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Why isn't tweeter height talked about more?

paulgyro

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Seeing often times the tweeter is the acoustic center of the speaker why don't more people talk about the tweeter height, or list it in the specs, especially on tower speakers?

For me, I'm looking at tower speakers and am estimating that a lot of tower speakers tweeters would be aiming at the top of my head.

Thoughts?

Paul
 

polmuaddib

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I think that in a lot of speaker reviews, Amir mentions the tweeter height, when talking about vertical directivity, in the line of stay above tweeter level or stay below...
But the usual height should be ear level AFAIK.
 

Mnyb

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.. But it would be nice to know how high of the ground the tweeter is for floor standers . Hence why I'm a bit reluctant to very slim and tall floorstanders . A more "stubby" format like a rather deep box on stands make more sense as then you can have custom stands to fit your seating height :) just thinking out loud ?

maybe the angle is small enough at normal distances ? so it's not that of a concern .
 

MarcT

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Yes, I've always been interested in a set of Salon 2, but that tweeter is so dang high when I'd be sitting only 10 feet away, with my ear height at around 33 inches. Even the Studio 2 tweeter is still really high off the ground. I guess most people who can afford these type of speakers have rooms big enough to sit 14-15 feet away.

I've found myself more interested in speakers such as some of the Focal models that have the tweeter mounted below the mid-range driver, as does the PSB Imagine T3. But it seems most manufacturers want to make these tall, slim towers with the tweeter at the top. I guess if the vertical dispersion is wide enough, it's not a problem, but you have to research that info out.
 

digitalfrost

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Proper height is absolutely paramount. With my speakers, everything locks in when my ears are somwhere between the woofer and the tweeter, so the axis is lower than the tweeter. A couple of cms make a massive difference in how it sounds.
I see a lot of pictures of bookshelve speakers on desks and the tweeters are so low. But I guess nobody wants to buy/use huge stands.
 

Plcamp

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Placement is certainly important but I would not assume that tweeter on axis with ear is necessarily correct for any given speaker…in some cases definitely not.
 

abdo123

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Well no one really uses towers in the near field, and in the far field it wouldn’t make a lot of difference unless you have several rows of seats in a home cinema with different elevations.

For that the installer should know what they’re doing and adjust.
 

Katji

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Business idea: audiophile models: just add suitable marketing schpiel and double the price. Show on youtube.

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dualazmak

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What a coincidence!

Today, I just posted here and here on the thread entitled "Experience with separate super-tweeters?"

If needed and appropriate, I will be happy sharing here again the contents of my posts there.

As shared there, in my multichannel multi-driver multi-way multi-amplifier stereo project (you can find here the latest system setup), I use Be-tweeter (YAMAHA JA-0513) plus metal horn super-tweeter (FOSTEX T925A) both directly driven by dedicated amplifiers (SONY TA-A1ES driving JA-0513, YAMAHA A-S301 driving T925A) without passive LC XO network.

After my intensive try-and-error several year ago, I decided placing the super-tweeter T925A at rather unique position (physical alignment), as you can find the details here and here on my project thread.
WS002898 (1).JPG


In my setup, I recently established 0.1 msec precision perfect time alignment among all the SP drivers (summary here).

The gains for JA-0513 and T925A can be flexibly adjusted depending on the high-Fq hearing ability of audience(s) as you can find in latter half of my post here.
 
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Laserjock

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I wonder if the speaker shuffler at Harman does height also or just distance and horizontal alignment to listener?
 

Alexanderc

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I think this generally not a major issue for far field listening. Using your examples of 33 inch seated ear height, sitting 10 feet away, and the Salon 2 with a 49 inch tweeter height according to Stereophile (https://www.stereophile.com/content/revel-ultima-salon2-loudspeaker-measurements), the angle off axis would be 7.6 degrees.

Amir’s note on the Revel 328be (43 inch tweeter height, again according to Sterephile), said it would be best to stay between -20 and +40 degrees on the vertical axis. With that speaker, if someone were to lie on the floor with their head 10 feet from the speaker, that would still be less than 20 degrees off axis.
 

