Attention Horn Owners

@sns wrote:

SET and horn lovers have to admit this presentation may not be for everyone. Generally speaking, this is a performers in room presentation, very immediate, up front, sort of like first few rows at concert. [...]

Generally, yes, but as you may imply it's not necessarily a trademark of horns to sound this way. I've found a range of in particular smaller horns covering the midrange on up to be relatively beamy or "hot" in their presentation, and most who listen to horns are treated to smaller variants of horns. Horn material characteristics also play a part here, the amps used, the horn profile, etc. Big, larger exit midrange horns that also act like horns and control directivity in their lower spectrum down to 500Hz or lower, depending on mentioned factors, sound less like horns and more like large panel speakers - with an added sense of physicality. They're present sounding, but from the plane of the horn front and back, not in front of it. Few however would consider horns that large for their home environment (and the midrange horn is the least of it compared compared to non-truncated horns from the upper bass on down), which is a shame. Seeing a 3' deep diffraction horn of pro origins with a mouth area of 2' x 3' may give most the association of it being terribly up front sounding, but it can be anything but. 

From your profile I see you're no stranger to horns (lovely setup, btw.). Does your own setup of modded Khorns + tube amps fall into the category of horn sound you describe?

I completely agree with sns. I MODIFIED MY KLIPSCHORNS IN 2018 with the complete Volti Audio package, including the Crites 15 inch wolfers. WOW! The difference is to a different level! I will NOT go go back!  

Easiest tweak for taming the treble in my Cornwall 4’s - applying 3/4 inch diameter punches of black Gorilla Tape to the midrange horns. The black makes them disappear atop the plastic of the horn, and experimentation with quantity and placement is infinite. Hole punch required. On my mid horns 4 circlets - one for each horn quadrant - solved everything.

Having heard them, I wonder just how close they are sound wise to the Lucera or Rivals. Greg will say come on down and have a listen! lol. Great guy. I liked the modified Klipsch a lot. 

With the modded Khorns hard pinned info really extends into room, but at the same time I have a wonderfully deep center sound stage which can also extend out into room. I've had narrow baffle box loudspeakers in the past which made speaker disappear, with the large Khorns this really not possible. One of the great benefits of my mods is that I've been able to achieve much better time alignment of drivers. With the free standing mid horn and tweeter I can set tweeter baffle back from front face of speaker, result is high freq much more in balance with mids, when Khorns were stock sound stage was much more in your face and hot. I can also toe in or out both mid driver and tweeter without disturbing the corner placement/seal which is required for the folded horn to perform best.

No doubt horn material matters greatly, far more natural sounding vs. plastic or the metal mid my Khorns originally had. Shape of horn also matters in that it directs the sound, tractrix far superior to exponential. 

Finally, in order to achieve a more refined or natural sound quality from horns a quality crossover is required, using quality caps, inductors, resistors if used and wire can go a long way in achieving this. 

As for amps, pre's, I think SET is great match for most high efficiency horns although push pulls can be very nice as well. SET may be more immediate/up front but the lovely 300B with no negative feedback and it's even order harmonic distortion is sublime.