Cogent horns

I meant to say that there was NO "glossiness" or "glare" in my above post.

Another memory popped up, I think Steve and Rich said they had to rush to finish the fabrication of [url=http://www.audiofederation.com/hifiing/2006/Cogent/1000/index.htm]the horns[/url] for THE Show in 2006 and just finished them a few nights before.

Macrojack, you've moved on to horns from the ZU's? Or in addition to?

I sold my Zu Presence last summer and bought a pair of horns from Bill Woods of Acoustic Horn Company figuring if they were good enough for Cogent they were good enough for me.
Bill also turned me on to B&C DCX 50 compression drivers which he says get pretty close to the performance of the Cogent FC drivers.

http://www.acoustichorn.com/news/index.php?id=6580107509037206863

If you have the space, this option is worth consideration.

Steve & Rich of Cogent have spoken really highly of Bill Wood's horns at Acoustic Horn Company. A few years back, I asked where could I get the best performance for the money, within my budget, and that is exactly where they pointed me.

I really need to shoot Steve and email and check out how far they come with the Cogent setup since they are here in the Los Angeles area.

I'm under the impression that compression drivers (field coil or otherwise) vary less from best to worst than horns do.
According to Bill Woods and a few other sources I have encountered through reading, only a conical horn can deliver the original sound waves intact. Tractrix and elliptical designs cause cancellation within their bell which results in a distorted delivery. When you talk to Steve Schell, ask him about that.
After researching the various opinions I've heard, I'm pretty confident that Bill knows what he's talking about. Field coils likely will further sharpen what is already a phenomenally clear picture.

These horns may not be for everyone as they present a very focused and utterly unadulterated voice. I'm talking espresso black, straight whiskey, rifle barrel delivery. By comparison your cone drivers give you beer with milk in it.
Its weaker and murkier. I know you don't think so now and I imagine you will need a while to get used to good horns, but if you do, there will be no going back to the tame, diluted sound of big brand everyday, ho-hum, reviewer darlings.
I wish I could afford Bill's bass horns. Donations are welcome.

Thanks for this great discussion! I don't often find much of any interest to me in this forum, but now we're talking HORNS!

I apologize if I pull this discussion in a bit of a different direction from FC. I would like to hear more about the difference in sound from a conical vs. tratrix horn. It is difficult enough to audition most cone and dome speakers, but horns?!? We're talking damn near impossible.

Is there really that much difference in the distortions that lead to the "horn" sound between these two approaches? Also, I have heard that this can be corrected to some extent with a tweak to the crossover, like raising the pole. How much can be corrected in this fashion?