Horning Hybrid speaker recommendations

I own the Alkibiades. I use them with a 15watt KT88 amp and an 8watt 300b amp. In the near future, I'm going to add a 211 amp. All single ended amps. I too am friends with the importer. He's a stand up guy -- calls it like it is, and believes passionately in his products. Jeff will speak honestly with you about other HE designs. Once I figured out what I like from a system -- which is dynamics, fully bodied cohesiveness, scale, tone and timing -- I've yet to hear a better range of speakers that can deliver it. I've not heard every Horning hybrid speaker -- just the Perikles, the Agathons and the Alkibiades. I think the Perikles is the biggest bang for the buck.

How would the Perikles go with a Pass Labs XA30 ?
Or a chip-amp like the Audio Sector Patek?
I am technophobic, live deep in the mountains, with no access to support or service of any sort so want to avoid tubes.
I'd appreciate any thoughts.

I too am friends with the importer, and own the Horning Agathon Ultimates. In my opinion, they are one of the best speakers on the market. Tommy Horning (the designer) is perhaps the first person to correctly implement the Lowther driver; his design takes full advantage of its outstanding midrange, while avoiding all it's nasties. The tweeter Tommy designed blends seemlessly with the Lowther, and the bass drivers provide plenty of deep powerful bass.

I use a 30 Watt per channel Tube Distinctions hybrid amplifier, but I have heard the Hornings sound incredible when driven by 7 Watt SET amps (for example, that from Tron), as well as by the op amp-based 47Labs GainCard.

As should be obvious, I enthusiastically endorse Horning speakers.

Larry Borden
dagogo.com

I listen very often a pair of Horning Agathon with Wavac 300B amplification and analog front end, from a friend of mine.
As somenone above said, the designer inplemented the Lowther driver nicely without its screaming abilities.
The speaker as bass although a little late in timing, considering the Lowther speed.
Other aspect that I dont like is the absence of absorbent material inside the cabinet, wich makes the sound spectrum far from flat.
But after all that saying I have passed great afternoons with the speakers

In a word, the Perikles are "delightful". I searched for a very long time to find speakers that had a) high sensitivity (I'm now a firm believer that you can't recreate the dynamics inherent in music without it, b) a reasonable footprint, c) a musical presentation, and d) lack of horn "shout". If you're searching for the same thing, the Perikles are a terrific answer -- there are few other speakers that come close to answering all four.

I've heard most if not all of the Horning line through Jeff Catalano. He is exactly as mentioned in the other posts. You won't find a more stand-up guy in the audio biz.

Do I like the Perikles better than the other (higher/larger) Horning speakers? No -- each move up from the Perikles gives you just a touch more lower bass presentation and higher efficiency. However, the differences are somewhat subtle and you really only notice these differences when you play each side-by-side. Otherwise, you will be too immersed in the music to spend too much time with splitting hairs. For me, I went with the Perikles because it was really the best bang-for-the-buck in the Horning line. Each successive one about is a little better, but I couldn't justify moving further up when I was so happy with the Perikles sound at a great price point.

I've heard the Perikles in a number of different contexts with a variety of systems, including Jeff's, both at his place and at RMAF. Recently I had the chance to demo some new beta version amps from Chimera Labs (Axiom 300B amps) that were stunning. What I learned from this session was that the Perikles will stand up to better and better equipment and acquit themselves quite nicely, always providing a neutral, musical window into the performance. My current amps are a 300B SET and a KT88 P/P, both of which sound marvelous on this.

I've heard a lot of harsh, sibilant hi-fi speakers, some whose sales tax is more than the Perikles retail price. For me, I'm done with listening to high-end pyrotechnics and just wanted a reasonably compact, musical, high-sensitivity speaker. I'm still looking for the perfect amp and a DAC, but I'm very happy with my speaker choice. Based on my recent listening tests, I'm certain the Perikles are the strongest link in my audio chain. You can not go wrong with these, and I don't feel that way about many other speakers.

RE: Patek. I'm happy to have you e-mail me in about a month. I will be experimenting with exactly that configuration (Patek + Perikles) and will be happy to give you my honest assessment of same.

Best, -dB