The Sasandu TX kit fascinates me, because at least in North America, there is One Stop Shopping!
Solen in Montréal has the drivers and the finished cabinets and all the other parts, and can assemble and test the crossovers, and ship completely assembled speakers!
Solen can also build a crossover with "Boutique" capacitors and coils.
I am dispositionally incapable of Leaving Well Enough Alone. So, looking at the FR graph of the TeXtreme tweeter, there seems to be a "whiplash" dip and peak from 20kHz:
Now, the Beryll tweeter is not ruler-flat up there, but, it might be more benign:
So, my gut feeling, especially in view of all the praise the Satori Beryllium tweeter has had showered upon it, is that for a US price increment of say $300 on the pair of speakers, swapping out the TeXtreme tweeter and swapping in the Beryllium tweeter might make sense.
Now, Customs and Shipping will complicate the picture, but, my guess is, that for a lot of the US (in terms of shipping to the Heartland), they could get an assembled tested pair of Sasandu "TXB"s for under $7500. But from the looks of things, anything below $10,000 would be a bargain, compared to imported loudspeakers sold in audio salons via Triple Tier Distribution.
Hard to beat with a stick, I say!
What think ye Bests and Brightests?
all my best,
john
Solen in Montréal has the drivers and the finished cabinets and all the other parts, and can assemble and test the crossovers, and ship completely assembled speakers!
Solen can also build a crossover with "Boutique" capacitors and coils.
I am dispositionally incapable of Leaving Well Enough Alone. So, looking at the FR graph of the TeXtreme tweeter, there seems to be a "whiplash" dip and peak from 20kHz:
Now, the Beryll tweeter is not ruler-flat up there, but, it might be more benign:
So, my gut feeling, especially in view of all the praise the Satori Beryllium tweeter has had showered upon it, is that for a US price increment of say $300 on the pair of speakers, swapping out the TeXtreme tweeter and swapping in the Beryllium tweeter might make sense.
Now, Customs and Shipping will complicate the picture, but, my guess is, that for a lot of the US (in terms of shipping to the Heartland), they could get an assembled tested pair of Sasandu "TXB"s for under $7500. But from the looks of things, anything below $10,000 would be a bargain, compared to imported loudspeakers sold in audio salons via Triple Tier Distribution.
Hard to beat with a stick, I say!
What think ye Bests and Brightests?
all my best,
john
you will not be able to tell the difference between the tweeters based on their response at 20k or above, probably given your age above 12k and above. I'm skeptical you could tell the difference at all, I would keep the textreme tweeter. There is also a little bit of a sensitivity difference between them.
One, the speakers are not for me.
Two, at college age I could hear very well over 20kHz, because I could hear the "Ultrasonic Sensing Alarm" in the public school my father ran, because sometimes I would visit him and have to tell him to turn the alarm off because I could hear it. I think it was 24kHz.
Three, In front of a room full of audio critics at CES, I heard something nobody else did in Richard Rives Bird's room-correction demo. He blurted out, "Nobody can hear that!" John Atkinson, who was seated beside me, then tugged on my earlobe and claimed that there was a golden glow emanating from my ear canal--just ask him!
I think that different materials have different sonic signatures over their entire frequency range... but in any event, I will take whatever Chris at Solen says very seriously.
ciao,
john
Two, at college age I could hear very well over 20kHz, because I could hear the "Ultrasonic Sensing Alarm" in the public school my father ran, because sometimes I would visit him and have to tell him to turn the alarm off because I could hear it. I think it was 24kHz.
Three, In front of a room full of audio critics at CES, I heard something nobody else did in Richard Rives Bird's room-correction demo. He blurted out, "Nobody can hear that!" John Atkinson, who was seated beside me, then tugged on my earlobe and claimed that there was a golden glow emanating from my ear canal--just ask him!
I think that different materials have different sonic signatures over their entire frequency range... but in any event, I will take whatever Chris at Solen says very seriously.
ciao,
john
John Atkinson obviously was being ironical. What I heard was the "kick-in" of the room correction box. It made the correction immediately.
However, because the room had primary modes of resonance corresponding to three different room dimensions, what I heard was the 1 - 2 - 3 dying out of the extra energy that was zooming around the uncorrected room.
