A REAL Super Tweeter

[@IBuildIt]

*While I use this to boost the frequencies* where my hearing is bad, this will work as a very good super tweeter that provide super clean low distortion output up to 20khz. If you are older, like most audiophiles are, bumping up the high frequency output can help make up for natural hearing loss that aging has gifted us. *Mine are driven from my miniDSP 4x10* mainly to time align them to my main speakers, but also acts as the crossover. I need to time align them because I have these placed closer to my sitting position than my main speakers. To use these as normal super tweeters, you would place them beside your main speakers at the same distance from the listening position. As a bonus, placing them farther out (toward the sidewalls) away from you main speakers can increase the width and clarity of the soundstage. *With the horn* the SB Audience Bianco 44CD-K can operate cleanly from about 800Hz all the way up to 20khz, covering a huge chunk of the audible range. I have mine set to cross at 1khz with an 12db per octave filter to gradually boost the frequencies above 500hz. *If you want to play with it* and have a 3D printer, you can download the print files here: www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/vtc3kowgfmhgzl10uzwma/CD-Horn.zip?rlkey=te4987rk04y5b7lopdoh5mg6m&st=6y5ootit&dl=0

[@georgelien]

So, like sub-woofers, Super Tweeter doesn’t have to be aligned like the tweeters and woofers ?

[@johnreeves4526]

Happy to see you back on youtube

[@EitriBrokkr]

We love your disposition

[@wingnutbert9685]

Great paint color and disposition, John. 👍

[@corcoransullivan1562]

Love this guy, could have been a rocket scientist or anything else he thought to do. Extremely impressive human, thanks again for all the vids.

[@hificave]

Wish I lived close by and could help you test your concepts. Very good stuff sir! Love your channel.

[@impuls60]

Good to hear that your doing well! I recently finished my open baffle. I use a horn driver similar to yours and I removed the back cup! I 3d printed a back waveguide in the shape of the back cup for some true dipole action! It works fantastic! Lovered Fs and gives more "air" without beeing bright. Since the increased treble is percived as an echo it doesnt give ear fatigue, but gives impression of more soundstage depth. With your new found 3d printing skill you could make a vid about it! Not many on YT have picked up this trend yet! A medium size compression driver (I used a 54mm ) can cover 1500 to 17 000kHz easily, and I used a 8" driver down to 200. Below that double 15" placed at the bottom with only a 1. order filter do avoid too much phase delay. I used slight eq to tune the speakers for out door duty or indoor use. The response is so flat that I mostly use bass notches for room modes. I placed the 8" into the horn lip for as little c-c distanse as possible and vertical response is pretty good because of the low crossover, and gives very little destructive interference wich always is a problem with super tweeters. The wavelength is so short so if the super tweeter is placed more than a 1/4 wavelength apart the echo will have destructive wavelength in it. Anyways such a setup takes eq perfectly and one can just boost the frequencies one finds lacking more. As a side note the new Kef 6.3 by Andrew Jones uses a low c-c distanse and low xo. This a good speaker I can recommend for ppl needing eq to compensate for hearing loss if they cant build something themselves. I really am amazed at the soundstage one can get with superbb horizontal and vertical response. My speaker have almost as good response behind the baffle as normal speakers have on axis. With the waveguide in the back you dont get diffraction from the classic magnet normal drivers have in the way. I think the dual waveguided drivers will make a comback in open baffle designs now thats 3d printing have become so easy.

[@IBuildIt]

Sounds interesting and I may give it a try :)

[@Audio_Simon]

Glad you got in to 3D printing, it's really fascinating, isn't it! The finish on your horn / waveguide looks great. You might enjoy designs from Polymate 3D - 3D printed full range woofers.

[@PappaBear_yt]

Well I like the looks of your room very much! 😉👍🏻🙋🏼‍♂️

[@rothgartheviking858]

Love your videos. I learn so much.

[@IvoTichelaar]

I made horns from plywood, MDF, plaster etc, and it was doable, but it would be so nice to go from idea to design to just picking it off a printbed....

[@paulhirst3548]

It is great to see you back at the audio John. I use headphones while on the computer and I have found that the two channel, 32 band graphic equalizer that is available with MX Linux allows me to use them without my hearing aids. I had my hearing chart to get me started and it took a good week to get the settings correct. Listening to my speakers I am reliant on the hearing aids. Unfortunately, it seems that hearing aids have a built in 5 year lifespan. New hearing aids are $$$$$$$$$$$.

[@MCsCreations]

Pretty interesting stuff, John! 😃 And, you know... I guess I want to build another Bluetooth speaker... 😂 Stay safe there with your family! 🖖😊

[@kennethnielsen3864]

Thanks for sharing.

[@ZrubekFamily]

Those speakers are really cool. They made me think of guitars. Then I thought, Giant guitar shaped speakers would be REALLY cool. Woofer and midrange in the body and tweeters in the neck.

