Horn based loudspeakers why the controversy?

larryi2,502 posts02-21-2019 5:21pmI've heard dozens of horn systems. Of the complete systems, I like: the Edgarhorn systems I've heard; some of the Volti systems I've heard were okay, but not that great for my taste; Klipschorn and Lascala not my favorites; Altec Voice of the Theater not my favorites; Goto-good, but big and expensive); and a few more that I can't remember who built them.

Back-loaded horn systems include: Beauhorn, Rethm, Charney, and a few others.

Mostly, I've heard custom systems built around Western Electric, International Projector Company, Yoshimura Laboratories, and Jensen --drivers and horns. I've heard systems that use new drivers from G.I.P (Japan) that are replicas of old Western Electric drivers that sound terrific (they ought to, given the prices of these drivers).

My own system is built around a horn-based system from Strumenti Acustici de Precisione (twin 12" Alnico magnet woofers in an Onken cabinet, compression driver and horn midrange (I swapped out what came with the system and replaced the midrange with a Western Electric 713b driver and a 12025 sectoral horn), and a bullet tweeter.  

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
THis is a great post, informs us to whats out there and your fair opinions.\
YOur WE horn system sounds fantastic.
I bet it is so accurate, no distortion, just clean pure music. But at that price, few of us could afford.
WOW twin alnico magnet 12 inch woofers, Thats a  ALOTTT of bass.
My room is small, so a  pair of W18's at 87db is really sufficient for my listening needs.
I have a  AMT ribbon/Neo magnet  arriving off a  ebay/china site, $75 a pair, Lets see  how they sound next to my Magnovox Alnico tweeers, 

I refer to my system as a "Japanese" system (in fact, the Western Electric drivers came from Japan) because it is much like systems you will see in Japanese audio magazines.  Such systems are crammed into tiny Japanese apartments.  What they excel at is sounding lively and full at LOW volume levels, which is a necessity given the thin walls of these apartments and the extremely polite and considerate culture of the Japanese.

My system actually has very modest bass output and does not go very deep.  The drivers are light weight, and have a pleated paper surround that limits excursion.  These drivers excel at delivering clean and tuneful bass; just not that much of it.  I've heard systems with twin 18" drivers based on similar designs that also have somewhat limited bass.  Even when playing music with powerful bass, you can barely feel the cones moving in and out; they vibrate but to not pump in and out very much.

Mozart - my Grande Voix speakers are the black ones with wood tone  horns on the Viking Website. 

most of the worst speakers ive heard was horns.

when horns sounds coloured, nothing else in the audio world is so unbearable to my ears

Absolutely true murphythecat. Horns can be the most annoying loudspeakers to listen to but, don't hold that against all of them. There are some excellent sounding horn systems out there and because they are strongly directional can be easier to set up then regular dynamic speakers. Room acoustics are not as critical and you can get a pretty decent image out of the box. Their efficiency allows you to get away with a much smaller amp and save money. However, horns are big nd they will own any room you put them in not just because of their size but their appearance also. You could make an argument that my ESLs blend in but, there is no blending in with naked horns.