How much of High End Audio is Horn Speakers?

no intentions of ever being connected in my system ever again. It’s true that you may encounter some issues with electrostats

 

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The ~~~TRUTH~~ of the matter of which you speak,, is that horns have their issues and ESL/Stats also have their very own signature issues. Lets all be frank and truthful for a moment. vs FR, I find has the least issues. (actually in my set up and requirements, perfect as perfect can be = zero issues, all ++++’s, no negatives)

Here i can make this easy

Horns /Issues

ESL/Stats/Issues

Full Range /issues?? where, how, in what way.

the fact that so many that own them are so quick to start changing them trying to trying to figure out exact what is the problem ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ There are horns,, and then there are ~~THe Royal Horn Systems~~~~ 2 types, The 1st type are not mega expensive,, but as you say,, after some time start to wear a bit thin,, fatigue sets in,,, Then we have ~~The Royal Horn Systems~~~ Mega bucks, requires Buchingham palace suze listening rooms and many other issues. Which folks hang on to with their mega priced SET amps.

@mozartfan mozartfan, I disagree with your statement that:

"we have to define ’horn’. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ easy Avant Garde"

I have owned Avantgarde Duos since around 2007, like them very much, have done a few things to improve them and I don't agree that they are a conservative definition of a horn in many respects- no compression drivers, horn mouths, yes, and hybrid woofers with a plate amp bass.

Believe me, nothing said here detracts from what these are, or how much I enjoy them- I don't think it is accurate to say they define what a horn speaker is-- which, to me, would include horn loaded woofers and upper bass. Alas, that is a more involved topic. 

noticed that many people will follow the majority of what is trending, meaning if horns are the new craze, they all will be into it and then the next idea pops up. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ One defining element about the USA consumer/aka american culture in general, is whats popular, in the spot light, famous, most talked about, advertized. Then everyone just follows the pack. ConsumerIsm, commercialism. back in the 60's/70's, we all just followed what everyone else was doing. A few smart folks thought through things a bit more and made wiser purchase decisions. I believe the asian audiophiles may have had a short stint w xover type speakers,, but dumped them for FR, and now thats pretty much their speakers by choice/ based on experience. Remember it was in Japan that the FR tradition was BARELY just on its last breath,, kept alive with some high tech genius in Japan designing the legendary Coral Beta8. Had it not been for this lone genius tech in FR speaker design,,, not sure we would be where we are at in the newest FR speakers. Lowthers had issues. Fostex deserves honorable mention... But really its the tech behind the Coral Beta 8 that is the root and branch to the new flowering in FR technology.

I have owned Avantgarde Duos since around 2007, like them very much, have done a few things to improve them and I don’t agree that they are a conservative definition of a horn in many respects- no compression drivers, horn mouths, yes, and hybrid woofers with a plate amp bass. Believe me, nothing said here detracts from what these are, or how much I enjoy them- I don’t think it is accurate to say they define what a horn speaker is-- which, to me, would include horn loaded woofers and upper bass. Alas, that is a more involved topic.

 

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So to be clear, AG’s do not have compression drivers??? I have no idea whats the components ina AG Duo or any of their models. All I know is AG’s have a very high reputation of delivering beautiful horn style music,,, but again, these big horns would not work in my requirements. Its too much of a **good thing** lets say. I listen very near field,,, a the moment,,, when I move in 2 yrs ,,well then sure I will have a hopefully better listening room. But that is one issue with the AG;’s, you need a moderate size room, nothing less than say 15 wide X20 deep, best with a 15 ft ceiling. My rm is short in all 3 dimensions. Horns, REAL horns I’m refering to, need breathing space. As i state above Horns have their issues. Whereas FR can fit in any size room, 8x8x8 to 20x20x20 and sound beautiful. FR Single driver(System, I run dual FR, a single FR would not work for me) have the least amount of issues vs any/all other speaker designs. In my book **least issues * = the superior design.