So, it was not so much high frequencies, as very low SPL levels. If the room had been 24 x 18 feet with 12-foot ceilings, there are lots of axial room modes in the 200 to 400 Hz range. You can calculate such numbers here: http://www.mcsquared.com/modecalc.htm
I was being picked up at the airport nearest to the $1 million listening room I was consulting on, and I met up with another acoustician and an audio equipment guy, and the wife of the project director. Everyone was chatting, and I interrupted the lady to say, "I think your phone is ringing," and I pointed to her handbag. The ringer either was at the lowest setting or I was hearing it in Vibrate mode, rubbing against handbag contents, but nobody else heard it.
I started making recordings in 1968 and the first recording project I worked on professionally was in 1982, and that recording is still a valuable collector's item, and was recently reissued as a signed numbered limited edition "Glass & Gold" CD, costing $1200.
And... I count my blessings.
I never said I preferred the sound of the Satori Be to the TX. But I have heard lots of metal-dome tweeters I did not like. I am unpersuaded that a bump at 30kHz cannot be perceived via the initial transients.
I am not being paid to fine-tune the Sasandu kit, so I am not going to buy two tweeters. Most of my loudspeaker design work involves ribbons, from one specific manufacturer.
That's why I was seeking opinions from people who have heard both SBA Satori tweeters.
At the end of the day, it's the project of Chris at Solen, but if someone has some relevant information, I want to bring it to his attention.
ciao,
john
However, because the room had primary modes of resonance corresponding to three different room dimensions, what I heard was the 1 - 2 - 3 dying out of the extra energy that was zooming around the uncorrected room.
So, it was not so much high frequencies, as very low SPL levels. If the room had been 24 x 18 feet with 12-foot ceilings, there are lots of axial room modes in the 200 to 400 Hz range. You can calculate such numbers here: http://www.mcsquared.com/modecalc.htm
I was being picked up at the airport nearest to the $1 million listening room I was consulting on, and I met up with another acoustician and an audio equipment guy, and the wife of the project director. Everyone was chatting, and I interrupted the lady to say, "I think your phone is ringing," and I pointed to her handbag. The ringer either was at the lowest setting or I was hearing it in Vibrate mode, rubbing against handbag contents, but nobody else heard it.
I started making recordings in 1968 and the first recording project I worked on professionally was in 1982, and that recording is still a valuable collector's item, and was recently reissued as a signed numbered limited edition "Glass & Gold" CD, costing $1200.
And... I count my blessings.
I never said I preferred the sound of the Satori Be to the TX. But I have heard lots of metal-dome tweeters I did not like. I am unpersuaded that a bump at 30kHz cannot be perceived via the initial transients.
I am not being paid to fine-tune the Sasandu kit, so I am not going to buy two tweeters. Most of my loudspeaker design work involves ribbons, from one specific manufacturer.
That's why I was seeking opinions from people who have heard both SBA Satori tweeters.
At the end of the day, it's the project of Chris at Solen, but if someone has some relevant information, I want to bring it to his attention.
ciao,
john
Can't you buy the standard Sasandu TX and a extra pair of Be tweeters and swap? Like you say, for a few dollars more.
Those 3 lines above 20Khz won't tell you what the total dispersion will be like, nor how it interacts with your room, nor which you prefer (real or perceived)
Only you can suck it and see.
Those 3 lines above 20Khz won't tell you what the total dispersion will be like, nor how it interacts with your room, nor which you prefer (real or perceived)
Only you can suck it and see.
I guess if you do the comparison then test with either the utrasonic alarm or the phone ringing.this would give you the definitive answere i feel.
I feel the TX sounds smoother overall by comparison. What I see in the plots minus sensitivity level differences is still about a 5dB jump in about the same spot.
Sound quality is likely to be improved in ways we can all hear with a £30 SB Acoustics tweeter in an appropriate waveguide. There might be a just about audible improvement by stepping up to a £100 tweeter (in an appropriate waveguide) but I wouldn't take bets. Of course this assumes sound quality is related to maximising the timbral accuracy listening to music in the home rather than sounding good/better than neutral which can be a perfectly valid objective. It also sets aside any value in having the best rather than sufficient.
I'm not knocking the appeal of tweeters with high prices and exotic cone materials or widely spraying high frequency sound into the room but it tends to need some context and objectives if one wishes to make decisions about what might be better.