Calling all Horn lovers

Let's first acknowledge that it's hard to generalize about the sound of speaker types. There is a wide variety of horn speakers just like there is a wide variety of cone speakers and electrostats. That out of the way, the single most compelling quality of horns, done right, is dynamics. As a class, horn speakers have more sudden starts and stops to music than do cones or electrostats. This natural ebb and flow of dynamics can allow horns to sound more real and more lifelike than other types.

The difficulty is achieving this unique dynamic ability without giving up some other qualities that cone speakers seem to achieve without difficulty. For example, some people, myself included, are very sensitive to horn colorations like a "shout" or glare. Nearly all direct radiation horns seem to suffer from this to one degree or another. In addition, it can be difficult to mate a horn to other types of drivers. Achieving a smooth, coherent blend of drivers is more difficult when one of the drivers is a horn.

I am fortunate to have a set of speakers that thread the needle between capturing horn dynamics without sounding like a horn. My speakers are a 2-way inspired by the Western Electric 753 monitor speakers. They use a horn from 1200 Hz on up and a 15" dynamic woofer in a bass reflex cabinet. The horn is fairly compact but it is unusual by not having direct radiation. The horn is actually bent into a 90 degree right angle; the horn exits on the front panel just above the woofer but the compression driver inside is pointing upwards. I don't know how much the shape of the horn accounts for the resulting sound quality, but I do know that this arrangement does not have the dreaded horn "shout" or any other colorations that to my ears identify it as a horn. In fact, the horn blends so well with the 15" paper cone woofer that it sounds more coherent than any other all-dynamic multi-way speaker I have used. The tradeoff is that my speaker does not have quite the most dynamics or the largest soundstage of some other horns. For example, I heard a 3-way consisting of a Western Electric 22 horn with 555 driver, a 15" woofer similar to mine in a large sealed cabinet, and a Jensen 302 horn tweeter on top. The dynamics on this speaker were noticeably more dramatic than on mine, and it was also more detailed and more spacious. All very good things, but....the WE setup was not as coherent as mine in any of the 3 aspects of coherency that are important to me--- tonal balance, dynamics and soundstaging. The 3 drivers in the WE speaker all sounded different from one another, and the resulting sound while uniquely impressive in many respects was actually less satisfying overall than my own speakers. So it all comes down to finding the right compromise for a given listener.

Larryi,

Was the 15a system at DejaVu or a private home? I have read about the 15a on the long thread on Lencoheaven, and it seems everyone agrees it is truly magical.

Kiddman,

As the author of the "garage pontification" you object to, I suppose I should respond. One of the drawbacks of this type of forum is that we don't really know each other. Sure, we may get some feel for how people think through their written posts, but we don't really know much about each other's background or abilities. I think that if you knew more about me and the many years that I have spent designing and building speakers and tube electronics, you might have used different language, but perhaps not. It does appear that you have greater faith in "good" engineering than I. In my experience, good engineering is a necessary starting point but what distinguishes a good from a great sounding component is the musical sensitivity of its designer. That is what I call the "art" in design.

Now I need to get back to my garage.

I agree completely with Larryi's comments. Although my experience with horns is not as extensive as his, what I have heard matches his descriptions to a T. In particular, efforts to damp the sides of a horn to make them less resonant simply create other problems. Part of the art behind a successful horn is incorporating its colorations in a way that is consonant with the music rather than at odds with it.

I also noted Larry's observation that "some of the more musically balanced and least colored systems...were also on the dynamically tamer side of the horn family." That is consistent with my earlier description of my 2-way speaker compared to the much more ambitious Western Electric 3-way. Perhaps because my speaker does not aim as high, its failings are less bothersome.

I continue to think that bent horns are somehow less prone to a shouting coloration than horns where the driver can radiate directly through the horn. For example, Larry's WE 12025 horn has a 90 degree right angle bend as does my Altec 32 horn, and they are both very smooth sounding.

Lastly, I agree with some of the other posts above that certain cone speakers are capable of dynamics exceeding the norm. Over the years, I've found that speakers that are run fullrange, i.e. without any electrical rolloffs, can sound more dynamic and more lifelike. For example, some vintage 2-ways like the Fulton FMI-80 and Dyna A-25 used an 8" cone woofer without any crossover. The woofer had a natural rolloff in the highs that allowed it to blend nicely with the tweeter. The only crossover component was a capacitor on the tweeter. Of course, the Alnico magnets may have helped as well.

I've heard the Volti Vittoras at 4 shows---2011 Capital Audio Fest, 2011 RMAF, and 2012 and 2013 Capital Audio Fest. I like the Vittoras a lot, so much that I seriously considered buying them after my first exposure to them at the 2011 CAF. They combine very impressive dynamics and pretty good detail with an overall coherency that is pretty unusual in a 3-way speaker.

The main thing I did not like so much was the lack of adequate low frequency weight when they were run without a sub. I realize Art Dudley says they sounded just fine without a sub so perhaps a different room might be a better match, but what I heard in the small hotel rooms was not full range until the sub was switched in. Unfortunately, the Vittora was not as coherent when run with the sub. I have had enough experience with subs to know that I would end up playing them without the subs and for my tastes they did not go deep enough. I also noticed a trace of "pro sound" coloration in the Vittoras but I can't say if that may have been due to something else in the system.

For whatever it's worth, I didn't feel the Vittoras sounded quite as good in the other shows as they did in my first exposure to them at the 2011 CAF and RMAF. I believe the designer Greg Roberts said he made a number of changes to the Vittoras during this timespan and he considered them improvements, but I enjoyed the sound in 2011 more than the other occasions.

I also have to say that I haven't warmed up to Greg's other models. The Vittora is the one with the magic.