After a bunch of pondering, I decided to take a small, reversible plunge and purchase a pair of the Aurum Cantus G2Si ribbon tweeter to add to the HDT via Brad's suggestion.
They arrived Tuesday morning, and I wired them up with 1uf Mondorf caps in parallel using just-long-enough Teflon coated pure silver hook-up wire. They are mounted on the front edge of the HDTs for now using heavy-duty Velcro strips cut to size. I ran them for 5hrs on/5hrs off all of tuesday afternoon, all day wednesday, and most of yesterday. Last night I settled-in for some listening.
I wasn't sure exactly what to expect, and tried to keep my expectations at reasonable levels, even preparing myself to be slightly disappointed if results were such.
I am happy to report that I am very, very, pleased with the results !! Thanks Brad !
What I was hoping for was that little extra extension on the top, primarily for cymbals, other percussion, and that gleam on the top end of acoustic guitar and wind instruments, and incidental sibilants. Things that I know had been audibly absent from a lot of recordings I am intimately familiar with. This tweeter delivers that nicely, realistically, and cleanly.
What I wasn't expecting was how well they would integrate with the HDT particularly in the imaging department.
I am a drummer, and have a thing for well recorded kits. Not that the HDTs didn't do a good job on their own, it's just that the placement in the soundstage of various cymbals and effects always seemed a little off to me - they tended to either be pushed a little too close to the speakers themselves, or, when having a good center image, didn't appear where they should in height/depth.
With these tweeters, drummers who I am very familiar with their set-ups, are just right. Hi-hats appear just right of center, and you can feel the space between the hi-hat and snare. On a drummer like Carter Beauford from Dave Matthews Band(who has a large kit with tons of cymbals) each one appears in the soundstage
as it does on his kit. He plays left-handed on a kit oriented right-handed. He uses two ride cymbals mounted to his left, and pretty high up. I can now sense that height and space perfectly in relation to the rest of his kit, where previously, those parts were not nearly as well defined. The sound/feel of wood stick hitting metal cymbal is much more defined and stunningly real.
Other recordings that had things like triangles, bells, etc.. that were always very harsh with previous dome tweeters, and rather understated(and in some cases barely audible)
on the HDTs alone, are now "there" - but in a very clean and realistic sounding portrayal.
For under $200, this is a killer, and completely reversible tweak. I am sure I will be experimenting with some placement options. I recently heard a homemade pair of speakers using a full-ranger and a similar tweeter in a rear-ambience configuration that was pretty impressive.
I am still planning on getting a pair of the new DFR8s for comparison to the original Fostex, and see if the 2GSi is needed.
So far, the only drawback I've experienced is a little harshness/over-emphasized "sss"ibilants on some female vocals. Some of this may still be break-in of the tweeters and caps, and if not, the benefits I am getting so far outweigh that minor draw-back.
Highly recommended !!
So, do we call this a HDT 1.5 ? ???
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HDT 1.5s?!?! (Read 16294 times)
