Supravox tweeters

[Sjef]

Does anyone have experience with the Supravox TW2-20 horn tweeter. I can't find anything usefull on the web. They look very interesting on paper.

At the moment I am using a pair of DECCA/Kelley DK30 lookalike ribbon/horn tweeters. I like them a lot because they are very very detailed, but when I try a pair of old Electro Voice T35 tweeters I got really blown away with their dynamics, even at very low levels and that is exactly what I want. The EV's doesn't sound nearly as good as the ribbons though, they are very rough and edgy but they do sound "live"

So I'm looking for a good horn tweeter from about 3kHz upwards with the detail of a good ribbon, a reasonable dispersion and DYNAMICS DYNAMICS and DYNAMICS, Oh did I forget to mention they have to be dynamic. I find that a very important thing, that's exactly what I'm missing in all those so called High End speaker system, they don't sound live, actually often to soft, to sophisticated, in other words boring.

Anyone any suggestions ?

I'm using it with a Phy-HP 8" speaker on a open baffle in a active system. I personally find them to be best sounding as midrange drivers from 100Hz to 3 a 4 kHz at most. I don't like them to go as high as 9kHz, to beamy for me.


Tweeters I have tried earlier and didn't like:

Visaton TL16H: too thin and to beamy like a laser beam

ESS AMT 1 : not a good combination with the Phy-Hp, does not integrate well, the AMT's are also lacking top-end defenition

Electro Voice T35 : does not go low enough and sounds very rough, excellent dynamics though

SEAS milennium tweeter: sound like a typical dome tweeter and I don't like dome tweeters. Integrates well with the Phy-HP though but lacks dynamics and sounds a bit boring. Not worth the money, lukey for me i didn't buy them.

Eton 25SD: almost as good as the SEAS for a fraction of the money, same comment

Bandor 50mm driver: Had these lying around so I just had to try. Also lacks dynamics and top-end defenition.

Fostex FT66H: that's a nice one, lots of details, good dynamics but only usefull from 5kHz upwards. Good combination with the Phy but i like to cross the Phy a bit lower. Unfortunatly they where not mine, otherwise I could live with them, but now I have to buy something it's time to look what else is out ther on the market

Various modified piezo tweeters: Do a much better job than one would expect from thes el-cheapo's, not the ultimate tweeter though

Aurum Cantus ribbon: too thin sounding for the Phy-HP, lacks dynamics and body, would do better with a smaller (dome) midrange. good detail and clarity though

Gamma/Jordanow/expolineair VLD12 VLD13 or whatever they are called ribbon/horn tweeters: Best solution so far, very detailed and airy, better than the Aurum Cantus in fact (due to the horn I guess) and with more body but a little bit to much focused on the sweet spot and could be more dynamic

[Gregm]

I think your (low) x-over point limits available choices a bit

However:
A Tad Pioneer ET 703 -- or something else from Tad?? Or, maybe, a Murata???

A Tad I listened to at someone's house (an expensive tweet -- if I could only remember which one ) was mucho dynamic...
It was normally partnering a tratrix-loaded Lowther ex4, so x-over must have been well into the 8-10kHz (which is not yr case). However, we tried it with a line-level cross @ ~5kHz on an open baffle that had an 8" and it sang very well....

I only listened to the Supra once, so impressions are a bit hazy... but I think you'll miss some top end extension compared to, say, a Kelly or a Raven. Strangely, Supravox themselves recommend B&C or similar for an OB design sporting their 215+285 -- rather than their own...

Finally, a cheaper possibility could be the Beyma cp22. While it's not silky like a Raven, it can reproduce dynamics. Again, you're looking at a ~5kHz cross.
Cheers

[Sjef]

That TAD tweeter looks very promissing, too bad it can only be crossed from 5kHz and besides all it's just a tiny little bit above my budget.

I have also looked at the B&C tweeters before. I think Supravox uses them because of the better integration in radiation pattern. The Supravox 215RTF beams very narrow at 9kHz (Characteristics are 99% similar to the Phy-Hp) so if you want to cross at that point the tweeter has to beam as narrow as well, but that's excactly the reason why I want to cross lower, 4kHz at max.

I can use horn tweeters pretty close to their cutt-off frequency because I'm using a digital crossover wich is capable of crossing with 300dB/oct linear phase if I have to.