Why not horns?

Unsound... That's a neat instrument. Ideal for a steet performer. But it isn't a violin.

If you want violins to sound like trumpets, get horns.
On the other hand for, Dixieland Jazz, a horn speaker is ideal.

Herman... Sounding like trumpets is a quite precise description of what I find undesirable about horns. I think everyone will understand what I am saying, although they might disagree. As is often said on Audiogon, we couldn't care less about specs...it's how it sounds.

Herman... My thoughts are along the lines cited by Apollo66.

Sorry, I can't give you a list of all the horns I have heard. And, since 1958 I never owned one. (It was then that I discovered their performance with horn music Dixieland Jazz). Based on what I did hear along the way I never saw any reason to do further investigation of horns.

Perhaps the new generation of horns are different. However they are too expensive. A technology that requires such cost is inferior.

To cover the full spectrum...
I can't stand horns.
Ported box speakers make good bird houses.
Acoustic suspension speakers are OK.
Line array speakers are good
Planar speakers are the best.

Have I failed to insult anyone out there? :-)

Phase coherency, or lack thereof, is best evaluated by a speaker's ability to reproduce a square wave. The only speaker that I know of that does this well is the original full range Walsh driver.

I hope you horn enthusiasts are enjoying the world cup. Gives you a headache!

"Horn Nazis"? Well, even the Nazis did some things well (roads for example) but that doesn't justify their other deeds. As I have said, horns do Dixieland jazz superbly, but I can't listen to Dixieland all the time.

Herman... Sound radiates as a spherical wavefront (except as interrupted by walls). At the distance of the listener or microphone the spherical wavefront is nearly a flat plane. The microphone samples this wavefront at a point, and a planar speaker sends it on to the listener as a plane, almost the same as the original wavefront. How better to reproduce a planar wavefront than by a planar transducer?

The diaphram of a planar speaker (like a Maggie) uses stratigically placed mass to damp resonances, but these low frequency anomalies are easier to correct than the high frequency resonances of horns.

So horns sound like Bose 901s. I guess that settles it :-)

To trell the truth I like my 901s in my swimming pool room, but they won't get in to my living room.