Why not horns?

I am amused. Those that think every sound coming from horns sounds like air blowing through a horn have evidently never heard good ones.

If you want violins to sound like trumpets, get horns"

That statement shows a complete ignorance of what a good horn system sounds like.

The violins through mine are indeed violins. I attend the philharmonic on a regular basis and even though there is no way to completely reproduce that experience in your home, my system does a pretty good job of reproducing a symphony orchestra. I assure you it does not sound like a bunch of trumpets.

Ralph, do you wind your own field coils? I'm not sure he has them on his website yet as they may still be in development but I've listened to some that Jeffrey Jackson and Dave Slagle are developing and they do indeed sound very nice.

http://www.jeffreywjackson.com/

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Marty - I can see in theory that the problem you mention has potential to discourage. I don't personally play my system loud enough for the lagging woofer issue to compromise results. But I'm coming into geezerhood so I' may not serve as a useful bellwether in that regard. By the same token, my drivers are coaxial, yet I've never seen fit to hook up the tweeters. They just aren't needed as I don't hear anything up there.
Perhaps there is reason to question my being a useful example in any regard as I no longer hold that the best sound reproduction I can achieve should be my only goal at the expense of all else. I've reached a place in my life where I choose to balance convenience, aesthetics, cost and versatility against audiophile absolutes. Are others making those kind of choices?

" If at some point in the future I feel the need to put two refrigerator sized objects in my listening room, horns would definitely be on my list."

The size of most good full range horn designs is perhaps the biggest reason they are not more popular as I understand it. Most people do not have room for or even want these gigantic beasts in their rooms.

I asked a large Manhattan dealer rep why they carry no horn speakers among the myriad high end equipment on display in their shop and this was the reason related. Of course in big cities like NY, room is generally tighter for most.

My bass cabinets are 24 inches wide and 33 inches tall. The horn mouths are 18 inches outside diameter. Total height is 52 inches. You could hide my whole speaker behind a Magnapan 3.6.
Go measure your speakers. Certainly mine are not compact but neither are they outlandishly huge. Some people have space for them and some don't. I'm aware that horns do not have universal appeal. If they are a realistic possibility, I would urge you to investigate. If your wife won't allow it or you can't sit back far enough or your religion clearly states "Thou shall not horn", then you shouldn't tamper with your staus quo. If you have a curiosity, as I inexplicably did, then scratch yer damn itch. Take a flyer and see if you like the horn presentation the way a lot of others say they do.

Actually I have a decent size house yet parted with my Maggies due to lack of room to set them up correctly without being intrusive, so Maggies are not really a good example of a room friendly speaker design.

The OHMs with the Walsh drivers solved the problem. Big speaker sound in a fairly small footprint that is reasonably room friendly.

I would like to try horns someday, but practically I doubt I would ever get any more serious than dabbling with some smaller designs with a SET amp or something along those lines.