Wow, that’s quite the response difference. I’ve been watching those but I didn’t think the large tweeter would also need an enclosure. Then again, thanks for the info as I didn’t even know this was an option with those tweeters. Nice speakers, too bad you’re on the other side of the country for me to listen to them.

 

Was gonna try both ways in my car but I used the same pods that were built for my Kit 7 mids and tweeters so I had to mod them to fit the new drivers and that cap made the tweeter too big to fit into the hole behind the tweeter so I could not try it

I think it’s only useful in a 2 way as you can cross lower if you wanted to... in a 3 way it’s crossing at around 4khz anyway so the benefits of with and without won’t be realized...

But I am also curious as to how it sounds...


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Actually the 3.5" dont play those freqs very well. They start beaming so unless they're on axis you'll benefit from having the tweeters play 2-3khz.

Try 2500hz at 24db slopes. You'll notice there's more presence.


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Ok cool I’ll try that...


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anymore follow up info on this topic..

 

I'd also be interested to hear what difference you heard, when crossed at a lower frequency...

I have mine crossed at 4,000hz, and I couldn't hear any difference with the cups on or off.

 

No matter what, be careful about over driving the tweeters when crossed that low, they can heat up real easy.

 

Am I reading this right? Focal sells an $1800 tweeter that you can run open back?

That sounds like a really great way to destroy an $1800 tweeter :O

 

Focal recommends a 5,000 Hz crossover point I believe so probably pretty safe ASSUMING people follow their recommendation. So yeah, maybe not safe.

 

So what has anyone heard difference wise caps on or off

and .... how does it do in a small pod with open back ? Making a small sealed pod (large sealed for a tweeter)

 

I've since sold my TBM's (just prefer a silk dome sound)...
But when I had them; I ran them with the back cups on, and had them crossed quite low (around 1,900Hz.).

 

I've since sold my TBM's (just prefer a silk dome sound)...
But when I had them; I ran them with the back cups on, and had them crossed quite low (around 1,900Hz.).

that’s crazy you say that , I have the utopia 3.5wm right now mated up to a set of stevens 6.5 and silk tweet. The stevens tweeter has a back chamber and I absolutely dig the way it sounds right now.

so I can definitely appreciate what your saying, infact I’m a little worried that I won’t like it as much. I’m deftrying to fix something that ain’t broke. lol

so I probably will do what your saying, if adding the cap makes it more like the old TBE I am sure I’ll like it just fine....

 

So gang….
Caps off…. All the way absolutely hands down
No ifs ands or buts….

as a 3 way the focal WM with the 3.5 caps off
As a two way caps on

why ? The sound quality is so much better caps off….

1st impressions would be “they sound the same” but they do not!

caps on don’t play as low in the main response and losses a tad bit of efficiency under 3k
but Way more open sounding and the beryllium sounds so good with a 2nd order slope at 3k
It goes from brash to bliss at high volumes especially….

the efficiency loss under 3k would not be ideal to pair with a 6” unless your using a fairly steep tilt in your response overall

Caps on, tons of efficiency under 3k all the way down to 1khz! Power is flat and voltage in the crossover stays constant. Perfect to pair with a 6”, go for a 4th order slope around 2.5k or a 2nd order slope around 3.5-4Khz

I just installed another set of these today, did the whole caps on and off AB test …. It was obvious….

caps off the stage is much much more transparent in the HF…..

Caps off on this tweeter really is a to die for sound…. If only it had a waveguide this thing would be stellar all the way through

 

So gang….
Caps off…. All the way absolutely hands down
No ifs ands or buts….

as a 3 way the focal WM with the 3.5 caps off
As a two way caps on

why ? The sound quality is so much better caps off….

1st impressions would be “they sound the same” but they do not!

caps on don’t play as low in the main response and losses a tad bit of efficiency under 3k
but Way more open sounding and the beryllium sounds so good with a 2nd order slope at 3k
It goes from brash to bliss at high volumes especially….

the efficiency loss under 3k would not be ideal to pair with a 6” unless your using a fairly steep tilt in your response overall

Caps on, tons of efficiency under 3k all the way down to 1khz! Power is flat and voltage in the crossover stays constant. Perfect to pair with a 6”, go for a 4th order slope around 2.5k or a 2nd order slope around 3.5-4Khz

I just installed another set of these today, did the whole caps on and off AB test …. It was obvious….

caps off the stage is much much more transparent in the HF…..

Caps off on this tweeter really is a to die for sound…. If only it had a waveguide this thing would be stellar all the way through

Do you have them firing into a big open space? Or are you using the semi-tuned volume chambers that you made up for them?
Also wondering how this plays into the diaphragm moving that you were speaking of in the other utopia thread.

 

I’m still running mine with caps off. 5000hz/12db slope using FIR filters to keep phase in check. Still the best tweeters I’ve ever heard.

Got a chance to listen to some KEF LS50 and Genelec 8351B recently and I kept wishing they had a Focal TBM in there lol.

 

5k with the 3.5wm ?

how does the 3.5 like above 3k ?

I’m afraid to try it as it’s sounding good at 3k
but I keep hearing it works nice

 

And @tonynca I want to try your dsp

Lmk when you ready to sell
can you pm me some info about it

like taps and stuff I’m curious

 

I have one somewhere if he doesn’t want to sell his, I only hooked it up for less than 2 hours then put it back on the box.

 

Sorry Andy I need the DSP haha. If you do get your hands on one I don’t mind lending you the BitTune. The algorithm they use for auto tune is really good. The best part is that you have the auto tune done then you to fine tune the rest yourself to dial it in even more. So it’s a great starting point.

TBM is paired with a 3.5WM. I have them on axis so 3khz is no issue. They blend well too since I have such a shallow 12/db slope. I wouldn’t run them at 5khz if using 24db slope.
I tried 24/db and even 48/db slopes but those just didn’t sound as good in my car. 12db slope was the smoothest integration. I’m guessing because the shallower slope allows for more overlapping freqs which helps with spots where beaming starts to occur. I get get a wider sweet spot using 12db slope.

 

aaah okay okay

i would love to try one

how many taps on the firrrr ???