Horn tweeter addition

Improving the treble response

I always found my FE167E full-range driver bass reflex speakers to be lacking of the fullest treble. I clearly knew it was a compromise of this full-range driver, but after 3 years of listening to them, I decided to do an upgrade to the system. The FT96H horn tweeters are a  nice match for the price range I was looking for:

The crossover is a classic one including L-PAR attenuator for the tweeter and Zobel compensation for the FE167E. with air inductors and polypropylene capacitors and a crossover frequency around 12kHz.

Results are very exciting. I’ve been listening to them since yesterday evening and tried several reference records including Jazz and Rock. My first impressions are that the change has been mainly positive, better treble indeed. Brighter cymbals, snare and maintaining delicate sound of brass instruments.  I was worried to get the balance wrong, but it’s great. The sound is dominated by the full range driver and the horn tweeter is adding just the missing treble. Really nice.

I like the external look of them, but the wife is already concern about the “look” of them. So may drill the holes in the cabinets and put them down the FE167Es.

 

Author: Ale Moglia

"A mistake is always forgivable, rarely excusable and always unacceptable. " (Robert Fripp)

One thought on “Horn tweeter addition”

  1. Hi Ale:

    I work already for lots of years with super tweeters on my Tannoy GRF. I am using the LCY-K100 with an 18 dB/oct butterworth high pass filter.
    I have found that when you spend time to align the super tweeter sonically in phase with the main speaker it brings everything to next level.
    The way I am putting the tweeter in phase is by having my FM tuner on a non station frequency and slowly move the tweeter. You will hear very soon when the tweeter is in phase or not.
    One thing I still cannot explain for my self is that I have the feeling that for example also the attack on low frequencies like Japanese drums is also improving.

    Happy listening

    Robbert

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