You don't believe that precision engineering is expensive (this is of course assuming that the ST in question has that)?
Have you looked at the price of Swiss watches recently?
S-Trax Super Tweeter
- Thread starter Freakbro
- Start date
You don't believe that precision engineering is expensive (this is of course assuming that the ST in question has that)?
Have you looked at the price of Swiss watches recently?
Precision engineering? It’s a tweeter mounted on a block of wood with a brass fixture. Nicely finished for sure.
Yes you’ll be paying for UK wages and economies of very small scale, but to pretend that the majority of that £3.5k isn’t simply luxury tax is laughable.
I’m not averse to spanking money on stuff like this myself occasionally but I don’t kid myself that it doesn’t have a gigantic margin on it.
The real walnut wooden case is in finished sections, with a metal base for structure.
Fyne Audio make speakers retailing up to £39k (the F1-12S), this SuperTrax has to be good enough quality to match these.
If I ever upgraded.my f502sp's to say f702sp's I can move them to those speakers. In this sense they are an end game item.
If anyone is wondering I paid £1600 for them, I consider that a good price as the old Tannoy Super tweeters are fetching more on eBay, and these are better.
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I'm not trying to deny there's probably a hefty markup, but that's the reality of many products, whether you're talking about bread or Swiss watches.
Most probably, as that means spreading the costs of design, development, testing, preparing for production etc, over a smaller number of sales.
Soldato
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Probably sold less than 100 worldwide.
Compared to tens of thousands of Fyne F300i
Compared to tens of thousands of Fyne F300i
I spoke to Peter Tyson around two months ago about SuperTrax, they said there was around a one month delay on them. Fyne Audio they moved to a bigger factory as they are struggling with demand. The S-Trax the first batch has also sold out
I was very lucky finding some ex-demo ones, the ones I purchased are the only ones I've seen for sale not new.
@Admetos what cabling are you using for the SuperTrax?
Had another music night recently and the Chord rep came over, initially to bring their subwoofer cables to test out (can't say many of us noticed much difference tbh) but he had also got the factory to knock up some bespoke SuperTrax cables as well, in EpicXL and SignatureXL
So we started the night with just some bog standard Chord rumour cable on the ST's John had quickly knocked up in his shop (say £30). We listened and it was fine.
Then we tried the Fyne Audio cables they make for the ST (£300) and the difference was immediately noticable, just so much sweeter all round. I've got to say I was surprised, and impressed, that it made such a noticable difference.
Then we tried the Chord EpicXL. And as much as John and the Chord rep gushed about the improvement, to me, I didn't like them as much as the Fyne Cables, things just seemed to have a bit more of an edge.
Then came the Chord SignatureXL and immediately things were back to sweet again and I'd say they were on par, if not a little better, than the Fyne ones. There were no prices for the Chord cables, as that was the first they had ever made (in the Signature) but the rep just said they would make some up on demand, at any length required.
Had another music night recently and the Chord rep came over, initially to bring their subwoofer cables to test out (can't say many of us noticed much difference tbh) but he had also got the factory to knock up some bespoke SuperTrax cables as well, in EpicXL and SignatureXL
So we started the night with just some bog standard Chord rumour cable on the ST's John had quickly knocked up in his shop (say £30). We listened and it was fine.
Then we tried the Fyne Audio cables they make for the ST (£300) and the difference was immediately noticable, just so much sweeter all round. I've got to say I was surprised, and impressed, that it made such a noticable difference.
Then we tried the Chord EpicXL. And as much as John and the Chord rep gushed about the improvement, to me, I didn't like them as much as the Fyne Cables, things just seemed to have a bit more of an edge.
Then came the Chord SignatureXL and immediately things were back to sweet again and I'd say they were on par, if not a little better, than the Fyne ones. There were no prices for the Chord cables, as that was the first they had ever made (in the Signature) but the rep just said they would make some up on demand, at any length required.
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Freakbro, I’m rewriting this post as my original version wasn’t very concise.
First of all, thank you for sharing your experiences with different cables on the super tweeter. I’m not surprised the Fyne Audio SC1 cable performed well — after all, it was designed specifically for that application.
I’m not fully set up yet, as someone in my family has recently passed away and I’m dealing with that. At the moment I’m using Kimber 4VS on my SuperTrax, simply because I already had some on hand to try. The only other cable I’ve tested with the SuperTrax is the basic one included by Fyne Audio to get them running initially. I found the Kimber 4VS to be a bit smoother, whereas the stock cable sounded slightly more forward. I may still try the Fyne Audio SC1 cable.
Elsewhere in my system, the F502SPs are bi-wired with a double run of Kimber 8TC, and my Yamaha A-S1200 is in A+B mode with all eight speaker binding posts in use. I found that bi-wiring gives better separation of frequencies — everything sounds less congested compared to a single cable. I also replaced the stock metal jumpers with Kimber 8TC jumpers; that helped slightly, but full bi-wiring was superior, so I stuck with it.
I’ve also grounded the speakers to an RF Router box from Russ Andrews. There are basically two ways to ground speakers: either back to the amp (often called star grounding), or to a grounding box to dump high-frequency noise to earth. If you haven’t already, I’d encourage you to experiment with grounding — you can even try it with any spare speaker cable by connecting it to the grounding terminal on the back of your amp.
