How come Horn + woofer designs are not more popular?

@mijostyn --

Phusis, all that is nice but relative to what? We are not trying to blow up the Empire State Building.

I believe you missed my point. It’s not about loudness per se, but for loud to be effortlessly loud when needed, emulating to a certain degree a live performance here, and for the overall listening experience at levels relatively "normal" to gain from sufficient headroom as well; headroom defined as a requirement not only necessary, but "sufficient" re-defined as that which raises the bar to an at least ~15dB headroom requirement - not easily attainable when you need, say, 105dB’s peak with low to moderately sensitive speakers. This level of headroom may seem crazy to many, unnecessary indeed, and plant associations relating to structurally unsound, ludicrous-level (nice Tesla-coined term) playback that you’re clearly getting at, but I hope you know by now what I’m trying to say.

If you like pea watt amplifiers then you need all the efficiency you can get but in real life you can get all the volume and dynamics you need with dynamic drivers and good powerful amps.

You could certainly get along much more easily or fittingly with "pea watt" (2-5 watts, I take it) amps such as SET’s with very high sensitivity speakers, a rather obvious pairing, but going by my own usage I’m not necessarily an advocate of such with a 30 watts pure Class-A solid state amp for 105dB sensitivity main speakers. Very low powered amps do have their merits for sure. I can tell you this though: I’d much rather have 105dB sensitivity speakers with a real-life 30 watts Class-A amp than an 85dB ditto paired to a 3 kilowatts amp..

I am a linear array ESL fan and I guarantee you will never get as realistic a presentation out of a horn system all that rubbish aside.

"Fan" being the operative word. Granted, I just like horns.

That is why Howard Johnson made 28 flavors. But, too bad we could not hear each other's systems.

Hi folks I supplied some long term user information regarding horns. What about some others, not just opinions - ?

The Audiokinesis Jazz Modules were are good example of a well done two way horn. I owned one for several years before going over to ESLs. Given the chance I'd own them again but they are no longer made due to the TAD 1102 drivers being unobtanium. I was just in Long Beach for the audio show and Duke displayed his new Gina satellite speakers (using custom Emminence drivers made for him) which were demoed with his Swarm. A very nice set up using the round wave guide the Jazz Modules featured in a two way stand mount design.

Interesting, Clio09. I feel lucky to own a pair of Audiokinesis Dream Makers, that probably sound even better than the Jazz Modules (have not compared). My respect for them, and for Duke's philosophy and design, has grown over the years.

I think a main reason why (good) horn speakers are not more popular is that most people have not heard them. I mean not heard them over a longer period of time, with good tube amps. When I switched from solid state to tube (OTL), at first it sounded dull, blurred, anemic. It took time to get used to the new sound. Most people haven't had that chance.