Radio Shack 40-1310 Super Tweeter
Radio Shack 40-1310 Super Tweeter
The Radio Shack 40-1310 is a high quality spun aluminum horn super tweeter that has been fairly well regarded. The tweeter comes in it's own pod and with a built-in, low quality (electrolytic capacitor and tiny iron core inductor) 2nd order crossover at 5kHz. The tweeter can be easily removed from the pod to allow for direct mounting into an enclosure and the internal crossover can also be easily removed. While I have not come across any conclusive evidence, several feel that this tweeter was made for Radio Shack by Fostex and that it is very similar to the Fostex FT17H Horn Tweeter.
Radio Shack 40-1310 Super Tweeter Box
Radio Shack 40-1310 Super Tweeters
This tweeter has very good high frequency response and is well suited to add a little bit of top end air and sparkle. The tweeter is very efficient and can easy keep up with high efficiency full-range drivers. The frequency response curve as measured by Radio Shack is shown below. The response is very flat between about 10kHz and 20kHz with good efficiency (about 96 to 98dB).
Radio Shack 40-1310 Super Tweeter Frequency Response Curve
Data Sheet - Radio Shack 40-1310
- Radio Shack 40-1310 Datasheet and Owner's Manual - (PDF 50kB)
Upgrades and Modifications - Radio Shack 40-1310 Super Tweeter
The picture below shows the horn lens removed from the tweeter pod. As you can see, the lens and throat of the horn is aluminum and well built. Aside, given the thickness of the front flange, it would be a good idea to countersink the horn into a baffle if you did not use the pod.
Radio Shack 40-1310 Horn Super Tweeter
Once the cross over point is set above 10kHz, the tweeter sounds pretty good. However, I felt it would not hurt to add some duct seal to the throat of the horn to deaden any potential vibration. I also added duct seal between the magnet and aluminum lens.
I like using the tweeter in the pod. In the pod, you can move the tweeter around to adjust the sound. However, I found the screw terminals to be annoying. I removed the screw terminals and replaced them with speaker binding posts.
Crossover for 40-1310 Horn Super Tweeter
The cross over (shown above) is a simple first order cross over with 0.47 + 0.22 uF of capacitance. I use these tweeters to add some air and sparkle to the BD-Pipes. The tweeters are very efficient and can be driven using a low power amplifier like my SE 50EH5 Tube Amplifier.
Speaker Binding Posts