Below is a picture of how my F502SPs are wired. I’ll be the first to admit it looks absolutely nuts
, but this is what has worked best for me. I’ve even spoken with one of the directors at Fyne Audio about grounding and optimal speaker wiring.
In the photo the ground wire going to the SuperTrax is just a temporary cable for now -have to do something with this, and as mentioned still not sure yet if I keep the Kimber 4VS going to the SuperTrax. I will update once everything is fully setup.
First of all, thank you for sharing your experiences with different cables on the super tweeter. I’m not surprised the Fyne Audio SC1 cable performed well — after all, it was designed specifically for that application.
I’m not fully set up yet, as someone in my family has recently passed away and I’m dealing with that. At the moment I’m using Kimber 4VS on my SuperTrax, simply because I already had some on hand to try. The only other cable I’ve tested with the SuperTrax is the basic one included by Fyne Audio to get them running initially. I found the Kimber 4VS to be a bit smoother, whereas the stock cable sounded slightly more forward. I may still try the Fyne Audio SC1 cable.
Elsewhere in my system, the F502SPs are bi-wired with a double run of Kimber 8TC, and my Yamaha A-S1200 is in A+B mode with all eight speaker binding posts in use. I found that bi-wiring gives better separation of frequencies — everything sounds less congested compared to a single cable. I also replaced the stock metal jumpers with Kimber 8TC jumpers; that helped slightly, but full bi-wiring was superior, so I stuck with it.
I’ve also grounded the speakers to an RF Router box from Russ Andrews. There are basically two ways to ground speakers: either back to the amp (often called star grounding), or to a grounding box to dump high-frequency noise to earth. If you haven’t already, I’d encourage you to experiment with grounding — you can even try it with any spare speaker cable by connecting it to the grounding terminal on the back of your amp.
Below is a picture of how my F502SPs are wired. I’ll be the first to admit it looks absolutely nuts
, but this is what has worked best for me. I’ve even spoken with one of the directors at Fyne Audio about grounding and optimal speaker wiring.
In the photo the ground wire going to the SuperTrax is just a temporary cable for now -have to do something with this, and as mentioned still not sure yet if I keep the Kimber 4VS going to the SuperTrax. I will update once everything is fully setup.
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Yes thank you.
I would like to try the Fyne Audio SC1 cable, it's interesting that you say that cable sounded almost the best, other then the Signature XL.
I notice that the Signature XL is a twisted cable. When you twist or braid a cable it reduces RFI. When I compared Kimber 4VS to the included cable Fyne Audio give to wire SuperTrax, the 4VS is a bit smoother, that will probably be the noise reduction from the Kimber 4VS.
One advantage of the Fyne Audio SC1 cable, is because that cable is made by Fyne Audio, the relationship between the main speaker and the SuperTrax will be kept as Fyne Audio intended. As said I don't own one, but would like to try one. Also thanks for sharing your thoughts on those cables, I read everything you said.
So how are you currently wiring your F700's and Super tweeter up?
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Soldato
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£350 for 3m of cable.
hahahaha. Well they know what they say, there's one born every minute.
I don't have the S-Trax's yet, just had them on demo for a week, but they're on my list to get at some point. I would like the SuperTrax (ofc
) but unless getting a second hand/ex-demo for the right money I can't afford or justify the full price, so I'll probably get the S-Trax instead. I see they've now also released the SuperTrax in black, as before now the walnut wouldn't go with my setup anyway. I've got a mix of EpicXL and SignatureXL through my system with interconnects and speaker cable.
Oh for sure cables aren't VFM in the slightest, but my experience tells me they do make a difference, so I'm not in the snake oil camp.
I was looking at some second hand Signature cable on ebay (from main AV retailer) but the listing ended. I phoned them up to check they had been sold, which they had. The guy rang me back in 5 mins and offered me a new set (straight from Chord as they are made to order) for virtually the same money, which was c.50% off and I know they'll still be making a good margin on that!
Soldato
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I don't have the S-Trax's yet, just had them on demo for a week, but they're on my list to get at some point. I would like the SuperTrax (ofc
I've got a mix of EpicXL and SignatureXL through my system with interconnects and speaker cable.
Oh for sure cables aren't VFM in the slightest, but my experience tells me they do make a difference, so I'm not in the snake oil camp.
I was looking at some second hand Signature cable on ebay (from main AV retailer) but the listing ended. I phoned them up to check they had been sold, which they had. The guy rang me back in 5 mins and offered me a new set (straight from Chord as they are made to order) for virtually the same money, which was c.50% off and I know they'll still be making a good margin on that!
I could offer you some 2x 4.4mm2, 50m reel for £83
I'll be making 1p profit
you can probably only tell the difference with extremely sensitive sensors and not the human ear.
same as the difference between most 200£ amps and ones that cost a few K
I’ll make the offer, you bring the £200 amp and you can find out yourself if there’s any difference
we all know there wont be one as per reviews on https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php that use equipment and not peoples ears to measure everything.
So you’d rather trust a 3rd party than prove it to yourself from first hand experience?
In my home, in addition to main system, my son has a Kenwood stereo integrated that would probably cost around £200 if it was currently sold.
Do you think that I would still own the amps that I do if they were no better than my son’s amp? I can assure you that I plenty of other interests that I’d happily spend the money on if there were no differences.