Horn based loudspeakers why the controversy?

How has the sound of speakers changed over the years? Many yearn for the speakers of the past over those of today… what has changed? Distortion, materials, focus on sound characteristics?

- Speakers have generally become smoother, more 3-dimensional and much smaller. This means that they are less dynamic on the whole and rather toy like compared to good stuff from the 60s and 70s. Unlike electronics, miniaturization is not a good thing with loudspeakers. There is no substitute for size and horsepower. Nothing much has changed with the laws of physics in the last 100 years so what it takes to make dynamic life-like sound is unchanged. There have been some advances in magnet materials and a bunch of progress in adhesives but not much else. The cost of a 70s system in today’s economy would be considered unaffordable and the system would be deemed unnecessarily huge. The large highly efficient systems of old came at a time when 15 – 30 watts of power was the norm. Today’s stuff would choke on those amplifiers. Now that power is cheap, size and efficiency has been thrown out the window because you can always apply more power. Unfortunately, more power does not make up for lack of efficiency. Today’s speakers range between 0.1% to maybe 0.5% in efficiency. (On a good day) 60s and 70s stuff was more like 1% to 10%. With most of the losses gong to heat, turning up the power on a small system with small voice coils and poor heat management is definitely not equivalent to a large high efficient speaker.

It is true that the response of many of the old systems was a bit ragged and generally less attention was put in the crossover networks because simplicity generally means higher through-put. However, the big Altec’s, JBL’s, Klipsch’s and Tannoys of the day would still fair well today with a little modernization of the enclosures and crossovers.

Today’s multi-channel home theater setups let a bunch of small toy loudspeakers and a sub or two sound pretty big and impressive to the average Joe. I think speakers have mostly become a commodity and small size and price are what counts the most now. The few high-end brands left are struggling for market share in this age of ear buds.

@shadorne wrote:  "There are only a few audiophiles today who understand what a big speaker with large 15” woofers and 4” voice coils can do and even fewer who are willing to pay the price in terms of poor WAF and transport logistical headaches!"

Amen brother. 

I show big speakers at audio shows (hybrids, not fullrange horn systems) and see people listening with their eyes instead of with their ears all the time.  They walk up to the room expectantly because they heard something that sounded good through the open doorway, then they see a big woofer and a horn and recoil in surprise, spin round, and scurry away as if they don't want to get caught near such speakers.  But if you do the math, those big powerful woofers often have a better motor-strength-to-moving-mass ratio than the expensive little audiophile darling midwoofers the eye-listeners were hoping to see, not counting the air-coupling benefits of the larger cone area (which are amplified by horn-loading, something I don't do because my speakers gotta fit into my car when crated up). 

A top-notch reviewer (whose day jobs include math professor and professional musician) once remarked to me that speaker designers are getting better and better at solving the wrong problems.  There are very basic problems that 15" woofers and 4" voice coils solve which aren't even acknowledged by most of the industry.

Duke