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Horns - Necessary to complete the Audiophile Journey?

renaudrenaud

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This Saturday I was invited by a friend to listen to his VOTT.

He explains the price is now enough low to go this way.
 

Purité Audio

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The happiest moments of horn ownership when you buy them and when you sell them .
Keith
 

Plcamp

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Nah, I'd only go passive.
I don't want to re-architect my entire system.
Does passive make it a no-go?

I know you can't really time align horns without DSP...

yes I agree, perhaps an opamp cross can do the job as well.

Using a Harsch topology crossover requires delay of the high frequency driver by 1/2 the period of the crossover frequency. The low cross is 4th order butterworth, high is second order Bessel. (If a horn was spatially misaligned by 6”, it might satisfy a Harsch cross at 1 kHz?)

It’s my preferred dsp cross topology, as it has minimal phase shift, and permits bass driver to operate higher frequency than a lower order would.

I have seen several interesting 2 and 3 way zero phase opamp cross topologies as well, and will probable replace the dsp with that in future

(I have open baffles, definitely need biamp to separate bass)
 

Ron Texas

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Horns are for cattle.
 

617

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If you're interested in dynamics, you can get there with conventional drivers. Might be a bit more practical and performant than horns.

See Troels' "The Loudspeaker"
 

MattHooper

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Horns are also missing from my speaker history. (I've had many dynamic speakers of different designs, omnis, Quads..).

I've been intrigued and heard some compelling music coming out of horn speakers (shows etc). I'd enjoy trying out horns but they just don't fit
my very specific requirements in terms of how they'd fit my room.
 

Ron Texas

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I thought we had a member in Dallas with some 4367's.....
There are many members who own a variety of JBL speakers with a horn HF driver. I have a pair of LSR305's, but they are not in use.

The longhorn is the mascot of the university of Texas. I did not go there, but many people close to me did. Up close a longhorn is impressive looking.
I was just trying to have a little fun.
 

GXAlan

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I've never owned horn speakers (unless one counts JBL 305 waveguides) in my life.

I've owned speakers of the following types...

-Dynamic (multiple flavors, sizes, brands)
-Pure ESL (Quad)
-Hybrid ESL (Martin Logan)
-Ribbon (Apogee)

...but I've never owned a pair of horn speakers of any type, either partially or fully horned.

I'm wondering:

Is it finally time?


I know they're going to measure (by current design principles) worse than anything I've owned in the last 5 years.

But I'm curious about their vaunted dynamic capabilities and if their other flaws are other accepting for that quality.

Will my audiophile journey be incomplete if I don't try them for a while?

If you are in the US, get a Studio 530 or 590 the next time they are on sale. When thinking about the “Circle of Confusion” the colorations of the sound from a horn can be part of the sound in many cases.

Just as your Apogee’s probably sound great for a solo guitar, the horn loaded speakers sound great for horns (trumpets, etc.) as well as rock music (Music from A Star is Born, for example).

Klipschorn is good for the room, but if your budget extends that high, look for a JBL 4365, 4367, M2, K2 S9800, K2 S9900, S3900 or S4700. The Array 1400 is also a very smooth setup but doesn’t have the efficiency associated with horns
 
OP
watchnerd

watchnerd

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If you are in the US, get a Studio 530 or 590 the next time they are on sale. When thinking about the “Circle of Confusion” the colorations of the sound from a horn can be part of the sound in many cases.

Just as your Apogee’s probably sound great for a solo guitar, the horn loaded speakers sound great for horns (trumpets, etc.) as well as rock music (Music from A Star is Born, for example).

Klipschorn is good for the room, but if your budget extends that high, look for a JBL 4365, 4367, M2, K2 S9800, K2 S9900, S3900 or S4700. The Array 1400 is also a very smooth setup but doesn’t have the efficiency associated with horns

My budget would be anywhere in the $5k - $20k range.

(My current speakers are ~$5k)
 

mhardy6647

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A good pair of Altec Lansing horns or similar would be sooperb. They are easy to drive and sound great with the tangerine green diaphragm. Sitting them on top of a cabinet is easy when attached to the aluminum horn section.
I'm with him -- sorry to go all Luddite 'n' stuff, but I drank the horn Kool-Aid about 20 years ago and I suspect I'll finish out my earthly course as a horn-listenin' kind of cat. ;)

DSC_8282 (2) by Mark Hardy, on Flickr

DSC_7248 by Mark Hardy, on Flickr

Horns do dynamics :)
 
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