Why not horns?

All this talk is passing over my head at this point but I found a specification page for my woofer that may provide some clarification or narrow the discussion.

http://www.rcf.it/products/precision-transducers/low-frequency-transducers/l15p530

Is there anything useful in there?

Bill suggested I replace my native JBL LE 15B woofers with these because they are lighter, faster and more efficient.

Macro,

Interesting technical details to learn, but if things sound good in your setup I think that's all that really matters from a user's perspective. Nuts and bolts specs on drivers and components are fine but do not indicate the final result as I believe has been pointed out already.

Mapman - I agree completely. The proof is in the pudding - not in the recipe. Nonetheless, there is a reasonable ability to predict outcome based on past trials and failures. In this regard, specifications are surely useful to designers and scientists in general. For a guy like me, they are just numbers and do not transfer information that can help me decide.

Long ago I realized that I could read people better than I can read blueprints, so I make it a practice to choose someone whose advice I feel I can trust. While this approach generally works out well for me, I have had a few bad haircuts. In the case of deciding to trust Bill Woods, I was rewarded handsomely. He has a sterling and lengthy resume and has been chosen to assist many manufacturers as a designer and consultant. So I called him on the phone and found someone I could relate to immediately.

That's what eventually brought me to where I am now believing that the potential for horn speaker systems is barely being scratched. Right now we seem to be in the eccentric, mad scientist phase but it seems likely that a bigger market and more conscious development are just around the corner.

Are you a cartographer?

Macro, you should look into getting a true horn for that compression driver. What you have looks more like a megaphone than a horn. I don't doubt you are pleased with the sound from it but I wonder what it would sound like with what I would call a true horn.

The elevenhorn web site is a bit weak, hard to navigate and not much info, but I don't think anybody is selling horns like these.

http://www.jeffreywjackson.com/

this thread has been going so long I forget if I've already posted this

Herman - You have posted this already - or someone has - I remember looking at it.
Here's an explanation as to why I use my megaphone:

http://www.acoustichorn.com/tech/conical-horn-geometry/

I would urge everyone who has a genuine interest in this topic to read the explanation offered in the above link.