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How much of High End Audio is Horn Speakers?

An audio friend of mine had been discussing my future speaker purchase. We discussed, Harbeth, Devore, Spendor, Audio Note and other more traditional speaker brands. A week or two later he called an asked me what speakers I had purchased. When I told him Klipsch, there was a little silence on the other end of the line. Our call probably ended a little sooner then usual. I could tell he was disappointed in my purchase. Is it the Klipsch name that illicits this type of response or is it Horn speakers in general? After thinking about some of the other Audiophiles in town, a good deal of them are on the low power high efficiency speaker route and more than a few I know are using Horns. Does anyone know how the high end market share is divided? Is there a stigma associated with certain lower cost Horn speakers? Or is this just Klipsch? I now own a pair of Klipsch Cornwalls and am enjoying the journey associated with tweaking the sound to my taste. Is there an unwritten rule that friends don’t let friends buy Klipsch?

128x128coachpoconnor
roxy54's avatar
roxy54
8,048 posts
 

Wrong as usual mozartfan. I am using large horn speakers in a smaller 11x13 room with no problems.

larryi
4,090 posts
 

Well, if you never heard such a setup, you cannot comment based on experience.  As I write this I am sitting 8 ft from a horn setup in a most sized room.  I have heard few systems I like more than what I have (those too were horn systems), and I’ve heard quite a number of single driver full-range systems and multi-way systems with full-range drivers.  I might be persuaded to trade in my horn system for a two-way system utilizing a Jensen M10 fieldcoil full-range driver and a Western Electric 597 fieldcoil tweeter, but then again, maybe not.  At a much lower price point, I could live with a single-driver Charney Audio speaker (with the AER driver).  In other words, there is more than one approach to design that sounds good and there is no need to insist there is only one way, much less one particular set of components, that sounds good.

oldhvymec
5,101 posts
 

Small room filled with stuff, typical Japanese audiophiler, Horns are 1/2 of one of 2 maybe 3 rooms. I've seen a few that way. BIG Tannoys in custom hand made hardwood cabinets.. I love it.. Makes sense to me.. I really like Imperials. too.

I wish I had a 20 acre speaker Museum. Makes even MORE good sense come to think of it.. :-) Second as a solar farm. Man oh man!! :-)

Regards

mozartfan
2,143 posts
 

single-driver

 

 

Note most big high end horn SYSTEMS have more than a single driver.

This dual thingy worked out really **splendid* to use a old english slang. In spite of the Society of FR Entheusiasts who all voted to give me the boot out of THEIR Club over at DIY, I broke THEIR rules ,,dual FR are not allowed + cabinets MUST be built by EXACT specs , tests, graphs, comp program models, Dindt learn a d**n thing over there. Just a bunch of babble. I can’t live with a single FR, not enough zing factor. My 2nd tweeter arrives tomorrow. Horns might make a deeper sound, larger than life soundstage, but these duo’s are working out OK. Worlds only FR Duo’s. haha

wolf_garcia
6,723 posts
 

Friends don't let friends listen to self-important snarky posts.

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