Fyne Audio was one of many hi-fi exhibitors at this year's High End Show in Munich, but the Glasgow, UK-based firm's SuperTrax super tweeter deserves a special piece of its own. First shown at the Bristol HiFi Show in February (see also the special production floor speakers from the January edition and the Fyne Vintage its SuperTrax tweeters, along with the new SuperTrax SC1 cable, which you'll want to use to connect it to your regular speakers.
Even a quick look at the new SuperTrax tweeter shows that Fyne is happy to stray long, long a far cry from the AMT or the forward-facing, single-direction silk dome options you'll find in most traditional speaker sets. It may resemble Cobb's totem in Christopher Nolan's epic. Beginning movie, but it is actually a dedicated “super tweeter” unit.
The approach is omnidirectional, using an upward-firing tweeter and a 360-degree “tractrix-profiled dispersion cone,” which promises high-frequency performance up to 60kHz. And that quoted frequency response is several octaves above anything humans can actually hear; a figure that you will not find even in the best stereo speakers. Why bother with a tweeter that can go that high? The sharpness at the leading edges of the notes is one reason; feeling the breadth of dynamic nuance in your music is another.
In addition to its otherworldly SuperTrax tweeter, Fyne is launching a new Vintage Classic Gold SP Series (Special Production), effectively closing the gap between the company's Vintage Classic Series midrange speakers and the flagship high-end Vintage Series. And this aspirational tweeter unit will be a great addition to any of them; or indeed any set of stereo speakers you own, with sensitivity up to 98 dB/W (with a +/-3 dB control to balance with the main speaker).
SuperTrax is available in two different color combinations to match the aesthetics of Fyne's existing speaker series. The SuperTrax in Walnut sports a gold metal frame that replicates the look of Fyne's Vintage Classic Series and is available now for $4,599.99/£3,499.99 per pair (which equates to around AU$6,649). Alternatively, the SuperTrax in Gloss Black with silver accents would look mighty Fyne (sorry) on top of the F700 series, and is also available now, at $3,999.99/£2,999.99 per pair, that's about AU$5,699 (but this last price is an approximation and therefore not official). Oh, and the SC1 cables are an extra $449.99/£399.99.
As for the Vintage Classic Gold SP series of speakers, it's scheduled for release in Autumn 2024 and pricing is yet to be confirmed, but Fyne tells us they'll sit well between the Vintage Classic and Vintage ranges price-wise.
If you're boosting the bass, why not the tweeter?
For us, Fyne's “super tweeter” technology is one of the most interesting revelations from High End Munich. While we didn't get a chance to hear what it can do ourselves, there's no doubt that this approach to refining those high notes through omnidirectional sound projection is intriguing. And the fact that Fyne says it can be used with any stereo speaker up to 98 dB/W makes it an even more impressive engineering feat.
We recently heard Magico's $560,000 M7 speakers in a listening session during which founder Alon Wolf told us: “The tweeter should always be at ear level. In reality, 20% of the audio we hear is on-axis, 80% is off-axis; that's how we know where we are. Everything else in our speaker design can move, the tweeter stays there.”
Now, here's a dedicated tweeter unit that, according to its manufacturers, can be placed on top of the speakers you currently own and do a superior job. But don't get us wrong; Fyne has an enviable reputation in hi-fi circles and we really want to know what this dedicated (and rather expensive) tweeter unit can do. After all, she is able to reach the auditory perception of dogs and cats, which compared to the 20 kHz frequencies that the human ear can hear is… something else.
On paper, those frequencies may seem excessive. Audiophiles would respond that when a speaker delivers that much power, music becomes more of a physical sensation than a simple listening experience. After all, we humans regularly boost the low frequencies in our hi-fi and home theater systems with a loud, loud subwoofer. In case it needs to be reiterated (check out Sonic Lamb's headphones for more on this), humans don't just hear through our ears; We also feel sound through our body. It's true that the human ear is tuned to higher frequencies (a twig breaking in the forest, babies crying) and is much less sensitive to low (bass) frequencies (think thunder, rumbles in movie theaters). , but the concept of feeling Listening instead of hearing it is not something new.
If we expand the bass registers with separate dedicated units, why not expand the top end as well, provided you have not insignificant money to spend?
