@daveyf wrote:
Hearing a system with large horn speakers like the Bionor’s is certainly different than what one typically hears from most (all?) modern systems. But this sound is very much what one hears from the typical large film/theater system from back in the day. Like you said, it is a big wave of sound, but how realistic is that sound??
Counter question: how realistic is the sound of your typical, low efficiency direct radiating speakers of today? To my ears they sure have a sound (some would no doubt say "audiophile" sound), but realistic? No, for that they lack dynamics, ease, scale, solidity, presence and quite often a sense of coherence. The small size of modern low eff. speakers in particular gives away that what one is hearing is a reproduction.
While I haven’t heard the Bionor’s it’s worth noticing that poster @whart’s impression of them came from a large listening room, and this is essential for getting the fuller palette of traits from horn speakers that large. Also, pay attention to his descriptions of their sound: "... it was far different than the modern forensic sound, simply a big wave of sound, coherent, seamless and balanced from bottom to top, and called no attention to the machinery of reproduction." From my chair that’s a description at least of a sound that is far closer to realism than most anything I hear of conventional, high-end hi-fi.
IMO, the sound of large speakers in a disco or of large horn based speakers ( JBL’s, Cerwin’s etc), is similar. Initially impressive as to dynamics, but IMO ...severely lacking in so many ways that I would not say that this type of home reproduction is something to be sought after. YMMV and clearly one’s personal taste.
Sorry, but that’s a gross simplification and just not true. Horn-based speakers from the pro sector span a lot of varieties and qualities intended for a vast range of different applications. Cerwin Vega pro speakers generally are not my idea of suitable speaker items for a home milieu if the "subtler" qualities are sought after. JBL actually have several models, also and perhaps not least dating from years back, that can sound very good in a home environment, and there are many others (and equally good or even better alternatives) like Electro-Voice (older models, incl. cinema speakers), TAD, Vitavox, KV2, Pioneer, EAW, Stage Accompany (which I own myself), Meyer Sound and others. These can all sound truly great in a home environment, but it’s all about the implementation and integration from a good and fitting design outset and size factor, and not just some measly, cheap and horribly honking and resonating disco speakers that are a lost case, and indeed incurable to begin with.
Acoustically such speakers (i.e.: sans CV and measly cheap disco stuff) can have a lot more going for them vs. typical domestic speakers with more uniform dispersion patterns at the crossover, a narrower and more controlled such radiation pattern for less room interaction, greater cone/air radiation area, etc. Count in the advantage of active configuration with better crossover/DSP options and improved driver control, which is important for integrating 12" or 15" woofer/mids with horns also in high-passing them and freeing them of LF.
That fact of the matter is, and many don’t know this, that named pro brand and actively configured speakers will leave behind most of the domestic horn-hybrid and usually passively configured speakers - sometimes even by a mile, and mostly cheaper at that. What you’re left with though is still a different presentation than your direct radiating, low eff. and fairly small hi-fi speakers, but not in the sense of being harsh, unresolved, colored and what have you. Rather they’re more solid sounding, more direct but not in-your-face, more uninhibited dynamically, cleaner, rather coherent, etc. Whether they’re suitable to your or others’ sonic sensibilities is not a given, but I suspect many would be surprised when listening to such speakers and how "audiophile" they can actually sound.
To come full circle with the Bionor’s and their cinematic heritage I owned (prior to my current Stage Accompany speakers) a pair of Electro-Voice cinema speakers with large format horns, augmented with subs and super tweeters (JBL 2405 Alnico) and actively configured with DSP. The were smoother, more resolved, natural and more laid-back sounding than a pair of JBL 4367’s (yes, believe me), and vastly more dynamic and larger sounding. Think large open baffle/panel speaker sound on steroids though less spatially acute vs. panel variants. What I ended up realizing however was that they didn’t cohere fully at the LP, i.e.: it felt like a large radiation bubble lacking a sense of condensed energy field right in front of me. In other words: my listening room was too small for these speakers, much to my chagrin, almost, but nonetheless. So, I downsized a bit, and came away with an active, used speaker solution much more suitable to my listening space, and with "audiophile" qualities in spades in addition.
Sorry for the long post.
