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How come Horn + woofer designs are not more popular?

A couple guys on my audio discord really love the JBL synthesis 4367 and feel that all traditional 3 way tower speakers suck because they have poor bass response and are generally shy sounding. What I wonder is how come the majority of speaker makes do floor standers that are 3 way as oppose to the Horn +woofer design of JBL?

Is there any downsides to the horn + woofer design? Can a horn convey microdetail as well as a Be tweeter like say from magic A or S line? They claim 3 way floor standers are just trendy. But is there anything more to it then that?
smodtactical
chrissain
470 posts
 
I lived with a pair of JBL Array 1400s for about a year, they did some great things but were very unforgiving of bad recordings, I overall prefer my Revel 228be. 
jtgofish
490 posts
 
The JBL Studio 590 speakers were fantastic speakers and a real bargain but JBL stopped making them.
audition__audio
1,304 posts
 
Horns dont sound more like real music, they sound like horns. Just like dynamic speakers and planar speakers dont sound more like real music. It is simply a issue of priorities. Each design has its merits and intrinsic difficulties. I doubt that my priorities are such that I will ever own a pair of horns.

I might add that any speaker that isnt revealing of bad recordings I dont think is a good speaker.
richopp
760 posts
 
Horn speakers distort sound.  Some love this--go to a typical 150 db (exaggeration except for YES!)  rock concert and there are a million horns. 

Go to a ball game at the local VFW or where they play summer American Legion ball and listen to the announcer on the horns mounted on the poles around the field.  You will see what I mean!  By the way, Legion summer ball is amazingly good!

Cheers!
audiokinesis
2,714 posts
 

@shadorne wrote:  "Horns tend to have an uneven radiation pattern with frequency."

It depends on the horn.  Many horns (such as tractrix or exponential) tend to have a wide pattern down low and a narrow pattern up high.   Often PA horns have a constant pattern in the horizontal plane but then the pattern narrows aggressively in the vertical as we go up in frequency.  But some horns have very uniform patterns across their passbands.  Radiation pattern control is actually the main reason that I use horns, but they are a specific type:  Constant-directivity, waveguide-style (the latter term signifying that they don't use diffraction or slots as part of their pattern control).   

"[Horns] can be perceived as shouty or unbalanced."

Good waveguide-style horns don't have this problem.  The "shouty" thing is often a characteristic of diffraction horns especially at high SPLs.   Most PA horns are diffraction horns, and most people's primary exposure to horns has been crappy PA systems, so most people think horns are inherently shouty, but that is not at all the case.   Horns that are shouty are ones that have been optimized for things other than sound quality. 

If any of you will be at T.H.E. Show in Long Beach in early June, stop by room 519, especially if you would describe yourself as someone who "hates horns".  We'd like to have a go at shifting your paradigm.

Duke

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