BenB

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Personally, I don't like when the sound a speaker produces is perceived as coming from significantly below my ears. I had this problem with the perlisten S7T. I strongly prefer something at or slightly above ear height. I think it's unnatural to have sound radiate from a place too close to the floor, as if the musicians were only 3 feet tall. When I go to the symphony, I typically sit in rows 4-6 or so, and I'm definitely looking up at the performers. That factors in for my reference (expecatations).
 

Kal Rubinson

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Personally, I don't like when the sound a speaker produces is perceived as coming from significantly below my ears. I had this problem with the perlisten S7T. I strongly prefer something at or slightly above ear height. I think it's unnatural to have sound radiate from a place too close to the floor, as if the musicians were only 3 feet tall. When I go to the symphony, I typically sit in rows 4-6 or so, and I'm definitely looking up at the performers. That factors in for my reference (expecatations).
I had the same issue with the S7t even though I knew that the vertical dispersion of the HF assembly and the slight vertical tilt of the enclosure aimed the axis of the radiation to me at ear level. One cannot discount the influence of one's visual observation of the tweeter position.
 

Sancus

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I think there is a common assumption that ear-level tweeter is very important, but in fact that assumption is wrong IMO. Tweeter above you actually sounds better to many people, and I do think it's a factor in the "this sounds like a tower instead of a stand mount" perception that people have. Considering that in many live sound situations the stage is somewhat elevated above you.

The question is mostly if the speaker has good enough vertical directivity for vertical off-axis listening but many 3-ways and of course coaxials do. Also, there have been various conversations about this in the past.
 
OP
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paulgyro

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Yes, I've always been interested in a set of Salon 2, but that tweeter is so dang high when I'd be sitting only 10 feet away, with my ear height at around 33 inches. Even the Studio 2 tweeter is still really high off the ground. I guess most people who can afford these type of speakers have rooms big enough to sit 14-15 feet away.

I've found myself more interested in speakers such as some of the Focal models that have the tweeter mounted below the mid-range driver, as does the PSB Imagine T3. But it seems most manufacturers want to make these tall, slim towers with the tweeter at the top. I guess if the vertical dispersion is wide enough, it's not a problem, but you have to research that info out.
Funny you show mention the Salon 2, that's the exact speaker that had me looking at tweeter height. It's really high so leaning towards Revel F328Be or Polk Legend L800. Yes I mentioned Revel and Polk in the same sentence. Lol
 

Cote Dazur

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I wonder if the speaker shuffler at Harman does height also or just distance and horizontal alignment to listener?
Such a good question on such a critical point.
As to the OP question, why is it not more discussed and specified also such a great question.
Speaker placement, after the recording, is the biggest key element on having great music in a room, no money into it, just taking the time to do it right with big reward to gain.
Pages and pages on that DAC against that other DAC, sexy and money involve, pages and pages on that Amp against that Amp, sexy and money involve. Same for speakers. Placing the speakers wrong, looked the appear in most picture setup on this or any site, and the sound of that DAC, That Amp and those Speaker are going to be average at best.
Then you see people talking about seating 15 feet from their speaker without one reaction from anyone and you know most here and everywhere are just lost at sea.
 

dualazmak

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As to the OP question, why is it not more discussed and specified also such a great question.
Speaker placement, after the recording, is the biggest key element on having great music in a room, no money into it, just taking the time to do it right with big reward to gain.

I fully agree with you. I assume it would be "one of" the big and critical elements; physical driver alignment, on-axis/off-axis Fq responses, precision time alignment, room acoustics and treatments, etc., etc.

In my case, as shared in above post #4, I intensively did it almost unconsciously of your nice perspective of "having great music in a room, no money into it".
 

theyellowspecial

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With bookshelf speakers I have the bottom of the woofer at ear level, with speakers tilted slightly down to make sure I'm within 5 degrees of tweeter axis. I prefer having the presentation slightly elevated.
 

DVDdoug

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To me, it's not that important. But given the directivity of most tweeters I'd say it's usually important that the speakers are pointed at your ears and the easiest solution is to have them at ear-height. But, my extra-tall DIY speakers have gimbaled tweeters (pointed down and in).

Given the arrangement of our ears, our horizontal sound-location ability is better than vertical. One of the main ways our brain determines direction is whether the sound reaches the left or right ear first, and sometimes which ear is hearing a louder sound.

And with live music the stage may be above or below the listener.
 
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