Why not horns?

Let's not be adversarial about this. Any speaker is a legitimate option. Horns are being rediscovered after years in P.A. oblivion. The process has been slow because of bias born of popular myth and actual poor performance. Now there are legitimate contenders for best available sound honors to be found in the horn community. My effort here is to open the door to consideration for horn designs among the broader audiophile membership. Those who choose to ignore the invitation to consider horns have their reasons. That's fine. Some of them may reconsider, however, if they see intelligent conversation endorsing the choice. That is what I hope we are doing with our comments.

Did I mention that horns will bring a level of excitement to movies that conventional audiophile speaker designs cannot ever match? It's true. That's why movie theaters still use horns even though they have the technology and budget available to install any other type they might want.

If you are getting a little bit bored these days, if your last few system changes just haven't lit you up, then maybe you are tired of your speakers' limitations. That's what I've heard from several guys I've talked with recently. It happened to me too. Check out the horn speakers a lot more carefully next time you attend an audio show. Maybe you're fun will come back to you through a megaphone.

Herman... My thoughts are along the lines cited by Apollo66.

Sorry, I can't give you a list of all the horns I have heard. And, since 1958 I never owned one. (It was then that I discovered their performance with horn music Dixieland Jazz). Based on what I did hear along the way I never saw any reason to do further investigation of horns.

Perhaps the new generation of horns are different. However they are too expensive. A technology that requires such cost is inferior.

To cover the full spectrum...
I can't stand horns.
Ported box speakers make good bird houses.
Acoustic suspension speakers are OK.
Line array speakers are good
Planar speakers are the best.

Have I failed to insult anyone out there? :-)

"To cover the full spectrum...
I can't stand horns.
Ported box speakers make good bird houses.
Acoustic suspension speakers are OK.
Line array speakers are good
Planar speakers are the best."

Just for fun, I'll add fuel to the fire and assert that omni Walsh drivers are the best.

I've owned planars and various box designs. Never horns. Horns are new territory I might explore someday.

Wow what responses;get out the bullet proof vests.

Eldartford, and Appollo66, I remember back in the early 90s Harry Pearson said about horns: "they aren't high end". He turned out to be wrong about that, even back then. Since then of course horns have continued to improve.

I enjoy mine not simply for volume. They are faster, more resolving and more cohesive than the best magnetic and ES planars I have heard. The same comparison holds true against regular cone systems; price is really no object either. I enjoy a good stereo, and I try not to be so snooty that I will not allow a good sounding system to be discredited just because the owner did not do it the way I would have- I try to keep an open mind.

So when I say I prefer the horns I do, its over mbls, Wilsons, Sound Labs, Quads, Magnaplanars, Appogees (and their current clones, which are quite good), Avalons, Dalis and many other excellent speakers too numerous to mention. Further, I don't expect horns to always be on top; all technologies improve and one has to be ready to pick up and move if you want to stay on top :)

Right now an excellent example of technology on the move is the High Emotion Audio loudspeaker, the same people that were behind the Pipedreams from 10-15 years ago. They have a new tweeter technology that, if described in a nutshell, is a cross between a planar and a horn, literally its a planar with the shape of a horn and so its about 112db 1 watt/1 meter. Just like the best horns, its also very very fast and super detailed- maybe the fastest I have ever heard (although not bright at all). Although it is not a traditional horn, at the same time it should not be excluded from this conversation, although the actual applications I have heard it in have only been about 92-93 db efficient monitors.

So in a nutshell, the reason one might choose a horn is that the right ones most definitely do work quite well, regardless of one's prior preconceptions. I know this because this is where I started from too- thinking that horns don't work for high end applications. They won me over, kicking and screaming.