Someone on the boards asked what M80s with a single tweeter sounds like. It was posited that perhaps, M80s with a single tweeter sound less accurate at higher frequencies.
I did some critical stereo listening earlier today with and without the top tweeters. I disconnected them and stuck them back in the cabinet so as not to change the cabinet response. I used the Ventana al Sol track from
Echoes of Incas. There was no difference in clarity, transparency, soundstage and instrument separation
between the speakers nor accuracy (what some call high frequency "harshness"). However, I found it extremely surprising that the soundstage differed beyond the speaker boundaries
. The first 15 seconds of this soundtrack is punctuated by chirping birds and one appears against my EP600 wall about mid-way between my left M80 and left QS8 (see below). That effect was moved to just outside the left M80 with the tweeter removed. This is not a subtle loss if one listens critically. After listening to a few other tracks, I concluded that a single tweeter results in a narrowing of the soundstage for higher frequency effects. For the majority of recordings I doubt anyone would notice a difference. But for high quality recordings, there is a definite difference under critical listening conditions...at least in my acoustic environment.
Maybe I should also try leaving the top tweeter in tact and removing the bottom tweeter to see what effect that has.
