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Change to Horns or stay Dynamic

After hearing some incredible horn systems, I am curious if anyone has switched from Dynamic or Planar speakers to horns and why? I am thinking about high end horn systems with compression drivers that operate full range. The bass needs to keep up with the speed of the midrange and highs. Preferably a full range horn system, rather than a hybrid.
dgad
sirspeedy
738 posts
 
Dgad,nice post....Btw,didn't I meet you at HE 2007?There are not many other hobbyists living in Aruba,whom I met at that show,so I assume this "is" you.

Sorry for my short session listening to the Singer demo,with you.

Best

kana813
956 posts
 
"The -only- reservation I have about my MBL 101Es is that they too get congested at loud volumes during complex passages. They lose detail and smear and the soundstage becomes confused."

I'll bet any speakers with a sensitivity of 81dB/2.83V/m powered by 40watt tube amps(no offence to current owners intended), will sound congested if you try and push them past 93db in a big room.

Solution: Spectron Musician III SE Mk. 2 monoblock amplifiers.
exlibris
438 posts
 
Kana813,

You missed, or simply ignored, the part in my post where I said "This is true with any of the many amplifiers I have used with them."
Two of them were monobocks, each worth over $30,000 a pair. One of these delivered 640 watts into 4 ohms and the other 220 watts into 4 ohms. Believe me, I've tried throwing high-quality watts at the tops (105Hz and up) of these speakers.

I only hooked the SETs up to the speakers as joke when I was between amplifiers; it turned out the joke was on me!

My 40 watt SET amps distort after 93db but MBLs get congested at loud volumes during complex passages no matter what amps you put on them and no matter how many watts you throw at them. The upper drivers simply reach their excursion limits.

The Spectron Musician III SE Mk. 2 monoblock amplifiers; the top MBL amplifiers; the CAT JL-3 Signatures; the top Boulders monoblocks, none of these is the solution because the problem isn't amplification, its the drivers.

I'm pretty sure I'll never find amps that sound better (to me) under 93dB so that's why I have the 40 watt SETs. If you heard my speakers without seeing my amps you'd swear the amps were putting out over 250 watts (not that I have to justify my decision to you or anybody else).
exlibris
438 posts
 
Dgad,
I have to ask you about the "air pressure in the room" with the Cessaros. One of the reasons I gave up on the idea of owning horns a few years ago was because I often felt a sort of pressure on my skull, which quickly let to a headache, when listening.
I know a horn lover in Italy who feels the same thing but puts up with it because the sound is so good.
Did you feel any sort of fatigue or discomfort with the Cessaros?
t_bone
1,182 posts
 
I went from electrostats to horns, bypassing dynamic altogether. In doing so, I have found what I didn't know that I was looking for. The dynamics and "you-are-there-ness" are far ahead of dynamic speakers. Years on, I still get the shivers with certain music.

Even good horns have weak points. It is difficult to integrate midrange and bass. Finding dynamic bass which has the "speed"/dynamics/delicacy to match the midrange is difficult. If I ever build my own place in the country (on a hilltop with a beautiful view), I will build large horns into the ground/walls. Also, to get to the mid-bass (say, below 200Hz), horns can get very large and some people don't like that. If you can live with the deficiencies and still like horns, then you probably belong with them.
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