Why not horns?

"Do you admire his system or not?"

Yes.

I just think it it a bit ironic to ask the question "why not horns" and then assert that a 35 foot throat is needed for full range bass. It may well be true but that fact does not support an argument that people should go the horn route.

Also I applaud those who strive to do anything right, but frankly this thread is scaring me further away from horns personally than when I started. Sorry.

You've been told repeatedly in this thread that true bass horns are unwieldy and that most of us have some sort of hybrid with bass reflex cabinet and midrange horn. The irony may lie in you insisting that horns are not for you over and over and over again. We got it and that's fine.
If more people take an interest in horns, better and cheaper horn systems will appear eventually. In a thread like this, we can become aware of each other and you can become aware of us. Perhaps this is the start of something that could benefit all of us in time. However, unless we start talking nothing will happen.

:The irony may lie in you insisting that horns are not for you over and over and over again."

Actually I have indicated that I am interested in horns and have researched them a good bit though I would surely not claim to be an expert.

I do not know if they are for me yet or not because I have never tried them.

And, its good that both the pros and cons are being discussed because like most anything it is a mixed bag.

Not for the faint of heart though I am fairly certain.

Don't Klipschorns achieve a fairly full range sound in a reasonable size (for horns) package?

My thought is that were I to test the waters with horns, that I would start with a proven design that has been around for a while like the Klipschorn. Its been a long time since I heard these, but I recall these to be one of the things that got me interested in audio years ago when I heard them.

I'll chime in on the digital crossover question. My basshorns are 16 feet in a 28 foot room. It would be theoretically possible to physically time align if I sat against the far wall but for the sake of space I use Pure Vinyl running on a Mac Mini with an RME Fireface 400 which allows me to have digital time delay. It digitizes at 24 bit 192 Khz and does its calculations at 64 bits. By eliminating an analog RIAA and doing it digitally I avoid the phase shifts at the knees that analog RIAA networks must have. All in all I think it is an excellent compromise and sounds truly wonderful.

Wouldn't it be nice if we could all stop by for a listen to each others systems?

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Amen, Herman! Hey, I'm not poking a stick at digital xovers. I'm just hoping to impress on the uninitiated that there are several ways to go. Yes, everything is a compromise. No argument there.

Another compromise that can be found is that with bass horns. It is possible to get low enough with a folded bass horn. The Edgarhorn Seismics that I use are such a design and they are about the size of a refrigerator. These get down in the low 20s and can be EQ'd lower.