This will be a long post, I apologize for that now, but I have been on a journey that might enlighten you. I became a die hard fan of single ended triodes about 20 years ago when I built one. It uses the 45 tube and puts out 2 watts per channel. It sounds magical but will not power many speakers. I bought a pair of Altec 755a drivers, 106 db/w/m, and mounted them in a pair of baffles, plywood sheets propped up on end and held up by the floor joists in the ceiling of my unfinished basement listening room. These are "full range" drivers, if you think full range is 70hz to 13khz. They did string trios, acoustic folk and solo guitar beautifully. Eight inches will only move so much air however so anything big or dynamic was unsatisfying.
About a year ago, Lukasz Fikus, the man who started Lampizator, came out with a speaker that he will not ship out of the E.U. It is called the Fikus Electric P-17, and it can be powered by low wattage amps. He had published the design for this speaker when he was a blogger about 11 years ago, so I built a pair. Using the same plywood already had, I installed a pair of 15" Altec 515b woofers, the 755a as a midrange and a RAAL ribbon tweeter. The system is a full dipole, open in the back. By this time I had two of these amps, and I bought a third. Using an active crossover, I built a tri-amped single ended system.
This speaker sounded fantastic but imaging was disappointing. Here's where the horns come in; I already owned a pair of Altec 203 two cell, exponential, compression horns. They sounded terrible as tweeters but I pulled out the 755s and put the horns in their place. Except for the ribbon tweeter, this system could have been installed in a small movie theater in the 1960s. The woofer and the horn were designed to go together which is why they sound so good together. With this new arrangement the imaging became very deep, solid and wide. Did I mention deep? The depth of image is uncanny. These horns are large, 31" long, 32" wide and 17" high. The horn mouth is 16" square and there are two of them. The compression driver weighs 22 pounds. They do not sound nasaly, and since they were designed for a 300 seat theater, anything closer than 20' is nearfield. They can play anything at ear splitting volumes and do it on 2 watts per driver. Lastly, I have installed the horn from an Altec 210 bass cabinet on one of the woofers, I'll do the other side when I get a chance. It does not change the tonality, or even the volume, but it does deepen the bass response. I can hear a 20hz tone out of the horned side, while I can't with the other side. The real low end cutoff is 28hz. The midrange horn is advertised to go to 300hz, but it goes lower and I have it crossed at 250hz. I cross to the tweeter at 5500hz. The tweeter goes to 40khz.
Efficiencies: 102db/w/m for bass, 114db/w/m for the horns and 93db/w/m for the ribbons. I currently run an 8wpc single ended transistor amp on the tweeters.
I love the sound from these speakers. Can they disappear? Yes, if I close my eyes. They are so physically imposing it's hard getting past that. Depth wise you would think they are 10 feet deep. Tonally they are fantastic, but I can adjust the levels of each driver individually, and I can change crossover frequencies easily. Plus, the horns and woofers were designed to work together.
So, this is what horns can do. Do all horns sound this good? Of course not. I have heard a couple of the the Avantgardes and was not impressed, although a round horn should sound better. By the way, if you are old enough to have been to the movies before about 1980 you have heard these speakers. Before that time nearly all movie theaters in the U.S. at least, used the Altec Voice of the Theater system.
The only reason I built these speakers however, was to show off my S.E.T.s. If you are using high wattage amplification, horns are unnecessary, but I still tend to prefer efficient speakers. My first choice is a panel, I have a pair of Sound Lab electrostatics. My next choice would be Magnapans. I am not a big fan of any box speaker. They always sound a little stifled for my taste. When I bought the Sound Labs, I owned a pair of B&W DM-7s. The salesman came to my house, left the Sound Labs and took the B&Ws to demo to someone else. After 5 days I knew I did not want the B&Ws back. I have owned the Sound Labs for 35 years. If I had to completely replace the Sound Labs with these horns, I would be just fine with that. I prefer the Sound Labs very slightly although I had to buy a pair of Mark Levinson ML-2 Class A amplifiers (25 watts, mono) to put the Sound Labs back on top as my favorite speaker.
Hope this was helpful.
About a year ago, Lukasz Fikus, the man who started Lampizator, came out with a speaker that he will not ship out of the E.U. It is called the Fikus Electric P-17, and it can be powered by low wattage amps. He had published the design for this speaker when he was a blogger about 11 years ago, so I built a pair. Using the same plywood already had, I installed a pair of 15" Altec 515b woofers, the 755a as a midrange and a RAAL ribbon tweeter. The system is a full dipole, open in the back. By this time I had two of these amps, and I bought a third. Using an active crossover, I built a tri-amped single ended system.
This speaker sounded fantastic but imaging was disappointing. Here's where the horns come in; I already owned a pair of Altec 203 two cell, exponential, compression horns. They sounded terrible as tweeters but I pulled out the 755s and put the horns in their place. Except for the ribbon tweeter, this system could have been installed in a small movie theater in the 1960s. The woofer and the horn were designed to go together which is why they sound so good together. With this new arrangement the imaging became very deep, solid and wide. Did I mention deep? The depth of image is uncanny. These horns are large, 31" long, 32" wide and 17" high. The horn mouth is 16" square and there are two of them. The compression driver weighs 22 pounds. They do not sound nasaly, and since they were designed for a 300 seat theater, anything closer than 20' is nearfield. They can play anything at ear splitting volumes and do it on 2 watts per driver. Lastly, I have installed the horn from an Altec 210 bass cabinet on one of the woofers, I'll do the other side when I get a chance. It does not change the tonality, or even the volume, but it does deepen the bass response. I can hear a 20hz tone out of the horned side, while I can't with the other side. The real low end cutoff is 28hz. The midrange horn is advertised to go to 300hz, but it goes lower and I have it crossed at 250hz. I cross to the tweeter at 5500hz. The tweeter goes to 40khz.
Efficiencies: 102db/w/m for bass, 114db/w/m for the horns and 93db/w/m for the ribbons. I currently run an 8wpc single ended transistor amp on the tweeters.
I love the sound from these speakers. Can they disappear? Yes, if I close my eyes. They are so physically imposing it's hard getting past that. Depth wise you would think they are 10 feet deep. Tonally they are fantastic, but I can adjust the levels of each driver individually, and I can change crossover frequencies easily. Plus, the horns and woofers were designed to work together.
So, this is what horns can do. Do all horns sound this good? Of course not. I have heard a couple of the the Avantgardes and was not impressed, although a round horn should sound better. By the way, if you are old enough to have been to the movies before about 1980 you have heard these speakers. Before that time nearly all movie theaters in the U.S. at least, used the Altec Voice of the Theater system.
The only reason I built these speakers however, was to show off my S.E.T.s. If you are using high wattage amplification, horns are unnecessary, but I still tend to prefer efficient speakers. My first choice is a panel, I have a pair of Sound Lab electrostatics. My next choice would be Magnapans. I am not a big fan of any box speaker. They always sound a little stifled for my taste. When I bought the Sound Labs, I owned a pair of B&W DM-7s. The salesman came to my house, left the Sound Labs and took the B&Ws to demo to someone else. After 5 days I knew I did not want the B&Ws back. I have owned the Sound Labs for 35 years. If I had to completely replace the Sound Labs with these horns, I would be just fine with that. I prefer the Sound Labs very slightly although I had to buy a pair of Mark Levinson ML-2 Class A amplifiers (25 watts, mono) to put the Sound Labs back on top as my favorite speaker.
Hope this was helpful.