Why not horns?

06-03-10: Almarg
Re phase and polarity, I believe the reason for the ambiguity and inconsistent use of the term "phase" is that a delay or phase shift mechanism can be either phase dispersive (affecting the phase of different frequencies differently), or phase non-dispersive (affecting the phase of all frequencies equally).

A polarity inversion is the same thing as a 180 degree non-dispersive phase shift. An arrival time difference caused by multiple drivers whose physical placement is not time-aligned relative to one another would be a dispersive phase shift.
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Hello Al,

All true , but the word Phase describes a relationship it can be applied to anything really.

regards,

Macrojack, why would "Horns have a greater potential than any other approach."?

No, horns are THE OLDEST form of amplification. ;-) I'm not sure if they ever were all that popular in home audio. It can be argued that they were somewhat of a necessity before we had better amps. And the first electric amplification was with tubes so that technology, while ages younger than mechanical amplification, is considered outdated by many people today. But that is only their opinion. Both of these technologies do still work, and work well.

The average audiophile will not consider pro-audio anything because of a bias instilled by countless years of reading audio magazines. Horns seem to get lumped in with pro-audio, even though there are many horn designs that don't use pro drivers. No, I don't think the shift is due to outdated technology. There are quite a few designers today who use horns.

I think pro-audio got the balanced standard thing right. But they sure are ruining popluar music recording.

Unsound - Horns are the least exploited speaker technology out there. They are capable of lower distortion, greater dynamic contrast and quicker response. The combination of low mass and high output allows them to provide explosive sound and minute detail concurrently.
And does anybody think that horns are any more archaic than cones? The dome tweeter and conical midrange have been worked every way they can be and the last ounce of potential was wrung out of them long ago. Acoustic suspension is a parlor trick that can buy some compactness at the expense of speed, explosiveness and efficiency.
Horns are not yet well understood but the curtain is rising slowly and, I believe, we are nearing the threshold of a breakthrough in popularity which will create better and cheaper product. Maybe smaller too.