Change to Horns or stay Dynamic

Jeff Day swapped his Duos for Bland British Boxes (I'm being sarcastic about their bashers - I think they're great). My point is only that it happens.

I think the dynamics of many well-made dynamic speakers will sound very close to what front horns do *on most music*. On orchestral - probably not. I don't listen to orchestral.

Paul dynamics can not equal the dynamic range of a front horn no mater how much power you feed them. It just isnt going to happen.

Paul dynamics can not equal the dynamic range of a front horn no mater how much power you feed them. It just isnt going to happen

Completely agree. In fact for sound reinforcement and for stadiums really horns are the only way to go. The narrower dispersion can also be a huge benefit in these applications in getting a good soundstage to different sections of the audience (Haas effect).

As I mentioned above there are very few conventional box speakers that can compete dynamically and even then we are talking about domestic spaces. I would also be wary of horns with excessively high compression ratio - extreme high efficiency - as you will get harmonic distortion in the treble at higher SPLs. I would also avoid long throws (narrow dispersion) as this will make room/placement and synergy with the bass much tougher. But I fully agree that good horns are going to sound great - just in the way you describe - the "you are there" dynamic factor and nothing else really competes.

Dgad, ATC are used at Disney Concert Hall - that is a stereo set of speakers with three midrange domes per channel. I think this picture tells you that they do indeed play dynamically even if they are not a horn. One of the few speakers if not the only conventional speaker that can compete.

I would also be wary of horns with excessively high compression ratio - extreme high efficiency - as you will get harmonic distortion in the treble at higher SPLs. I would also avoid long throws (narrow dispersion) as this will make room/placement and synergy with the bass much tougher

Shadorne,

Please explain the above in more detail. I don't understand it 100%.

Dgad,

Excessively high compression ratio :You get non-linearities in air compression in the compression chamber at extreme compression (high efficiencies). It creates harmonic distortion. I would not think you need to worry about this with hi-fi designs - however it is worth asking about. Bear in mind, the higher the compression and the greater the efficiency the overall more difficult and precise the design - phase plugs and such in the throat can be tricky and tolerances become very important. I guess I am saying don't just aim for the highest efficiency you can find - like something you can rock the whole neighbourhood with on a mere 1 watt amp!

Avoid long throws (narrow dispersion): This is easier to explain. The Bass radiates in all directions - so it uniformly fills your room in every direction. A long throw narrow dispersion horn is going to "beam" energy in a narrow path towards the listener. The hard part is where do you sit and how is it voiced and does this match your room and listening position. There is a danger that your brain interpretes the two very different soundfields separately. This effect was studied by Dr Floyd Toole at NRC labs in Canada in the 70's. Since then it has been the general consensus that the dispersion in the midrange and treble needs to be very wide horizontally in order to provide a pleasing "natural" sound field (i.e the reverberant energy from the room matches what you would expect to hear across the entire frequency range if you replaced your stereo by real musicians). If you look at the modern Klipsch and JBL designs you will see that they tend to respect this by using short throw horns with wider dispersion.