Thank you AudioQuest4Life, The word "Murata" in the specs at the bottom of the review article is incorrect. I should have said something like "Vienna proprietary 0.5" super-tweeter" instead... Unfortunately, having concentrated on the article for well over 100 hours, I missed my own inaccuracy during proofing. The 2nd part of the article will be corrected.
The original Murata supertweeter used in my unit has been measured by Murata to operate up to 100,000Hz. However, it is my understanding that the measuring devices used by VA measure up to 50,000Hz only, hence the new proprietary VA supertweeter is conservatively rated at 50Khz at this time. This does not mean however that the VA supertweeter is out of necessity a "child of a lesser god".
On the contrary, the Murata part, being piezo-electric, cannot be attenuated, or in other words, is largely insensitive to volume control.... Thankfully we can't hear it... but my cat apparently does, and often tells me about it.
Conversely, the new VA ring-type or anular super tweeter is fully attenuatable. This means at least in theory that any side bands created by the interaction of super-high frequencies with sounds in the audible range may have more "natural" characteristics. But until such time that my units were updated with the new driver, I will not know if the difference between the two is audible or purely theoretical... or for audiophilic kitties! For the time being I stick to Igor Stravinsky's formalism, and I'll continue to judge the musical tree by its (humanly) audible fruits. G.
