Ow I

[Andres Silva]

Hi all of you. I am new.

For those who had heard and used the Hiquphon OW I tweeter.

Do you like this tweeter? What is your experience on this tweeter? Is difficult to work with?

Thanks and regards

[zimjj]

I have used the OW-I and like it very much. I paired it with a Scan Speak 15W....revelator and crossed it at ~2700hz. I had a friend help me with the crossover so I can't talk about it much, but I can point you to a web site. It didn't seem hard, I brought over the box with the two drivers mounted, we measured it; he calculated the cross-over, I forget what program he used, but it was relatively quick. We built a protoype crossover in his garage, all of this in one afternoon. And I think it sounds great.

JohnZ

[BHTX]

Just incase you haven't seen this already..

http://www.zaphaudio.com/tweetermishmash/
Hiquphon OW1 ($110 ea) - Popular and expensive 3/4" dome. Near perfect response curve and equally perfect off axis curve. The CSD stops on a dime. On the negative side, HD is merely average. Cleaner than the OW4 above 3kHz, but tall order HD peaking at 2kHz. Crossing over higher is better for the OW1. Tested March 2006.

[DonA]

Hello Andres, and welcome to the forum! I'm fairly new to this forum myself although I've been involved in DIY audio in various forms for quite a number of years.

I haven't used the OWI, but I am in the process of using the OWII in a new 3-way I'm designing. I have done testing on the OWII and it is certainly a competent tweeter showing decent IM distortion numbers as long as you stay above 2kHz. The frequency response is also quite flat and these units come with their own individual curves. The main difference between the OWI and OWII is that your OWI has about 3 dB less sensitivity than the OWII but maintains its output down to 2 kHz and the impedance peak on the OWI is a bit better controlled. This may make crossover design a bit easier. There is every indication that these tweeters have excellent quality control and very little unit-to-unit variation.

I strongly suspect that these tweeters share a similar overall "sound" characteristic. I find the OWII to be one of the finest sounding tweeters I have heard and I particularly appreciate the excellent dispersion characteristic that all of the OW( ) series of tweeters have. In researching these units where they appear in other designs, I find that they are VERY highly regarded for their sound quality and this certainly agrees with my findings.

My only caution would be to not cross over any lower than 2.5kHz with a minimum of a 2nd order design or higher. Its 87 dB sensitivity means you shouldn't use it with a woofer/midrange having higher sensitivity than that. And considering that it is a 3/4" unit, I wouldn't try to use it at very high listening levels.

So, my opinion is that you have made an EXCELLENT CHOICE and you will be very pleased with the results.

[zimjj]

I don't know if you are familiar with Troels Gravesen, the prolific Danish designer, but he said in his build of the Super Mini-monitor"...the HIQUPHON OWI was bought only because I wanted to own a pair of these - probably - best ever made 19 mm domes. Thanks to Oscar Vroending at HIQUPHON."

JohnZ

[tf1216]

Reviews exist on www.ellisaudio.com comparing the various Hiquphons tweeters against one another.

Dave Ellis seems to like the OW1-fs tweeter because it has the benefits of the OW1 with better power handling under 2kHz.

http://www.ellisaudio.com/hiqcomments.htm

[Andres Silva]

Thanks for your kind answers guys. I appreciate your experiences. I have on mind some ideas to use these tweeters. One idea for the OW1 is to do a three way design using as midrange the Seas W15LY and in the bass and old but new in it's box peerles 80146 10" woofers.

I had read somewhere in this site some guys think the OW1 are too much detailed, beyond natural sound may be. what you like of the sound of these OW1?

[SamL]

I am using OW1 with Focal 6W in a 2 way. The tweeter give a nice fluid sound that is like melted chocolate. If you like female vocal. pop, instruments and jazz, OW1 will go very well with it. It has good details but no way it is over doing. I think the 'over detail, not natural' remark , the crossover is not done right. The only down side I can see about OW1 is the price. However it is hand made in EU and should have good resell value. If I were to replace my 2 way, I'll keep the OW1 and sell the Focal 6W.

[Andres Silva]

Thanks SamL. We are form the same audio planet, we have similar audio tastes I think. If you say the OW1 sounds like melted chocolate, then I have to get a pair of these tweeters. Later I will let you know how is going my speaker project. I hope do this right!