Horns - They're not more popular because they sound terrible, the reason is that simple.
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?
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?
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- 77 posts total
There's a charm to a good horn. Like driving a vintage car. Sure performance isn't the same as a sports car today, but there's something sweet about it. Keep in mind, good sound is ALL subjective. Even concert halls sound different. Instruments sound different. I love horns and I love non-horns.. Depends on my mood. |
Once you have listened to a properly designed Horn with a State of the art compression driver behind it - there is no way you can listen to a 1"dome tweeter again. :-) https://pbnaudio.com/m25-loudspeaker/ Good Listening Peter |
BIGKIDZ "I built a few custom horn speakers and used Sony Alnico woofers (only 2 pair in the USA). I bi-amped them with custom tube mono-block amps that I built (1.5 watts) to drive the horns. They sounded amazing but they wee large so no WAF. I never could get the bass to keep up with the horns though. My buddy has Klipsch and why the mids are excellent, the bass always lags behind. Do not know his model but he has had them modified." You should take a listen to a horn with a powered bass. I am not sure who else does this, but Rethm has powered bass that is designed to keep up with horns and the result is audio heaven (IMO). So if you get the itch for a horn speaker again, there are options that may satisfy your bass issue, and the wife |
My Klipsch Heresy IIIs with powered subs (2) have the benefit of accurate and controllable bass (independent of the Heresy IIIs anyway), and having not tried a horn loaded home speaker in many years (been using various horn loaded PA speakers for pro live mixing work for many decades), I was surprised at both how NOT "shouty" and actually linear these speakers sound...they will immediately show weaknesses in the signal chain so best (obviously) when used with good gear behind them, so get that right and these things sound beautiful. |
- 77 posts total