Steve & Herb talk horns

At the 12:50 mark I think Herb nails it re rate of change (i.e. ppp to fff). Im with Herb on this, I believe we're less sensitive to feq anomalies when judging whether a speaker sounds 'real' vis a vis how quickly we can go from soft to loud instantaneously -- nothing does that better than horns. I also agree with the direction Klipsch is headed, I was floored when I heard the revamped Forte (III). ditto the latest Heresy and R-51 bookshelf.
 
I heard a bunch of new Klipsch speakers at RMAF this year and they were all $3-$8K range and sounded great! Don’t have a clue of the models, but they sounded great.
 
Avantgardes are not you father’s Altec Lansing’s !.......
I think that some of those ugly industrial designs may have helped push the audio speaker designs to other directions. They were not considered audiophile quality in those days but rather commercial grade sound equipment.
I personally lusted after some Altec home theater speakers in those days and thought they were fine sounding speakers. But none of my local dealers were fans and I was pushed away from them. Ended up with Bozak concert grands!
 
For the horn fans, what's the take on electrostats or other panel type speakers. I would never suggest they work in a theatre, but they sound darn quick to me. Very accurate to. The horns I own and have heard, to my memory, are not as clear and clean as a panel. Maybe because every crackle pop and other extraneous sound is amplified by high efficiency speakers.

I do like my horns. They are big and lively. They are also pretty finicky. They play what you feed them. They seem to take more work to get pleasant and fulfilling than other speakers I have owned. I'm not saying others don't have their quirks. I mean others aren't as offensive when not right. They still work. Horns seem to not work till they do, then they work real well.
 
Steve & Herb talk horns

Great exchange, I like their conversation style. Interested to test the Klipsch.

But to be fair, the gentlemen should talk about tweeter differences, as in the referenced Klipsch at least, the low end is implemented through cone drivers. But of course, in the Western Electrics Herb is talking about, all drivers have horn waveguides in front of them, although with cones residing behind them.

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Horn speakers can sound wonderful. I really like Blumenhofer speakers. I tried them, but I couldn't get them to sound good in my living room. I think they need a bigger room.
 
"old" tubes and horns still rule.

so what has the industry been doing over the last 50 years?

right - make hifi smaller, better looking (WAF), cheaper, easier to use and transport etc. - but not sounding better.

we're getting used to bad recordings and bad sound. 90% of the munich high end rooms sound poor.

sad. but that makes us go visit live concerts more often and that's fine.

cheers.
 
Transformers have gotten a lot better. The frequency extension is much greater in a new tube amp compared to vintage.

Completely agree we are use to poor music quality. It takes time to find good recordings. Jazzdoc just released his top picks for 2018 on audionirvana. There is a lot of good music there.

I find horns highlight everything. I had a horrible time with mine till I got the correct cables to lace the drivers to the crossover. I still have further to go. I would like to eliminate the crossover. I can hear it. When you remove a crossover to a voxativ driver and let it go full range, you will know what I mean by hearing it. I want to biamp and use a coupling cap at the input of the amp to set the frequency.

Interestingly I was thinking of starting a new thread about what we hear. My horn are very natural. Instruments and voices sound like they should. However, I was at a store in Portland last weekend. I listened to the Dynaudio. They have a lot more cymbal power. They stand out more, as well as a snare. Question is, is that really accurate. I don't have a horn tweeter. Just a mid/high horn. Maybe I have some frequency drop at the top, or maybe not. Hmmm.
 
Thanks for posting the video Mike.

I grew up in a home with JBL Paragon. My dad kept them for over 30 years. He only purchased a different speaker, a Magnepans 2.6 for a second home, but never replaced the Paragon.

A certain Mike has been working on me to get horns - someday...:exciting:
 
tube-vds said:
"old" tubes and horns still rule.

so what has the industry been doing over the last 50 years?

right - make hifi smaller, better looking (WAF), cheaper, easier to use and transport etc. - but not sounding better.

we're getting used to bad recordings and bad sound. 90% of the munich high end rooms sound poor.

sad. but that makes us go visit live concerts more often and that's fine.

cheers.
Click to expand...

Tubes can sound different from SS but they are by no means better then SS.

Also I disagree with you. Sound has improved a lot. When I listen to vintage systems they sound overly warm and romantic with rolled of highs and lows.
 
I have gone to very few Rock concerts that beat out a properly made recording even of the same exact event. If I could always get those perfect seats it might be different but you know how easy that is. Anyhow at 110 dbs after 15 minutes or so, it doesn’t matter does it!
 
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