Why not horns?

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.

No matter what his rational for doing so what you have is an approximation of a horn. The reason for doing so is simple. It is much easier to make a wooden cone with flat panels than a true horn. From what I've read these compromises really become audible as frequency increases. I have no basis for this conclusion other than logic as I have never heard your cones, but if an approximation of a horn is good it seems logical that a true horn would be even better.

What's the price on yours? I can't get the link to work.