What your tweeters do to the Quads is simply black magic! Congratulations.

Xavier

I have a pair of your Super Tweeter in Titanium finish and have to say they are fantastic. 

Julie

I have a pair of (much improved) ESL-63 Quads, and recently got a pair of your new ribbon tweeters, after hearing them on a few horn systems over friends houses during the recent Colorado Audio Fest.

My initial impression of your speakers on the Quads was not favourable.  No matter what I did, my speakers simply sounded more natural without your tweeters.  However, the other day, I went back and re-read the instructions, with particular emphasis on the issue of speaker phasing.  Much to my surprise, and delight, reversing the leads from the tweeters into the Quads (positive of tweeter connected to negative of Quad etc.) did the trick.  Apparently, when connected in normal fashion the tweeters were out of phase with the Quads.  I am now enjoying the added magic of your speakers which I would enthusiastically endorse with ESL-63 WHEN connected as noted.  I sent this so that you could alert other Quad lovers.

Barry

I’m writing just to say the supertweeters made a great improvement to my system, and of course, I’m keeping them.

Francisco

I would just like to say again now that I have had the supertweeters for a few weeks, that the sound improvement in my Quad 989’s is superb, a great combination!

I have had just decent quality speaker leads to the Quads and have been waiting for the right opportunity to try something better, so when I tried  your cables that come with the tweeters, first with them directly connected back to the amplifier (instead of piggy back from the spkrs) and was astounded at the improvements, making the tweeters even more fantastic, it also told me that my spkr leads must have been very average, so I moved the spkrs closer together so that I could hear them connected with your tweeters cables and was duly blown away by an incredible improvement, they were now the most transparent, detailed, natural, open, balanced, uncoloured sound I have ever heard come from them, and this without your tweeters helping them for the moment!

John

To extend high-frequency reproduction to 100kHz seems batty, but says Jimmy Hughes, Townshend’s Super Tweeter is supersonic

The case for subwoofers is fairly easy to make. Most loudspeakers are limited in terms of size and this leads to restricted bass depth. Very few can reproduce frequencies much deeper than 30Hz (and many don’t even get that far), so there’s an obvious need for something to reproduce those lower octaves.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, virtually all modem speakers can reproduce high frequencies well beyond the range of human hearing-reckoned to be about 20kHz. Alas, few listeners the wrong side of 20 can hear as high as 20kHz. As for those of us the wrong side of 50 -well, we’re lucky if we can hear up to 15kHz! It gets worse. With most of us listening to music from CD, bandwidth is limited to about 19kHz. So, why invest in super tweeters that extend the upper frequencies out beyond 30kHz, when the recordings themselves have no high frequencies to exploit this and our ears can’t hear that high anyway?

The logic of the above seems irrefutable. Yet regardless of such ‘logic’, Townshend Maximum Super Tweeters are capable of having a profound effect on sound quality-and not necessarily in ways you might expect or predict. They’re Ribbon designs that behave like a subwoofer for the treble-influencing the sound in strange ways. Now you might expect a set of super tweeters to increase sharpness and give the sound greater upper-frequency immediacy and impact. This it does, but-and here’s where it gets a bit scary-you also notice improvements in apparent bass depth, along with increased lower-frequency tightness and control. Amazing! Subjectively, it’s akin to the way a good subwoofer makes the treble seems smoother and more ‘airy’, increasing the impression of 30 spacious depth and tonal richness. Although you’re only bolstering the lowest frequencies, the improvement seems to come in the midband and treble areas.

In much the same way, a good super tweeter seems to give you a tighter; cleaner bass, with reduced boom and overhang. Yet, turn off your main speakers and listen only to what ti1e super tweeter’s are doing-the noises they’re actually making -and it seems incredible that it could be making this sort of difference. One of the key aspects of getting great results from a subwoofer is-don’t have it up too loud. When you first get a sub, there’s a tendency to adjust it so its contribution is ‘obvious’. But paradoxically, subs produce their most profound effects when their presence is subliminal. You should only notice a sub when it’s switched off.

It’s exactly the same with a super tweeter; you need very little. Indeed, it’s been our experience (going back more than twenty years) that the less you have, the more profound the overall effect on sound quality becomes. We always use our Townshend Super Tweeters with them set to ’1′, and often wish there was a lower setting.

Discretion pays

The question is -how and why do super tweeters (and subs) contribute so much, yet (apparently) seem to do so little? In our view, it’s to do with being able to move air at sub-sonic and supersonic frequencies, making it easier for frequencies in the audible range to couple-better to the air. By setting the air in motion at extremely high or low frequencies, you help the drive units to move the air in the middle-frequency areas where the bulk of the sound is. Imagine a sharp blade trying to cut through something stiff. If you were to vibrate it at supersonic frequencies, it would cut more efficiently.

For this reason, you don’t actually have to ‘hear’ the contribution made by your super tweeters to notice the effect they have on the overall sound. Indeed, if the contribution is too strong, the result is counter-productive – the sound becomes messy and harsh, with excessive high-frequency emphasis. When a super tweeter seamlessly integrates, you get a focused quality of sound that has an innate clarity, while also displaying a spacious airy quality that creates holographic 3D ‘out of the boxes’ stereo imagery. Transients have increased attack, yet the treble itself is effortlessly smooth and open. Given that most loudspeakers are more obviously deficient at the extreme low-frequency end of the spectrum, a good subwoofer probably gives you a bigger bang for your buck. But a super tweeter like Townshend’s Maximum is likewise capable of adding an extra dimension that has to be heard to be believed.

Townshend Maximum Super Tweeters are capable of having a profound effect on sound quality -and not necessarily in ways you might expect or predict

A hi·fi enthusiast for four decades, Jimmy’s knowledge of system-matching and record-collecting are unmatched in the industry.