Why not horns?

Funny... If I am not mistaken, not one person, has

really explained "What they don't like about horn speakers"?

Just said, "hate, loathe,", oh and this is rich...

a violin sounding like a horn? And a comment regarding a distortion figure.
As far as noise? I squashed that notion, as I said,

even with your ear next to the Horn, it is QUIET!

Knowledge, is Power, stay in school.

The more you read, the more informed you will be.

Then perhaps, we may All benefit from actual "responses".

The Horn speaker, is as a "microphone", what ever is

recorded, will be played back, JUST as it was heard.

What specifically, is the problem?

I dislike Volkswagen "Things", because they look ugly.

They are slugs, get the idea?

"Hate, loathe" etc... why? be specific...

Because they sound Better than ANYTHING else!

Because they make your non-horn speakers sound like junk.

Because now your CD's sound "Alive!"

Okay?

I don't really care, I am just making a point.

Horns Sound "REAL", if You don't like "REAL"

Music, buy Bose.

I Love Music!

I do not have extensive experience with horns, but I do have some. I had heard several sets of horns and found them to be ok, but not great. The last three years I have gone to the Audiokarma show in Detroit and listened to every speaker I could. I paid particular attention to the horns. Granted, many of the rooms were not optimal. However, the room for Classic Audio Reproductions had people that should have known how to set them up. Each year they had speaker systems of 20k and higher with the set this year at 36k. The mids and treble were very nice but the bass was just plain bad. There was a resonance in the upper bass that made them not listenable for me. I am not sure what was causing it, but it sure sounded like a lively cabinet. I could not believe that a speaker of that price was producing it. Every year I have left their room thinking that if this is the best that horns have to offer, I could not do it. It certainly was not because of cheap electronics on any occasion.
Despite all of that, I purchased a new pair of the Emerald Physics CS2's. The decision was based partly on buzz the product had been receiving and partly because I really like open baffle bass. I burned them in for about 500 hours. At that time I was using a Classe CP60 pre, an Upgrade Company modified Denon 3910. Amplification was a pair of Aragon Palladium 2 monos on the bass section and a Pass Aleph 30 on the tweeter. Ridge Street Audio cables were used through out. I could never warm up to the sound of them. There was a resonance in the mids that would occur that sounded like talking thru a megaphone. It did not happen all of the time, but it was enough to be musically distracting and I found it to be unacceptable. Another thing I did not like about them was that the soundstage was 2 dimensional. That could have been due to my set up, but they were set up per manufaturer instructions even including phone conversations with Clayton Shaw. The 2 dimensional aspect also contributed to the fact that they sounded like a very good PA system, but not what I am looking for when I listen at home. I did listen to the CS3's at AK fest 2009 and found them to be an improvement, but not enough for me to buy them. With my somewhat limited experience, it will take some major convincing to get me to go down that path again.

There is this device called a,

"SUB-WOOFER"

It is an amazing addition, and improves the sound in more

ways than you would expect.

Properly implemented, not ONLY is the "3d effect" THERE!

But, taking the load off of the mains, the mains can

do what they where made to do.

The Bass, is NO LONGER an issue.

The sheer speed, and visceral effects of the Velodynes,

in addition to the smoothness in the highs and midrange,

IMHO, it just does not get any better.

I Love Music!

I love horn speakers, and agree with just about everything said by those who like them on this thread. One thing is interesting to me though. A couple of posters mentioned that horns have to be perfectly set up and placed, and I am wondering why, since this should not true in theory, and has not been true IME. You can pretty much put horns anywhere and they will sound pretty good (for instance, Cornwalls). Yes, there is of course an optimum placement, but they are generally much less finicky with regards to placement than just about any other speaker type. And yes, horns are directional, but the shape of the horn not only helps direct the sound to where you want it to go, but also helps keep it away from where you don't want it to go. So some types of room problems are either eliminated or are not nearly as bad. Also, though there is an optimum "sweet spot," if you have larger horns such as Altec A7's or Klipschorns, this "sweet spot" can be a pretty large area (depending on the size of the specific room), certainly a bigger area than most other speaker types. And if you are outside this "sweet spot," the sound is still much better than many other types (I have heard some others where if you move your head even an inch there is a radical change in sound quality - why anyone would deliberately design such a speaker is beyond me). In fact, ease of placement is usually given as an argument in favor of horn speakers, so I was surprised to see some posters imply otherwise.

There is this device called a,

"SUB-WOOFER"

It is an amazing addition, and improves the sound in more

ways than you would expect.

Properly implemented, not ONLY is the "3d effect" THERE!


do what they where made to do.

The Bass, is NO LONGER an issue.

The sheer speed, and visceral effects of the Velodynes,

in addition to the smoothness in the highs and midrange>
If you look at my system, you will see that I have a Velodyne DD12 so I fully understand what a sub can do. The speakers I have are run full range with the sub crossed in to blend. They produce 3D imaging with or without the sub. Your comment makes absolutley no sense and is about as condescending as it gets. You state that noone is giving examples of why they don't use horns, then when someone does you imply that they have no idea what they are doing. The CS2's are designed to be flat to 20 hz and are meant to be used without a sub. That is from the designer. I suppose that you know better than him how his speakers should be set up. As far as a speaker that costs 36k requiring a sub to sound right, that is ridiculous as it gets. It better be able to do everything right for that kind of money. And while I said that the mids and highs were very nice, I did not say that they were great or revlatory. That is what I would expect at that price.

It seems that no matter the design, there is at least one person who feels that everyone else can't hear if they don't use the design they favor. It could be stats, planars, single driver, time and phase coherent with 1st order crossover, etc., or in this case, horns. Different people hear things differently. There is no such thing as a perfect speaker. Each person chooses what it is they are willing to live with that is not perfect. I have chosen to not use horns, but continue to be open to being convinced they are right for me. So far, that hasn't happened. One thing for sure, telling me I can't hear is not going to convince me of the superiority of horns.

As Learsfool states, I found the sweetspot to be very wide with the CS2's. This was also my experience with the other directivity controlled speakers that I have owned, the Legacy Audio Whisper. The Whisper was the reason I was so interested in the open baffle bass of the CS2's. In addition, both speakers were easy to place as Learsfool also mentions due to their controlled directivity and open panel bass. I have heard "head in a vice" speakers before and would never by one of them either. As I mentioned above, all of these are strictly my opinions and experiences. It is up to each person to choose what pleases them.