Big speakers, are they really the best way to get great sound?

daveyf OP

I heard your system at the last THE show; let’s just say that it might behove you at the next show you attend to actually go around the various rooms and have a listen to what the other exhibitors are doing.

I made some mistakes with my audio system at last Orange County show. I am not happy with that sound. My system is much improved after The SHOW 2023. Also, I didn't use the sub-woofer then.

I look around almost other rooms to hear any thing changed at the show every year. 

Thank you very much for your interest and watching me!   Alex/WT

@mijostyn wrote:

Watched the movie Oppenheimer last night. Highly recommended. 

Received the 3-disc 4K UHD last week on release day, and it's an excellent movie indeed while also sporting fantastic technical merits - both aurally and visually.

@lemonhaze wrote:

I firmly believe if more people heard speakers of this ilk with their effortless dynamics and convincing realism some would find a way to incorporate them into a domestic setting.

I'm not so sure about that. Many if not most audiophiles have been "conditioned" to a segment of speakers that are - by and large - direct radiating, inefficient and relatively small. Suddenly being confronted with very large, probably industrial and form-follows-function looking behemoths of horns/horn hybrid variants will likely go sideways of the known narrative to many an audiophile, and by the mere looks and anticipation of it will spell sonic calamity to them. "effortless dynamics and convincing realism" stands the chance of being regarded as a character, something exaggerated or just another flavor, not traits. 

@mihorn wrote:

One of serious limitation for big horn speakers (compression driver) is the dirty and rough sound. Only thing it does well is hard hitting sound such as a drum. I don't want to listen C Rock all the time.  

A ridiculous, ignorant statement. If anything it's all the more clear where you're coming from..

@phusis 

There seems to be a genital competition here. It has been my experience that most persons, lacking exposure, really have no idea. They like Hollandaise sauce but have never had real homemade Hollandaise. The trick is to leave the butter out overnight. The only horns most people have ever heard were something like Altec Voice of the Theaters which, to be polite, were the aural equivalent of chewing on cardboard. The best horn systems are expensive and very large, difficult to deal with. They are not common so most have ZERO experience. You have also made that leap to digital signal processing which has developed its own peculiar  mythology based on poor conceptualization. Speakers and rooms not being perfect, it is the only path to the highest performance unless you are extremely lucky. I have seen this once in my lifetime, the system of a high school teacher. This was in 1978 or so. The speakers were Pyramid Metronomes with Threshold Electronics thrown haphazardly into the livingroom of a small apartment in Miami Florida. This was the very first time I heard a system image correctly. What a wonderful system. 

mihorn    One of serious limitation for big horn speakers (compression driver) is the dirty and rough sound. Only thing it does well is hard hitting sound such as a drum. I don't want to listen C Rock all the time.  

 phusis   A ridiculous, ignorant statement. If anything it's all the more clear where you're coming from.

May be you could live record and post a couple of below (or similar) music. I need to hear your speakers more to see I am wrong.

Schbert - Fantasie C Dur, Allegretto, 

Vivaldi - Winter (Four season) 

Mozart: Violin Concerto No. 3 - Hilary Hahn,

Lidia Borda - Cuando silba el viento

Stars Fell On Alabama - Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong

Edith Piaf - Non, je ne regrette rien

@mijostyn wrote:

There seems to be a genital competition here. It has been my experience that most persons, lacking exposure, really have no idea. They like Hollandaise sauce but have never had real homemade Hollandaise. The trick is to leave the butter out overnight. The only horns most people have ever heard were something like Altec Voice of the Theaters which, to be polite, were the aural equivalent of chewing on cardboard.

I believe in this case we have to acknowledge that quite a few horn-loaded speakers, even at more moderate price levels, avoid sounding "dirty and rough" per se (not to say they sound their best). It’s simply missing the target making such a general statement (i.e.: the "dirty and rough" remark), and pointing that out - from my chair - doesn’t equate into a swinging d*ck mentality.

The best horn systems are expensive and very large, difficult to deal with. They are not common so most have ZERO experience. You have also made that leap to digital signal processing which has developed its own peculiar mythology based on poor conceptualization.

The thing with horns and for them to work their best is large size, design and implementation, and usually that’s not all of which the domestic varieties will accommodate easily. Myself I’d much rather have big pro segment horns than smaller, expensive "hifi" dittos; what the latter seeks to achieve with "cultivation," fancy finishing and higher prices, typically passively, is hampered by a physically compromised outset that can’t be compensated for, while failing to take advantage of a DSP approach actively - what you touch upon yourself.

Speakers and rooms not being perfect, it is the only path to the highest performance unless you are extremely lucky. I have seen this once in my lifetime, the system of a high school teacher. This was in 1978 or so. The speakers were Pyramid Metronomes with Threshold Electronics thrown haphazardly into the livingroom of a small apartment in Miami Florida. This was the very first time I heard a system image correctly. What a wonderful system.

Indeed, few really nails it.