SUPER TWEETERS-anybody heard them?

The sense of hearing is remarkable. I don't know what is my present upper frequency range, but at one point although I could not hear a 15Kc tone (pure sine wave), I could very plainly hear the effect of a 15Kc HF filter on broad spectrum sound. I think that I could have sensed an even higher frequency filter, but that was the highest one available in my electronics. I found this interesting, and formulated the following theory.

The difference between a 15Kc sine wave and a 15Kc square wave is the presence of higher harmonics. The sinewave vs squarewave difference in sound can be sensed even if the harmonics responsible for the difference would, by themselves, be inaudible. I think that the ear senses the rate of change of pressure, which can be high for a low frequency signal if the signal is not sinusoidal.

So, to address the question, I don't think most people can hear a supertweeter (higher than 20Kc) but I do think that they can sense its effect.

Not to side-track the thread, but in response to Czbbcl's comments about his AR 90's being "soft" on the extreme top end, these speakers are relatively linear out to appr 23 KHz. Some tweeters marketed at "super" tweeters won't even go this high. As you've noted, these speakers need GOBS of power to work their best. My experience is that if you can feed them with a real 350+ wpc @ 4 ohms, your starting to get close to what you really need : ) Sean
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I have a pair of Rumata ES-103A supertweeters on top of my Wilson Watts3-Puppy 2 and they sound beautiful. The ultimate test in my view is when I dis-connected them from the main loudspeakers, I felt something is missing from the music; hence it justifies their existence, at least in my system.
Although the supertweeters don't really extend the frequency response as such as others had mentioned that our human ear is incapable of hearing beyond about 17kHz. But soncially they seem to make the mid-to-high frequencies just that little bit more tactile, a little more immediate (intimate ?). Someone descibe it as like the sparkles one gets with jewellery/gem stones under halogen light. You owe it to yourself to try a pair to see (hear) whether it works for you or not.
By the way supertweeters been around for a long time; apparently even before the existence of proper tweeters! A lot of them can still be found on those washing-machine sized JBL Studio monitors such as the 4300 series. The Japanese audiophiles love them till this date ever since they were launched in the 60s/70s or even earlier. Now, that said something....

I used to own the Tannoys, used them to add to some Lowther-based speakers I used.

They sounded great, and really did a nice smooth job extending the Lowthers. I crossed them over at around 16kHz, I can't remember the exact frequency. I used them for a while, then sold them. I found that, while they were very good, I didn't NEED them. I put up with the missing extra air and sparkle, but still enjoyed themusic immensely.

My recommendation: if you have a pretty good system now, it may not be worth the extra money. If you can find them used, go for it; you can always try and sell them later for little or no loss.

Good luck

I have a pair of Tannoy ST50 supertweeters on my Verity Parsifals and absoultely love them. Suprisingly, the imrovements are not so much in terms of added sparkle (although the treble does seem to extend higher up and seems more delicate and nuanced) but an overall sense of liquidity in the sound. The transients are also cleaner and quicker. A definite improvement, well worth the (steep) price.