[@KipdoesStuff]

Hi John, I like to hear about this stuff (no pun intended) I'd never go to those lengths because my hearing sucks and I am lazy. Good talk John.

[@vendelius]

Great Stuff John..

[@davidbailey6350]

So the color is Moody Blue…? 😂

[@MykeHawke-r9r]

You could talk to the dolphins with that one yeah huh

[@mattbukala2728]

Parts express makes a 8in wave guide for a 1 and 3/8 screw on compression driver they work great if you’re interested ✌️

[@sc0or]

Sooner or later all audiophiles come to compression drivers. I would bet you’ll play with them yet in a feature sir.

[@cougar1861]

How did you chose the specific 3D horn shape to print? How did you fuse the two half-horns, 6mm bolts together? What "glue" ... for what type printing (plastic) material?

[@lohikarhu734]

Biggest hearing aid drivers I done ever saw.... That bit about having the singer inside your head: in the music player that I have on my tablet, it has a mode that does a kind of 'mixing' of the channels when using headphones, to reduce that effect... I wonder if that would work for your "local" speakers?

[@wardprocter2371]

Regarding the passive radiators, did you print the blue parts in TPU? Looking forward to your tests on those.

[@ericpmoss]

How small can spherical (tractrix IIRC) horns be made? I'm thinking of what it would take to make laptop computer speakers that were at least somewhat efficient and low distortion. Do horns absolutely need compression drivers to work? If so, how small can they be and still handle at least mid-lows?

[@grandmasterjo1]

Hello sir Love your room and set up but I don’t see a turntable 🤪 Just for information For a medium level high end audio system which I will be investing soon Would you recommend vinyl or streaming. I’ve always had high end audio gear before I sold it Yamaha NS 1000 M Theorens 125 sme arm MC cart Quad pre power 405 Nakamichi 700 cassette deck Those were the golden years Please advice Streaming or vinyl as source Fir me vinyl is analog Streaming is digital and our ears are analog 😅 Thanks 🙏 awaiting

[@bryanbassett2110]

It depends on your tastes. Streaming is technically higher fidelity, and our ears are good enough to extract and interpret that additional detail offered. A good middle ground would be to stream and use a tube preamp. That way, you have the convenience and fidelity of streaming, with the euphonic tonality akin to vinyl. My solution though, is to just do both

[@IBuildIt]

I don't have records or use streaming and I talk about why in this video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/boqxeWynr6qLqbM

[@grandmasterjo1]

@@bryanbassett2110 ​​⁠thank you so much for your response. The problem with us old school is change is constant yet we cling Listening to music is a ritual U owe an album the colourful artwork it’s precious Streaming can never have the feeling of owning music It’s borrowed or hired from an enormous library The first time I went to check a new pair of BnW speakers the sales guy was streaming from an iPad and it sounded atrocious insulting the speakers. They were selling B&W speakers worth $50K and the demo was horrendous The guy never heard jazz or classical and only played summer of 69 I simply walked out. Happened in Mumbai India

[@photorealismstr]

How do you handle noise floor with mini dsp 4x10hd;I updated to flex8 recently and i really found the difference massive check it out

[@IBuildIt]

The noise floor is below audibility, even on these very high sensitivity drivers.

[@photorealismstr]

@@IBuildIt how did you manage that;it must be the amps you are using.I so you have videos about them i will check them out

[@johndough8115]

While this seems to be a decent solution... (so long as nobody else is in the room/area) Im wondering... Why bother with speakers at all, when you can buy Audiophile grade headphones, instead? Certainly they would be far superior to those mini drivers, in your adjustable "Booster" device. Pick a powerful enough headphone, and you likely could EQ it any way you want, without distorting the drivers. Also, the best headphones, dont sound like headphones... the drivers "Vanish", and it sounds like the entire room is being flooded with sound, instead (as if you are playing actual high end speakers).

[@IBuildIt]

I hate wearing headphones.

[@witaminc]

I have listened to good headphones and still am, when working, but nothing compares to good speakers in the right room, you can't get that energy of music with just headphones + there are room reflections etc, that make it even better.

[@petertimp5416]

👍🙂

[@benjoe999]

I would add braces to support the outer curve of the compression driver's waveguides. It can take off some self resonances.

[@IBuildIt]

The rim of the horn is thickened. And besides that, it's best not to assume there will be a problem that needs "fixing" until you confirm there is an actual problem. If that's one thing i see over and over, it's guys assuming issues that simply aren't there, or are too insignificant to cause problems.

[@tysonn4736]

Instead of having a pair of hearing aids, why not just EQ the main speakers to match your hearing loss curve? Then you wouldn't need a hearing aid at all.

[@joicejewerly5579]

Orange goose neck headphones? I like🎉🎉🎉