My first my first encounter with horns were Klipsch La Scalas driven by early transistor amplifiers. Not pleasant—but great party speakers. Ditto classic Klipschorns. Never heard these with any kind of tube amp, let alone an SET. Fast forward 30 some years and I heard a pair of Avant-garde Duos driven by an all-BAT tube system. Astounding! The bass (which is delivered by a conventional powered woofer), was not dialed in at all, but that was not the speaker’s fault. Victor Khomenko, BAT’s designer just hadn’t gotten around to that. He was running a prototype of a new phonostage and he wasn’t listening for the bass. Victor is big on what he calls “dynamic tracking” and horns do that very well. At very low levels, many speakers just don’t respond at all. They operate like a noise gate in a recording studio; everything below a certain threshold is just swallowed up, rather than being reproduced. Horns avoid that problem, although they have others including, sometimes, significant coloration and a lack of low bass (unless they are really large, like a K-Horn).
Horn based loudspeakers why the controversy?
As just another way to build a loudspeaker system why such disputes in forums when horns are mentioned? They can solve many issues that plague standard designs but with all things have there own. So why such hate? As a loudspeaker designer I work with and can appreciate all transducer and loudspeaker types and I understand that we all have different needs budgets experiences tastes biases. But if you dare suggest horns so many have a problem with that suggestion..why?