Tannoy Super Tweeters reviewed and tested; are Super Tweeters a valuable addition to your high-end system, or are they overhyped “snake oil”?
Ensconced within the welcoming walls of Audio Affair’s dedicated listening room, the opportunity presented itself to try a back to back comparison of Tannoy’s excellent Arden Legacy speakers (read the review here) with Tannoy’s aesthetically arresting Super Tweeters.
With a measured sense of scepticism and trepidation, I hooked up the Super Tweeters and sat back to cast judgement…
Tannoy Super Tweeters – Snake Oil or Revelation?
We’ve covered the theory of Super Tweeters before on The Audio Affair Blog; before today, however, your author had never before had the opportunity to perform a considered A/B comparison. What if an apology was in order? What if it’s all marketing hype and “Snake Oil”?
Listening tests were conducted using a Naim Uniti Star as a music source, with both CD playback and Tidal streaming via an iPad, with a Sugden A21 SE providing the amplification. In the interests of objectivity, a baseline reference was achieved by listening to a couple of tracks without the Super Tweeters first.
First up, was Queen’s magnificent 1980’s masterpiece “Innuendo”, which was played from a CD copy; this would be a genuine test as thanks to the 44.1kHz sample rate limitations of CD, any benefits presented by the Super Tweeters would be firmly within the realm of conventional hearing and be of benefit to any listener, with any source material.
Audio Pixie Dust
Having listened to “Innuendo” from start to finish without the Super Tweeters, the Super Tweeters were then connected directly to the Tannoy Arden’s speaker sockets in preparation to cast judgement. The results were genuinely surprising and welcome!
Detail, already a Tannoy Dual Concentric strong point, is enhanced massively; no mean feat on speakers as remarkable as the Ardens. An incredible sense of air and presence is immediately liberated from the recording as is the breathtaking stereo imaging which becomes pinpoint sharp.
Cymbals splash and burst rather than merely exploding, whilst textural nuances such as reverberation trails and delay repeats add the sense of excitement the producer originally intended. The best analogy is to say that it’s as if “Audio Pixie Dust” has been scattered across the speakers.
Tighter, crisper, more defined.
Firing up the hi-res streaming service, Tidal, the dub-infused, bass-heavy track “Libertango” from Grace Jone’s classic album “Nightclubbing” is cued up. An air of scepticism permeated around the possibility of the Super Tweeters benefitting a track recorded almost 40 years ago on analogue tape.
It’s something of a Hi-Fi cliché to state that “there was detail present I never heard before“, but with the Tannoy Super Tweeters hooked up, that’s absolutely true. The amazing rhythm section of Sly & Robbie positively fizzed; Hi-Hats were impeccably crisp and defined, with percussion elements brought into focus.
Here’s the most surprising aspect of running with Super Tweeters though; bass and low-mids appeared somehow more focused and tighter. This may be due to psychoacoustics, it may be down to the emphasis of the attack transients; regardless, your author is not the only reviewer to have experienced this phenomenon.
Tannoy Supertweeters, Making The Best, Better!
In conclusion, then, consider your author a convert to the benefits of Super Tweeters; their positive contribution towards the detail and presentation of even the world’s best speakers is most certainly noticeable. Indeed, I completed my listening tests with them kept in place, so enjoyable was their contribution.
If you’re looking to add that little bit of Audio Alchemy, and that extra essence of Sonic Sorcery, then a pair of Super Tweeters should be at the top of your list of upgrades. The beautifully styled and engineered Tannoy Super Tweeters, are surely one of the finest choices and guaranteed to be a source of conversation amongst your fellow audiophiles.