Calling all Horn lovers

paired with amazing high-efficiency woofers of unknown origin that can actually keep up.

Duke, as I understand it John (of Classic Audio Loudspeakers) builds those woofers himself, even winding the voice coils and field coils.

but I do know that this arrangement does not have the dreaded horn "shout" or any other colorations that to my ears identify it as a horn.

IME this is the result of using the wrong kind of amplifier on the horn, rather than something inherent in the horn itself. Most older horn designs have crossovers that are not designed to work with amplifiers with lots of negative feedback (low output impedance); this results in crossover errors when such amplifiers are used. The result is that the horn may be playing information out of its proper passband! *That* is where that honky shouty horn reputation comes from. for more info see:

http://www.atma-sphere.com/Resources/Paradigms_in_Amplifier_Design.php

Kiddman, I agree that if there is a problem in the design you will have anomalies, just like you do with any other speaker.

If the horn design is correct however, it can be one of the lowest distortion loudspeaker applications out there. So with this understanding, my comments above were concerning operation with properly designed and built systems.

Mapman, I've heard Duke's speakers in some pretty small rooms and they have worked great! I've also heard them in some larger rooms with excellent results.

Larryi, just a FWIW, Classic Audio found that there was an error in the throat design of the TAD horn, which is why the TAD horns tend to sound a little edgier and why the Classic Audio horn, which looks nearly identical, is nice and smooth.