Why not horns?

Great questions. John and Ralph are way ahead of me with horns but I think we are now getting to the reason why more horn systems are not found. Horns do some things similar to boxes but they also many things differently than boxes. There is simply a lot to learn about how horns work when one attempts to setup a horn system. This is especially true when one is doing a multi-driver system. The size of the mouth opening, the size of the horn opening, the flare rate, etc, all impact the freq. response and sound. And we should be considering whether the horn uses a full range driver, or if the horn is front or back loaded.

I listen rougly 11' from my horns. Ralph hit all of the reasons why we hornies like what we like about horns. It is NOT about volume as so many of the uninitiated think. I rarely listen about 90dB even with rock. I don't need to because I can hear very far into the background which I believe is indicative of a very low system noise floor.

And I chose to build a horn system long before I figured out what amps I would use. In the end, I am triamping. One 50+ watt/ch, PP amp for the mid-bass bins, another 50 watt PP amp for the mid and tweeter, and the bass horns are powered by a pro-audio SS amp. This is all controlled by a Marchand active xover.

So you can see that it can go from very simple to very complicated when we talk horns. Most peoples' eyes, especially those here at A'gon, start to glaze over very quickly. :-)

As Herman pointed out back loaded horns really are not horns at all. But this has been debated to death in other forums so most agree that a BLH design is a horn. Most as is mine is a combo or large ported cabinet firing into flared TL. Thus able to produce far lower frequency than equal size front horn. To reproduce 15hz a front horn needs to be near the size I mentioned. Most horns for monitoring or closer seating are hybrid designs horn tweeters horn mid standard woofers. I use a massive horn system in my office. I took much care with driver, horn integration, time alignments thus I can sit about 6ft from such. Hard to answer your questions for I'm not a technical writer just a designer. Some can do both not me sorry. I'm lucky I can write at all not my strong point. I does bother me a wee bit that so many in this thread say what I do and listen too can not be done but hey I know it can maybe thats all I need. I think herman was thinking my rigs a bit smaller than it is.

Mapman, that system looks impressive but that big white "bass horn" with the big driver is not a true bass horn. My bass horn is 16 feet long and gets down below 40 Hz. That is simply a woofer with a flared opening.

Jhonk, I realize how physically large your woofer cabinet is but I am one of those who would not call it a horn. You are correct though that there is no need to debate that. It's yours, you can call it whatever you wish. You are also correct that to go down to 15 Hz a basshorn like mine would have to be much, much longer so if you want to go that low you have made what I would call a good compromise. Getting down close to 30 is low enough for me so I don't have bass envy.

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I was hoping to solicit input from people who know and understand the parameters of horn design. Since we aren't hearing from them, I'll stick my neck out and mention a few things I think I know about the subject. If nothing else maybe we'll learn from the people who correct me.
Horns work for speaker drivers just as a megaphone works for Al Jolson or a cheerleader. It was used as a mechanical microphone, amplifier and speaker before we had electronic ones. I believe the idea is one of focus. The energy generated by your lungs or your driver is channeled through a narrow opening and allowed to disburse gradually, just like reducing the diameter of a water pipe increases the pressure.
The lower the frequency being reproduced, the longer the wavelength and the bigger the horn required. This is why bass horns need to be large. I don't know exact numbers but the mouth has be enormous and the throat may need to be like 35 feet long.
Because the mid and lower horns need to large, you need to be some distance back from them so that their presentation can blend sufficiently before the combined wavefront reaches you.
The aforementioned mechanical amplification also explains why horns are so efficient.
Some reasons why horns you have heard in the past were not very pleasant could be poor design, lousy amplification, too damn loud, poor driver integration, cabinet or horn resonance and placement. On this last point, I should stress that, while placement in a high end sound system isn't terribly critical, having the speakers fire at you from similar distances and the same direction could prove very important but be ignored completely by the company who was merely installing "reinforcement". Another matter to reflect upon is the source employed when you heard the horns. It could well have been an 8-track or a beat up record played with a broken stylus. In general horns have been misused far more often than they have been optimally installed.
Metal horns often ring. Many Klipsch owners have taken steps to deaden their horn bodies. Passive crossovers in horn designs of the past were quite rudimentary and cheaply executed. Woofer cabinets in hybrid horn systems have sometimes been constructed of broad pieces of plywood with little or no bracing and no dampening.

My horns are made of 12 one inch thick cherry wood petals. They are conical in shape, meaning the flare is perfectly straight with no elliptical contours. The throat is made of cast aluminum. No ringing, no resonance. I used a pair of JBL L-200 cabinets for my bottom end and mounted the horns with a simple pair of rudimentary brackets bolted to the back of the woofer cabinet. I completely bypassed the native horn and passive crossover and hardwired my amps to their assigned drivers. Then I bought a dbx Drive Rack PA to serve as active crossover, EQ, time delay and level matcher. Because of the extreme efficiency I am able to use excellent sounding low power amps for small money ($300 each) to drive this system and I must say that it will make you swallow your gum. Total outlay 18 months ago was under $5K for everything from the DBX to your ears. The preamp admittedly wasn't cheap. It's a Parasound JC-2.

So I hope this offers some clarification about product, price, placement, performance and pleasure.

Comments? Questions?

Ah, there is another interesting issue with horns. The question of whether or not to do digital xovers. Digital xovers do make it possible to time align even when the horns themselves are not. However, I am on of those who prefers vinyl source to CD. Naturally I am against ANY digital device in the chain so I chose not to use a digital crossover.

Instead I have the voice coils of the drivers, except the bass horns, physically aligned. (There is a bit more to it, but that is basically how they stack.) So I have a little more work to do with regards to reflections off of the other horns, but there is no digital xover I have found that sounds like I want.