opinions on modern horn speakers

I'm by no means an expert on horns but recently had the oppotunity to spend some quality time with the AG Solos at their Manhattan dealership. BTW, the owner, Bob, is a super guy and a total pleasure to deal with.

The Solos are an extermely dynamic and detailed speaker and produce a soundstage which is quite impressive given the not huge size of the speaker. The horn tweeter and woofer implentation was excellent which is to say seamless, in my view. With the Burmester #2 CD, the Solos were impressive wether it be with Steve Ray Vaughan's guitar or Radka Tareff's gorgeous voice on "The moon is a harsh mistress." It would not be an exaggeration to say that this was one of those speaker auditions where I felt totally taken by the music without any care of the equipment used.

The downside is that these speakers can totally destroy anything less than a high quality recording. The Eagles "Hell frezes Over" redbook is considered to be a quality recording and I have always believed this. On the Solos, the recordings digititis came through loud and clear. After two tracks, we had to switch to the Burmester which was followed with DCC golds.

It would be interesting to someday see a passive version of the Solo at a price point which would be much easier on the old wallet.:)

Jet

Jet, the beauty of Solo is in its active integration imo.

Duke ,I perfer the oris horn to the avantgarde duo or trio ,Beside the price diferance my DIY oris horns integrate way better than a trio and have less resonance problems .Avantgarde uses such weak steal in there frames the horns move arround quite a bit. Also the drivers are easly localizable .My dual oris 150 trihorn has time alined horns and bass towers. All drivers are as close to the acustic center as posible .They sound like a large electrostatic with huge dynamics and real musicality .When I changed over to horns I didnt want to lose what I like about planels.Theres a pic of my prototype trihorn on the BD designs web site show room first pic .Thxs for your reply

Jposs, my good friend owns rethems the first model forgot the model, has a 8in lowther pm3 think? nice speaker ,Full range drivers are a good place to start .But full range is not really true. You will have reduced highs and bass but what a glorious midrange .I have owned and build single driver speakers ,now most I use super tweeters with .And dual subs .I think on first listen this is why so many dis fullrange drivers .But they dont know what there missing out on .Musicality.Thxs for the reply

Jet, the reason why the solos sound bad on poor recordings is the solid state amplifiers used .Heard them .I have also experamented with solid state on sensitive speakers .Only works good for low frequincys .Most solid state is grainy and unforgiving also the pure soul of the music gets lost .Sensitve speakers and quality SET amps have a certain majic to them that you can not really experance unless you try it in your home .Home auditions are where you can really get the feel for the gear .Thxs for your reply