Tweeters sound is too edgy/bright

[singleended40]

Hi Everyone,

I had built my own two way high efficient speakers (97dB) with a pair of midrange as a tweeters (JBL L5-2/16 Ohm)) and a pair of woofers (Stephen Trusonic 120FR/16 Ohms 12 inches full range). I just add a pair of JBL LE 175 16 Ohms horns and replaced the LE5-2 with Jensen RP 302A super tweeters. The xover had been designed by my friend in two ways configuration (with all NOS oil caps and one transformer inductor).
The sound is harsch (from the Jensen tweeters) to me and I just add to them 0.56uF/100V Electron oil capacitors (they are NOS vintage square caps). The edgy or harsch or bright sound disappeared but the tweeters sound weak ( I have to put my ears close to them ) whereas the LE175 horns sound much better than before.
My question is the new set-up is normal or do I need to change another better caps with different values? What type of caps should I choose? Thank you very much for your help.

Regards,
Tan

 

[Sherman]

Hi Everyone,

...
The sound is harsch (from the Jensen tweeters) to me and I just add to them 0.56uF/100V Electron oil capacitors (they are NOS vintage square caps). The edgy or harsch or bright sound disappeared but the tweeters sound weak ( I have to put my ears close to them ) whereas the LE175 horns sound much better than before.
My question is the new set-up is normal or do I need to change another better caps with different values? What type of caps should I choose? Thank you very much for your help.

Regards,
Tan

This can be caused by a number of things-

1- the tweeters are too loud because they are much more efficient than the other drivers and the crossover doesn't attenuate the tweeter volume

2- the crossover lets the midrange driver run full range and it significantly overlaps the tweeter causing too much output in the overlapped frequencies

3- the tweeters just sound that way

You can add an L-Pad to the tweeter circuit without changing the crossover to attenuate the volume without changing the xover frequency. Easy to do and it may help with 1 & 2 above.

You can redesign the crossover to roll off the midrange rather than running it full-range (if it currently does) to help with the overlap. That can help with #2.

With #3 you may just need a different tweeter.

 

[singleended40]

Tweeters are too high

Hi Sherman,

The tweeters sound so efficient and smoothing the high. What tweeters are you suggesting to change since I have tried JBL 077 and bullet 075? But none of them can beat the RP-302A sonically.

Now the horn act as midrange and they have more efficient than tweeters before. It sounds like most of the treble and midrange are there. But the soundstage is awesome and has three dimensions.

In your opinion and experience what would you suggest me to add in the circuit of tweeters to get the tweeter sound back without distortion. I have heard about the L-pad before but I do not know what components consist of in the L-pad. If you do not mind would you kindly email me the values of capacitors, resistors and/or inductors to build a L-pad. Thank you and appreciate your time.

Regards,
Tan

 

[peufeu]

A L-pad is like a power potentiometer used to attenuate a tweeter. You don't make one, you purchase one 😉

Also some measurements would help.

 

[singleended40]

L-pad website

Hi Peufeu,

Where could I purchase the L-pad to attenuate the tweeters? Do you have any websites to prefer? Thanks in advance.

Regards,
Tan

 

[Ropie]

Tan,

An l-pad is just a few resistors that you can switch between to enable different levels of attenuation. You can easily make one yourself.

Look HERE for details.

 

[3-LockBox]

Re: L-pad website

Where could I purchase the L-pad to attenuate the tweeters? Do you have any websites to prefer? Thanks in advance.

http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?&DID=7&Partnumber=260-255

most L-pads are wired after the x-over, BTW.