What does one purchase after owning horns?

radiation pattern control lack of distortion and efficiency

04-06-11: Johnk

Lack of distortion ? ... Interesting....

Weseixas, who plainly knows next to nothing about horn loudspeakers, continues relentlessly to underscore that most evident fact with generalities, wives' tales and misinformation. What drives this foolish behavior? What makes a grownup act this way?

While I haven't the ability to measure my horns for distortion, I'm quite happy to say that I can't hear any indication of distortion at all. The presentation is calm and effortless. In my 330 square foot room, they aren't tested at all.

The high efficiency claim goes without saying, as does the radiation control. A horn works like a rifle barrel in directing the sound. The flare of the horn (in my case, 40 degrees) confines the lateral distribution thereby preventing any early interference from room boundaries. But not all horns are that narrow. Likewise, not all horns are made of inch thick, non-resonant hardwood. And not all horns are smooth and conical. Generalities about horns make as much sense as generalities about anything else.

Weseixas is just here to make trouble. Ask him about his death panels.

For a given size enclosure the basshorn will have lower distortion and better damping. Plus far less thermo compression in horn systems. A big positive for horn loaded designs. Controlled radiation pattern means better image with less room interference. I would say another benefit to large horns is they fill room with even SPL. With dynamic and other designs when you walk towards loudspeakers SPL greatly increases with horns room is filled with even SPL so you can stand next to a horn without the great increase in level, this to is a benefit of controlled radiation.

Mapman, let me be the first you tell if you find the field coil Walsh.

Johnk, I have never heard either a DIY horn system, nor one that was well integrated even in what I would call a large room. Horns don't have a bad reputation with me as they alone have the snap that characterizes some instruments. But....

Macrojack, I have read nothing by Weseixas, but certainly horns can have vibration issues, as do all speaker, but of course the horns are a big radiation area. In my experience a tractrix horn sounds best. How I wish I could have horn performance that got close to the size of my Tidal Contrivas. I still remember when I was looking through a friend's MJ magazine from Japan, seeing a compression drive horn system. The first picture was the guy using a broom inside the mouth of his twin subwoofers. The mouth must have been at least eight feet by eight feet. A later picture showed the area behind his house with a structure that got increasingly narrow as it went probably fifty feet up the hill behind his house. It contained the horns with the compression driver at the back end. How I would have love to hear that system.