You Cant Buy It but you Can Build It

@sns   Oh I do have an open mind I just assumed with all your PC warnings you had troubles to solve. You mention a list of things you did to make your MacMini right so I figured you felt there was a need too.

  I agree on the laptops can be a problem and the Dell precision laptop I have does not sound as good as the  Dell Precision workstation I use as a music server does. I am not sure where you get the idea I am using a laptop from.

  If you are talking about internet or wifi music streaming I don't do that. I have not been impressed with streaming I have heard being any better at best than what I do on my own.

 Yes I do believe many "audiophiles" do waste money and have all sorts of gear to fix their problems that resulted from the choices they made. I think there is a common mindset that exists that determines x number of boxes or pieces of gear and special wires are needed to have fidelity because peer opinion research says so. I thought that with two way speakers for years and believed three ways were the only way to go until I got a set of serious Klipsch Pro two ways.

 "I always thought diy most open minded and experiential learners, sounds like you've made up your mind."

  Indeed I have until someone shows me something better. I have a question for you. Why are you so sure what I have done is not as good or better than what you have done? How can you be so certain you have the best answers and that mine are not when we have never heard each others systems to be able to judge that? Fairly bold final answer assertions on your part.

@mijostyn  No actually I feel no vibration as it is made out of 25MM Baltic Birch. I am aware of cabinet resonance problems. If you are ever near southern middle Tennessee I invite you to stop in and hear for yourself. Until you have your comments are just assertions of what you think my horns have to be doing. I will grant you the large size of  horn to sound good and go down below 30hz is not something dainty and petite. Yes very few are out there for size considerations as most are not willing to go large. Does not mean a horn can't sound really good. I believe an all horn system done right is unbeatable.

@mijostyn --

"... put on anything with a little low bass in it and turn it up to your usual listening level. Put your hand on the bass horn say just inside the mouth. Feel that vibration? Any vibration you feel is audible distortion. Getting any large structure not to vibrate at bass frequencies is extraordinarily difficult. This is the problem with bass horns. They add way too much coloration."

This is grossly incorrect and an assertion that clearly doesn’t rest in experience - period. My counter reply here would apply even at SPL’s where most typical commercial subs would’ve left the building, but you’re talking "usual listening levels"? Come on. I’ve you have ever listened to a pair horn subs in a home environment, which VERY few people ever have, you would know that they - properly implemented (and this goes for any sub principle) - produce a smooth, effortless and enveloping bass, quite different even from direct radiating designs. They may be big structures, but made of high quality plywood or even MDF they're sufficiently sturdy as the internal horn path acts as effective bracing, which is furthermore reinforced with additional bracing to support the horn path itself. Moreover the horn acts as a low-pass filter and thus filters out harmonics and driver induced noise that would otherwise be readily exposed from direct radiators which are working much harder being much less sensitive. Horn subs produce "way too much coloration"? No, sir, it’s the other way ’round.

"You would literally have to make the horn out of concrete. Getting a small enclosure not to resonate is difficult enough but a horn is virtually impossible. There are very few horns that make it below 30 Hz. The K horn is already down 4 dB at 33 Hz. A horn that makes it down to 18 Hz would be huge and even more difficult to control. The driver is happy as a clam, the horn itself is an audiophile nightmare which is why you do not see or hear many of them."

The predominant reason you don’t see horn subs in home environments is because so very few are available and that they’re very big. Oh, and the few that are are typically very expensive. Please name me a couple of commercially available, non-DIY horn subs that not only you but audiophiles at large are actually aware of. Horn subs aren’t disregarded by audiophiles for some speculated flaws of theirs, but because by and large they’re simply not part of the audiophile narrative.

Great bass requires big size, and proper implementation here is automatically assumed. 20Hz honest reproduction from a horn sub necessitates roughly 20 cubic feet of enclosure volume. Sure, that’s a lot, but it is manageable if you set your mind to it. As Arnold (and Nike) would’ve said: Just do it!! ;)

@mahlman This isn't you vs I thing. Whether laptop or tower, there are better servers than general service computer. You don't have to take my word for it, again, do the research. Better yet, try a server engineered for audio only, nothing beats the experience of trial and error.

The experienced diy understands there are many things still to learn and experience. The curious desire experience, not afraid to admit they may not know everything. I listen and learn from those with experience beyond my own. I'm not trying to teach you anything, just telling you what I learned and experienced first hand, all credit goes to experts further along learning curve. All my diy work based on this philosophy.

@phusis  "produce a smooth, effortless and enveloping bass, quite different even from direct radiating designs."

 You bet they do. Hard to convey the impact they make to people who have not heard good horns. One of my favorite sound effects to play as a demo for people is Japanese Fireworks. Just like real life and the sound is so precise and quick and if you want to turn it up there is even a concussive wave that will hit you. And drums and stringed instruments with none of the lag time moving massive cones with large excursion create. Closest to real life as I have ever heard.

@sns  I suppose it is possible. I have people who stop in on occasion to hear the big horns that tell me the same thing. I encourage them to bring that gear they think so highly of with them next time and lets see. No one has brought gear with them but they have come back to listen again. Right now I am not dumping a bunch of cash on things that might work better when peer review plus my ears and curves tell me what I have does work.