opinions on modern horn speakers

Hi Gang! Very Intriguing thread! We all know that there is no such thing as a perfect speaker!The better horns can indeed create a very credible illusion to live sound as well as any other design[and sometimes even better].The better planars and e-stats can certainly ceate their own magic as well.There are some fabulous moving coil speakers that can also create a reasonable facsimile of the real thing.I personally, have never really been much of a fan of the traditional horn based speakers from yesteryear... as I found them to be rather forward, generally hollow, honky and somewhat coloured across their frequency response.I have always been an Electrostic fan. Before you horny speaker fans start flaming me! Please read on. I should Qualify a few thing first.In my college years [early 70's]; I owned and operated a medium sized Disc Jockey company with 10 systems out in the field.I used mainly Klipsch Lascala's,Jbl 300's, and Altec Lansing A-5's and A-7's and rented countless others. That said:of all of the different speaker types out there:the poor horn loaded designs are probably the most maliciously maligned speaker by the so called "high end" movement than any other design type.The nature of the beast is very very difficult to implement in a LARGE room let alone a typical sound room in your home.Tuning them to a room to get them to sound tonally coherent is a feat in itself! Making them disappear like a good line source monitor or planar, is a major feat to be sure and an "art" all to itself! HOWEVER: IF one can accomplish this elusive goal.....It truly is "magic" with a capitol M and then some. Yeah... Give me an M....give an A.... give me a G....give me an I....give me a C...what's that spell.......M A G I C! I know, I sound like a damned cheerleader cheering on loaded horns...Your damn right.. I am! Pushing the envelope of that antiquated speaker design with modern day technology can only be a good thing and will inevitably yield some temendous advances in the reproduction of the "recorded arts" in our homes.While I have heard only few of the modern horn loaded designs mentioned above.... I have heard some louther based designs and the latest advantegarde designs, Set up with a good source,Quality electronics,and properly tuned to the room.....Yes, they can certainly make magic indeed.And yes.. I can easily hear the discontinuity of the bass dynamics relative to the speed of the horns.As I mentioned earlier "no speaker" is perfect and never will be.However, they do a so many things so right,Many things that a lot of the other high end pretenders can only hint at!Can you imagine if one could have the bottom octave speed and midbass resolution of the soundlab a-1 and add the dynamics of the advantgarde system.How good would that be!We need to encourage these designers to push the design even further.I have been an electrostatic speaker fan and user most of my adult life. From Quad 57's,stacked 57's,Dayton Wright xg-10s, Acoustat 2+2's with servo driven OTL amps to soundlab A-1's.Damn...I even stacked 2 pair of Dayton Wrights XG-10's!To this very day,they produced the finest bottom octave yours truly has ever heard,ever! A year ago I sold my beloved A-1's for horns.....YES...Horns...Yikes!Am I crazy or what![my lovely wife thinks I'm certified] no no.. not your traditional honkers of my DJ days and no... not advantgarde's either. I had to hear these 350lb monster Tannoy Westminsters in my studio. Nooooo, I did not buy them because they sounded better than the Soundlabs, they do not.[ the soundlab A-1 is the finest all around speaker I have ever heard bar none!]However...My cavernous room in my studio is almost too big for the soundlabs[36ft x 27ft with 16ft ceilings] and room lends itself to better "overall" sound with the Tannoys.To be candid...the Westminster is the closest thing to the sound of a good e-stat that I have ever heard period.And that includes the advantgarde's.Coloured,forward,honky. "NOT" There isn't even a hint of those flaws whatsoever.Horns don't image you say.... these monsters simply disappear completely, without a single note or notch of frequency sticking to the cabinet.Totally holographic from anywhere in the room.Sit down,stand up,lie down,walk around... it does not matter... as the tonal balance never changes. No other speaker system could do that in that room,not even the great soundlabs with the big Atma-spere 2.2 mk2's driving them! With any good live recording,the performers and the instruments are real life size in scale.Percussive instruments float as in real life.They can simulate the full scale dynamics of a concert grand piano[my favorite instrument] in all its glory from the bottom register to the top like no other speaker I have ever heard. They give me goosebumps down the back of my neck almost every time I play a well recorded piano!The Dynamic Range is one area where almost all of the bigger horn loaded speakers really shine.The tannoy's are downright scary at times and if I am not paying attention to the gain of certain recordings, Bill Evans has come real close to breaking my windows.I have always loved electrostatics for their uncanny ability to retrieve fine micro detail and nuance at very low volume levels without masking or compressing any of the dynamics .In my books.. this has always been a fundamental flaw in too many speakers. This is another area where the Westminsters[and most loaded horns] are extrodinary. Never even a hint of compression regardless of the volume. That said: If the tone is at all out of skew, this big advantage can really be a real serious liability.Perhaps... one of the reasons why horns got that proverbial honk handle.A few months ago we hauled in an old pair of 70's vintage Klipsch Lascalas....YUP...sounded broken... honkey, somewhat bright and ragged,whompy bass,very forward with a giant hole in the middle and no sound stage whatsover.Shoved them around for a while,angled them in to the listening seats[much better], we sat down to listen to Ry Cooder...Jazz [LP]... For those familiar the first song on side one.Well old Big Bad Bill never ever did turn into Sweet William Now... because we yanked the Lascalas long before we got to the chorus line.Are the Westminsters perfect? Nope! While it doesn't have the bass integration problem of the Advantgarde,I much prefer the mid/lower bass resolution of the big Soundlab .Geez gang....Maybe I should try using a big Krell......Ya think?.... "NOT" ....Cheers Gang.