@analogluvr
Yeah, I'd say it is an oversimplification. It takes into no account gain of an amp. The kinds of dynamic compression you're talking about would be glaringly apparent, but the reality doesn't seem to reflect that.
The funny thing about all this is that I was a real stalwart for years expounding on the virtues of old gear. I never had a warehouse sized listening room like some of you seem to have for these massive horn rigs, and I never wasted my time with them. I've still got a pair of ESS AMT1's. If you can tolerate nondescript bass and a hollow midrange, they're awesome sounding speakers, but they're nowhere near as convincing or uniformally flat across their power band.
The sensation I've always gotten, even from the best horns I've ever heard, is the same sensation I get standing right in front of a trumpet or sax horn. My dad and brother played trumpet. I played sax and electric bass. It's no mystery to me at all why you NEVER see horn loaded bass guitar rigs. The very last pair of horns I heard were these big JBL SOB's at Pine Knob. I HATED them. They were a perfect example of large, honky, in-your-face, broadband horns. And when I say "in-your-face", I mean even from 75 feet away they felt like they were drilling the sound through you from a totally nondescript point which was anywhere but the stage. The friend that came with me even commented on how honky and distorted the sound was and he really doesn't know enough about audio to have a prior opinion.
I'll say it again... If somebody has a pair of fully horn loaded speakers that take up 3 square feet each, bring them on over and prove me wrong.
Yeah, I'd say it is an oversimplification. It takes into no account gain of an amp. The kinds of dynamic compression you're talking about would be glaringly apparent, but the reality doesn't seem to reflect that.
The funny thing about all this is that I was a real stalwart for years expounding on the virtues of old gear. I never had a warehouse sized listening room like some of you seem to have for these massive horn rigs, and I never wasted my time with them. I've still got a pair of ESS AMT1's. If you can tolerate nondescript bass and a hollow midrange, they're awesome sounding speakers, but they're nowhere near as convincing or uniformally flat across their power band.
The sensation I've always gotten, even from the best horns I've ever heard, is the same sensation I get standing right in front of a trumpet or sax horn. My dad and brother played trumpet. I played sax and electric bass. It's no mystery to me at all why you NEVER see horn loaded bass guitar rigs. The very last pair of horns I heard were these big JBL SOB's at Pine Knob. I HATED them. They were a perfect example of large, honky, in-your-face, broadband horns. And when I say "in-your-face", I mean even from 75 feet away they felt like they were drilling the sound through you from a totally nondescript point which was anywhere but the stage. The friend that came with me even commented on how honky and distorted the sound was and he really doesn't know enough about audio to have a prior opinion.
I'll say it again... If somebody has a pair of fully horn loaded speakers that take up 3 square feet each, bring them on over and prove me wrong.