2. tech-talk
  3. 173477-119255

How much of High End Audio is Horn Speakers?

An audio friend of mine had been discussing my future speaker purchase. We discussed, Harbeth, Devore, Spendor, Audio Note and other more traditional speaker brands. A week or two later he called an asked me what speakers I had purchased. When I told him Klipsch, there was a little silence on the other end of the line. Our call probably ended a little sooner then usual. I could tell he was disappointed in my purchase. Is it the Klipsch name that illicits this type of response or is it Horn speakers in general? After thinking about some of the other Audiophiles in town, a good deal of them are on the low power high efficiency speaker route and more than a few I know are using Horns. Does anyone know how the high end market share is divided? Is there a stigma associated with certain lower cost Horn speakers? Or is this just Klipsch? I now own a pair of Klipsch Cornwalls and am enjoying the journey associated with tweaking the sound to my taste. Is there an unwritten rule that friends don’t let friends buy Klipsch?

128x128coachpoconnor

Showing 1 response by hilde45

hilde45's avatar
hilde45
4,784 posts
 

Interesting topic, not unrelated to other recent threads on high sensitivity speakers. For me, the question comes down not only to how to pair these with various kinds of amps, nor the tonality, but the dimensionality of the sound. What is the imaging like in horns vs. planars vs. domes? How does the room feel?

In other words, in my understanding -- corrections appreciated -- it is possible to get tonality and pacing pretty close to perfect with the right match between amplifier and speaker, but that will still leave wide open the way the soundstage is presented by the speakers. And, here there is no "best," either, but the choice of which genre of soundstage become the decisive choice point.

More to discover