Why not horns?

Mapman - I agree completely. The proof is in the pudding - not in the recipe. Nonetheless, there is a reasonable ability to predict outcome based on past trials and failures. In this regard, specifications are surely useful to designers and scientists in general. For a guy like me, they are just numbers and do not transfer information that can help me decide.

Long ago I realized that I could read people better than I can read blueprints, so I make it a practice to choose someone whose advice I feel I can trust. While this approach generally works out well for me, I have had a few bad haircuts. In the case of deciding to trust Bill Woods, I was rewarded handsomely. He has a sterling and lengthy resume and has been chosen to assist many manufacturers as a designer and consultant. So I called him on the phone and found someone I could relate to immediately.

That's what eventually brought me to where I am now believing that the potential for horn speaker systems is barely being scratched. Right now we seem to be in the eccentric, mad scientist phase but it seems likely that a bigger market and more conscious development are just around the corner.

Are you a cartographer?

Macro, you should look into getting a true horn for that compression driver. What you have looks more like a megaphone than a horn. I don't doubt you are pleased with the sound from it but I wonder what it would sound like with what I would call a true horn.

The elevenhorn web site is a bit weak, hard to navigate and not much info, but I don't think anybody is selling horns like these.

http://www.jeffreywjackson.com/

this thread has been going so long I forget if I've already posted this

Herman - You have posted this already - or someone has - I remember looking at it.
Here's an explanation as to why I use my megaphone:

http://www.acoustichorn.com/tech/conical-horn-geometry/

I would urge everyone who has a genuine interest in this topic to read the explanation offered in the above link.

No matter what his rational for doing so what you have is an approximation of a horn. The reason for doing so is simple. It is much easier to make a wooden cone with flat panels than a true horn. From what I've read these compromises really become audible as frequency increases. I have no basis for this conclusion other than logic as I have never heard your cones, but if an approximation of a horn is good it seems logical that a true horn would be even better.

What's the price on yours? I can't get the link to work.

My horns are the AH 300. Price is around $2800/pr.

The link works for me. Go to the Acoustic Horn Company homepage. Then click on "How They Work". Then select "Conical Horn Geometry". That process will take you to the page I linked.

In this article, Bill explains his reasons (and how he reached them) for using the conical horn rather than something flared.

How do you determine what is a "true horn"? It would seem that you have set an arbitrary picture in your mind of what a horn is to the exclusion of any variant.