Why not horns?

I'm glad to see we agree that horns are magical.

.

I think those following this forum, have come to a

fresh understanding, of the wonderful world of

Horn speakers.

True, NOT for everyone.

But, if You are open, to a New way to enjoy Music.

Try 'em, there are MANY different types; so you

can't listen to one Horn speaker, and pan the

rest of them.

One can do a whole lot worse, that is for sure.

Much good information, has been shared here.

What ever, your choice....

Whether "Planar", or "Box" speakers, whatever the design

May Your Music experience be most fulfilling in every way.

Life is too short, Enjoy Your Music, to the MAX.!

Since this forum started, I think Gary Coleman, Dennis

Hopper, Simon Monjack(Brittany Murphy's husband) have

All passed away. May they Rest in Peace.

I Love Music!

Unsound likes Thiels and hates horns. Let's be honest, would anyone who prefers the presentation of Thiels ever appreciate what a good horn system can do? I really doubt it.

Actually, despite their huge differences in design, I suspect a good set of horns might be fine tuned in a manner to not sound all that different, but I doubt that this would be the case if left to chance.

I also think the horns could be tuned to sound like many other different sounding designs as well, like Harbeth, if that is the intent.

I believe that the sensitivity of horns can be either their bigbest strength or their achilles' heel. Its all in the overall sonic recipe. A little too much salt or pepper can have a magnified effect.

I always go back to thinking of horns (done well) as putting the sound under a microscope, for better or for worse. Otherwise minor differences in signal can now produce major differences in resulting sound.

To me, you better have a love or fascination with horns if you are going to voluntarily deal with them. If you do not have the desire to do what is needed (which may be a lot) to get things right, better off staying away.

That to me (along with size requirements) is probably the best answer to the question "why not horns?".

05-29-10: Herman
Macro, you are a bit off base on that one. It is one of the common misconceptions in audio. Your description of being physically aligned is correct but your description of phase and polarity isn't.

A difference in phase means a difference in time. A difference in polarity means one signal is going positive while the other goes negative. Phase and polarity are two entirely different things.

It is confusing because if you reverse the wires on one speaker (black to red) in a stereo pair then everybody says the speakers are out of phase. That is technically incorrect. The correct phrase is you have reversed the polarity to one speaker. One will be going in while the other is going out. They still happen at the same time so they are in phase but they move in opposite directions so they have opposite polarities. Unfortunately it is common practice to describe it as the speakers are out of phase, and it is awkward to say that one has its polarity reversed, so we are stuck with a phrase that is technically incorrect.

Same situation with balanced cables. While one line is going positive the other is going negative. Some people incorrectly say they are out of phase but actually one has inverted polarity.

If the speakers aren’t time aligned then there is indeed a phase shift, a difference in time.
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Huh?

Herman,

Phase is an relationship , when you reverse the polarity of one speaker you change the phase , hence they are no longer in phase. This is of course completely different from acoustic phase, as you described , but considered electrical phase....

Regards,