Heil Air Motion Tweeter in a 2-way speaker

[Swerd]

Here's an interesting design. An 8" Visaton aluminum woofer with Heil Air Motion Tweeter on top. The crossover is at 1600 Hz. The frequency response curves don't look bad at all. These are the first measurements I've seen of these tweeters since they reappeared recently. See the thread where I saw these. They were a custom build by Jim Salk with crossovers by Dennis Murphy. http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=94365.0

Frequency response curve

Raw Tweeter response

 

[zieglj01]

Thanks for the post.
It really looks interesting and should sound real good - Dennis even does a
decent job with budget speakers. He did a mod job on the Cambridge Audio
S30 shelf/stand speakers for me - and he brought it up to another level.

 

[Swerd]

Thanks for the post.
It really looks interesting and should sound real good - Dennis even does a
decent job with budget speakers. He did a mod job on the Cambridge Audio
S30 shelf/stand speakers for me - and he brought it up to another level.

I've seen many tweeters with smoother looking FR curves, but these are still something different. I like how Dennis said, "it took some doing to beat these tweeters into submission".

I didn't know you also got a Dennis mod job on your speakers, but there are probably many of us.

 

[zieglj01]

I've seen many tweeters with smoother looking FR curves, but these are still something different. I like how Dennis said, "it took some doing to beat these tweeters into submission".

I didn't know you also got a Dennis mod job on your speakers, but there are probably many of us.

I in general, do not listen to speakers with measurements floatin in
my head - however, they are important. He knows his stuff and he
has good ears - he loves good audio.

The modded Cambridge S30, showed the NHT Classic Two speaker, the
front door.

 

[Alex2507]

I hate it when they make 'em look that good. You see bases on those ?!?

Hmmmph !!! I am not taking this lightly.

It reminds me of my friend who got the ESS AMT tweeters because of what he remembered the Heils sounding like way back when. Of course he hasn't done anything with them.

I thought it was kinda neat what the owner said about how those speakers looked from the inside. That however is something I am going to pretend I didn't read. I don't need that kind of pressure.

 

[Dennis Murphy]

I've seen many tweeters with smoother looking FR curves, but these are still something different. I like how Dennis said, "it took some doing to beat these tweeters into submission".

It actually took 11 components, the most I've ever had to use with a tweeter. I'm sure the original Heil speakers were very ragged, and that's probably why the design never really caught on.

 

[TLS Guy]

It actually took 11 components, the most I've ever had to use with a tweeter. I'm sure the original Heil speakers were very ragged, and that's probably why the design never really caught on.

When they were around they were mated with large paper woofers, that sounded pretty ragged also. So the tweeter was hard to assess.

 

[jinjuku]

So the allure of these tweeters is what exactly?

 

[Swerd]

So the allure of these tweeters is what exactly?

Good question. I think the memory of the Heil tweeter is probably better than they ever really were, and certainly better than they are presently.

In the early 1970s, Heil tweeters were probably much better than most other tweeters available - mainly small cones. If I recall correctly, good small dome tweeters only began to appear in the later 70s. The Heils also had bi-polar radiation which was something new at the time. The Bose 901 speakers, and the Magnepan (and other) planar speakers put bi-polar radiation and its reflected sound on the map. Because they were expensive speakers, the bi-polar reflected sound was considered desirable by some.

Over the years since then, dome, ribbon, and planar tweeters all have made significant advances, outperforming everything about the Heil tweeter except its memory.