweeters. The biggest benefit was with electostatics that rolled off in the top octave, but even with conventional speakers there was a noticible difference, though it would be a value judgement to say that the difference was an improvement. There are several possible explanations. First the built in crossovers have finite slopes so even a crossover with a 15K 3db down point, which is quite higher than my experience, is down only 15db at 7K if the slope is 12db per octave. This is clearly within the audible range. Second, beats, or difference frequencies can be generated through wave interferance in air and on the diaphragm. IE a 22K and a 23K tone will have a difference frequency of 1K, again within the audible range. Finally, I cannot site the source but I recently read an article indicating that there may be a response to frequencies as high as 50K in humans. I might also point out that in conventionally decoded redbook CD there ain't anything up there. In LP, analog tape and the new digital formats there is the capability of recording ultrasonic sounds.

I just sold a pair of Radio Shack Super Tweeters on E-Bay. Hardly used them. I had them hooked up to a pair of AR-90's because they were lacking high end definition. I realized upon upgrading to Carver separates that the receiver I was using was underpowered.

Chuck

The sense of hearing is remarkable. I don't know what is my present upper frequency range, but at one point although I could not hear a 15Kc tone (pure sine wave), I could very plainly hear the effect of a 15Kc HF filter on broad spectrum sound. I think that I could have sensed an even higher frequency filter, but that was the highest one available in my electronics. I found this interesting, and formulated the following theory.

The difference between a 15Kc sine wave and a 15Kc square wave is the presence of higher harmonics. The sinewave vs squarewave difference in sound can be sensed even if the harmonics responsible for the difference would, by themselves, be inaudible. I think that the ear senses the rate of change of pressure, which can be high for a low frequency signal if the signal is not sinusoidal.

So, to address the question, I don't think most people can hear a supertweeter (higher than 20Kc) but I do think that they can sense its effect.

Not to side-track the thread, but in response to Czbbcl's comments about his AR 90's being "soft" on the extreme top end, these speakers are relatively linear out to appr 23 KHz. Some tweeters marketed at "super" tweeters won't even go this high. As you've noted, these speakers need GOBS of power to work their best. My experience is that if you can feed them with a real 350+ wpc @ 4 ohms, your starting to get close to what you really need : ) Sean
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I have a pair of Rumata ES-103A supertweeters on top of my Wilson Watts3-Puppy 2 and they sound beautiful. The ultimate test in my view is when I dis-connected them from the main loudspeakers, I felt something is missing from the music; hence it justifies their existence, at least in my system.
Although the supertweeters don't really extend the frequency response as such as others had mentioned that our human ear is incapable of hearing beyond about 17kHz. But soncially they seem to make the mid-to-high frequencies just that little bit more tactile, a little more immediate (intimate ?). Someone descibe it as like the sparkles one gets with jewellery/gem stones under halogen light. You owe it to yourself to try a pair to see (hear) whether it works for you or not.
By the way supertweeters been around for a long time; apparently even before the existence of proper tweeters! A lot of them can still be found on those washing-machine sized JBL Studio monitors such as the 4300 series. The Japanese audiophiles love them till this date ever since they were launched in the 60s/70s or even earlier. Now, that said something....