[cactusjack]

Had my ambiance tweeters (AT) for a couple of months and believe they are pretty well broken in.  I am using with my non SRE, FF-1's.  I have tried several locations on the rear and I believe that the output of the AT may be too low to get the right effect. I saw that the sensitivity of the AT's is about 88db. and that my FF-1's are about 91db. I have them wired reverse polarity, attached to the rear of the speakers and facing the front wall in my listening room.
 
1. Is this difference in sensitivity of importance? Can it be my problem?
2. Should I have wired the AT's in normal polarity?
3. Are the non SRE FF-1's just not a good candidate for the AT's?

Thanks in advance for your insight and assistance.

 

[John Casler]

Had my ambiance tweeters (AT) for a couple of months and believe they are pretty well broken in.  I am using with my non SRE, FF-1's.  I have tried several locations on the rear and I believe that the output of the AT may be too low to get the right effect. I saw that the sensitivity of the AT's is about 88db. and that my FF-1's are about 91db. I have them wired reverse polarity, attached to the rear of the speakers and facing the front wall in my listening room.
 
1. Is this difference in sensitivity of importance? Can it be my problem?
2. Should I have wired the AT's in normal polarity?
3. Are the non SRE FF-1's just not a good candidate for the AT's?

Thanks in advance for your insight and assistance.

 

The FF1 is a pretty large speaker, and the ambiance effect is supposed to be "subtle', but it is influenced by various elements.

It can be affected by the "reflective" capability of the front wall too.

I would try phasing them both ways to see which gives the best "listening" result.

In phase would make it bipolar and out of phase dipolar.

Also the distance from the front wall will make a difference (the closer the more efficient the reflection) but too close would cause a muffled sonic due to waves bouncing back into the rear of the cabinet.

[cactusjack]

John:
Thanks for your input. I will continue to play with the polarity and the placement.  I will get back to the group with my results.

[superchad]

I have the FF3 SRE model and just went with the new Neo mids but am gonna rethink going with the tweeters, if they dont work well whats the point?

[John Casler]

I have the FF3 SRE model and just went with the new Neo mids but am gonna rethink going with the tweeters, if they dont work well whats the point?

Hi SC,

"Working well" is all condition specific.  Without a doubt the AT's work quite well and have been very popular, but all products work within a performance window.

The larger your room, the louder you play your speakers, and the reflectivity of your room surfaces will affect the performance of the AT's.

Additionally, the AT is designed to add "subtle" ambiance and is not intended to draw attention to itself.  In fact if after employing it and hearing the difference it can make, it should (upon a few listens) blend to the degree it is not noticable.

It is pretty much equivalent to the Subwoofer.  It should fill in, but not be prominent.

That said, if you have LARGE high efficiency mains, in an acoustically soft (not reflective) room, you might want to consider 2 pair  aa to raise the output.

[cactusjack]

I guess adding a 2nd tweeter would give me the 3 db difference I mentioned in my first post, but I am not sure I will go that far, seems a bit extreme.  Does the parallelling a pair of the 20 ohms of ambiance tweeters cause than problems in the driving the highs in the speaker (10 ohms is closer to the 4 of the speaker)?

 I have been waiting to see how well that Superchad makes out on the mid range upgrade on his FF-3's once the bugs are worked out. Perhaps that will be the way to go with my FF-1's. I have always been fond of dipolar speakers and the effects of mid range as well as the tweeters.  I have been extremely pleased with my FF-1's but once I get my two kids out of college I might spring for one of Brians newer designs that take advantage of mid range radiation front and back.   

[audiochef]

Hi all,
I finally got around to experimenting with ambiance tweeters with my 40s. I have played with this before in the past with some home brew speakers.
What got me  re-interested in this was the benefits I heard through a friends Genesises which uses spiral ribbon ambiances that caught my attention. I liked what I heard.
The  tweeters I'm using are the old Focal T-90s which Brian gave to me when parting out a T1. Crossover is a 1UF Solen and three red whatever that are in parallel which was originally designed for my dual FSTs before I went to Auricaps.
Ambiances are mounted on the outsides of the upper speaker terminals. These in turn are connected to bottom terminal,(tube amped) mids and tweets. (Out of phase) works better for me.
The out put is about half that of FSTs. To me, this is perfect. Subtle enough not to add any etch or change tone in any noticeable way. The focals, are fortunately outputting mid treble. Around 7 to 10K. with no noticeable hiss, even through analog.
What I notice is a slightly more holographic soundstage and more "complete, solid" image of the hall,guitar strum triangle etc.
The changes are subtle as it should be as not to upset the delicate balance of tone.

[audiochef]

Well after acouple of weeks ofv experimnting with the ambience, Idefinatey prefer it without.
With, it, sets the image further back betwen the speakers, loosing (out the box, totally detatched if you will. A more palpble and engaing live sound.
Those who already have not gon the MC with trannie route, you have not trully expierinced what this hobby is all about.

[JCOP]

I have psb goldi i think this is a good tweek for speaker that is on a warm side looking for a little air and openness. i have to cover the whole tweeter so it blend better with the psb tweeter warm side. im still playing around with location.
does ambience tweeter did break in?
thanks big B