Why not horns?

Horns have unexploited potential. Lets get busy harvesting their potential. Most other options seem to have reached their limits long ago

Horns are great. They are the BEST solution for many applications.

However, you cannot dismiss other options so summarily. You are generalizing too much.

A good horn in the right setup can be the optimal solution, just as a conventional dynamic driver can be optimal in another situation.

For example: What about the midrange. Most horn designs crossover around 800 to 1000 Hz. Many people believe this is not a good region to have a crossover, as it is right bang square center in the sweetspot of all music.

All designs involve trade offs. Horns have some extremely useful characteristics for live audio and stadium audio. In fact they are probably the best #1 choice in most large venue live applications - as the narrow dispersion allows better control of the sound field so each listener gets an optimal experience. Line arrays are another powerful tool for live venues. However, these advantages do not always translate to making these designs the #1 choice in the home or in a studio.

Horses for courses.

Shadorne, Classic Audio Loudspeakers makes a horn that crosses over at 250Hz, owing to the kapton surrounds on the beryllium-domed drivers. The tweeter rolls in at 12KHz.

Only a few years ago, he used a TAD maple-machined horn, but it turned out to have an artifact (even with the TAD drivers) due to an error in the throat design. He had Bruce Edgar design a new horn, and no more artifact. The new horn is also a maple machined design.

This is what I mean by proper setup- a properly-designed horn with a a decent driver. Many of the horn systems I have heard lack these two elements, and so while being loud, are not particularly pleasant nor are they accurate. Once this proper setup is achieved, actually setting up the speaker in a room is quite easy, although I have to say that some of the larger rooms I've used in the last few years at shows have been problematic due to reverb in the room. But that is not really a speaker problem- that's just a room treatment issue.

The main issue that I have run into with horns is that they do poorly in a near-field situation. You have to have about 8-10 feet to make them work, so that you get proper correct blend between drivers. If you are that close to The Classic Audio speakers, you have to be sitting down or the tweeter output is missing. This works OK for me at home, despite a slightly smaller than average room, as my listening chair is at about 11 feet. Further back, in the dining room, I can be standing or seated and it makes no difference.

John Wolfe does wind his own field coils.

They sound like a PA system. Go figger.

I have found this to be a very educational thread. Well done to those making positive contributions.

I too heard the CAR setup at Akfest and thought it sounded quite good. But as a point of comparison, for substantially less money and far smaller physically, two non-horn speakers, the Audio Note and the Tom Evans setup were better. Different strokes...

Macrojack, you are proselytizing, but the true believer mark was over the top. My apologies.

Ralph,

I would agree - they are at their very best in farfield applications (12 feet+). This allows the narrower dispersion to better integrate with the room. Horns are outstanding in larger rooms and large venues - in these applications they can outperform conventional dynamic designs both in low distortion and in sound quality. As you get to really big spaces, conventional designs just can't cut the mustard in terms of dynamics, overall SPL whilst maintaining low distortion).

Movie theaters sound absolutely awesome and they almost ALL uses horns.