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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?
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shadorne
7,333 posts
 
@phusis

What Greg Timbers says is so true. All the points are accurate. You can’t fool physics.

There are only a few audiophiles today who understand what a big speaker with large 15” woofers and 4” voice coils can do and even fewer who are willing to pay the price in terms of poor WAF and transport logistical headaches! And I include audiophile dealers/retailers in this boat - as dealers tend to only carry what they have a good chance of selling (and who can blame them for that).

It is true but currently 99.99% prefer what Greg calls “toy speakers”...

audiokinesis
1,872 posts
 

@shadorne wrote:  "There are only a few audiophiles today who understand what a big speaker with large 15” woofers and 4” voice coils can do and even fewer who are willing to pay the price in terms of poor WAF and transport logistical headaches!"

Amen brother. 

I show big speakers at audio shows (hybrids, not fullrange horn systems) and see people listening with their eyes instead of with their ears all the time.  They walk up to the room expectantly because they heard something that sounded good through the open doorway, then they see a big woofer and a horn and recoil in surprise, spin round, and scurry away as if they don't want to get caught near such speakers.  But if you do the math, those big powerful woofers often have a better motor-strength-to-moving-mass ratio than the expensive little audiophile darling midwoofers the eye-listeners were hoping to see, not counting the air-coupling benefits of the larger cone area (which are amplified by horn-loading, something I don't do because my speakers gotta fit into my car when crated up). 

A top-notch reviewer (whose day jobs include math professor and professional musician) once remarked to me that speaker designers are getting better and better at solving the wrong problems.  There are very basic problems that 15" woofers and 4" voice coils solve which aren't even acknowledged by most of the industry.

Duke

johnk's avatar
johnk OP
1,490 posts
 
Duke my office systems running 5 -15s, pair community leviathans 4x 515b, 90d community with Altec 288,Faital pro tweeters community SQ60 horn and a 15 sub woofer. I use it at low levels nearfield everday. My Shearer horns run 4x15, my giant conicals have  pair EV 15KW. My sub bass horn 4 custom built 15s. 
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johnk OP
1,490 posts
 
I also have Moral Carbon loudspeakers SEAS best about and while those loudspeakers do have a good sound I very quickly tire of the unnatural soundstaging, the lack of mid bass impact even with subs, that forced fatiguing sound. Once you are exposed to the big horns its hard to listen to anything but. I even convinced a few sellers of such small things to run large horns in home systems.                                                                                         Horns can sound near real. I have had more than one guest ask if I had a real band playing in my audioroom as they aproached door. I have never had anyone think a standard audiophile system was the real thing only the large horns. I had a few audiopros over doing design work. During downtime between demoing results I played the big horns as back ground music even those jaded audio pros couldnt focous on work when the large horns were on they are so engaging. When designing crazy costly consumer speaker systems I can not compare to the large far more affordable horns I own since the horns are so much better. I just compare them to standard audiophile fare.
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