Why not horns?

Generalizations about horn systems tend to short-change models that are exceptions to the "rules", and in high-end audio it is the exceptions that are usually the most interesting.

I started out with as strong a prejudice against horns as you'd ever be likely to find. Over the years my perception has changed (with John Wolff's designs acting as the catalyst), and I now believe that the downsides can be overcome while the upsides offer worthwhile improvements, particularly in radiation pattern uniformity and dynamic contrast.

Recently I received an e-mail from a manufacturer of high-end solid state components, and referring to a horn system he said this: "I have not heard speakers that were more 'relaxing'. Honestly they were so damn smooth."

I have every reason to believe Macrojack's perception of his horn system, as I'm somewhat familiar with the work of its designer and he certainly qualifies as "exceptional".

Duke
dealer/manufacturer

There is a saying in Zen,

If you are off by an inch, you are off by a million miles.

This particularly applies to horn loudspeakers.

Horn speaker design is either on, or its not, and if its not on, by virtue of its greater dynamics and higher overall efficiency, horn speakers which are not well designed (most) are rather more awful than their direct radiator brethren.

The conical horns you are now enjoying and find worth remarking on are a notable deviation from everything that has come before in commercial horn design. It's not something that people on Audiogon will be likely to discern, but I am glad that this thread may bring horn speakers to the attention of a larger public on this site.

Jonathan Weiss
Oswaldsmill Audio (OMA)

The above two posts come from two of the leading lights in American loudspeaker development. Both refer to Bill Woods of Acoustic Horn Company in Hastings, Ontario. Even though I own and love his horns I was unaware that Bill stands alone in horn design as they both suggest. While very impressed with what I own, I was a bit naive, I guess, in that I did not realize that my horns are not so typical of better horn design. Duke and Jonathan are very well traveled and accomplished manufacturers of small scale cutting edge loudspeakers so praise from them carries the weight of validation. For my part, I don't get out much. I don't go to shows and there are no interesting dealers anywhere near here. Hence, I approached this thread with a belief that my horns were somewhat more typical than these guys seem to think. OOPS!!!
Bill has been my guide in pursuit of owning quality horns. Now I learn that he may be the world leader. How nice. But how foolish I must look. Maybe other horns do honk. Maybe they all fall apart when playing loud. Mine sure don't.

I just read my above post and discovered some very poor wording. I said that Duke and Jonathan are manufacturers of small scale loudspeakers. What I should have indicated is that they are limited production, not small scale. From what I've read, they both are well regarded, well received and quite popular state of the art options.

You can have my horns when you pry my cold, dead hands off of them. :-)

So many generalized statements about horns, kind of like the ones we horn guys make about monkey coffins and other boxes.
Maybe someone should start a thread about why people settle for cone and dome boxes.