Calling all Horn lovers

I have at least one customer who set up his hybrid horn speakers (waveguide-type horn on top, direct radiator woofer on bottom) in a nearfield setup so close that he could lean forward in his chair and touch them. I was skeptical, but heard it myself and yup it worked fine!

Further experimenting when I got back home indicated that, with my speakers at least, if you listen from very close (like arm's length), the height of your ears relative to the drivers became critical. With ears at the height of the center of the waveguide, the waveguide was the apparent sound source. With ears lower, at the midline between top of woofer and bottom of waveguide, the vertical discrepancy was audible and distracting.

So I don't know that this observation necessarily translates to other horn speakers, but it is possible that ear height is a factor in whether or nor the speaker sounds coherent at close range.

Atma-Sphere mentioned Classic Audio Reproductions... utterly magnificent speakers. Not cheap, but extremely refined and natural sounding, with stunning dynamics and impact, and no distracting little colorations. The current versions are among the finest speakers anywhere, and if their equals exist, I have yet to hear them.

Duke

Duke,

I heard some of the bigger better CAR speakers at CAF 2012, with the field coil drivers as well, I think. Very nice, though the room was way too small to do full justice I am sure.

Your AK speakers are high on my want to hear list, but has not happened yet.

I'd be curious to know your opinion of how close your designs come? Would one one need to have a particularly large high quality listening space for the differences to be apparent? How about in smaller more common listening spaces like those most people have? You seem to place more of a focus on value and optimizing designs for certain more common listening scenarios that most are more likely to find themselves in, so in those cases, I'm thinking the "gap" could be pretty minor?

A lot of great observations and comments in this thread. I know it might seem that there are some fundamental differences in opinions expressed, but, I pretty much agree with everything said--differences being probably more a matter of degree or how one expresses what is observed, and matters of taste.

Charles1dad and Audiokinesis and others have mentioned the importance of good crossover design in both horn and direct radiator systems. I agree that this is a big issue. I think that is one of the strengths of horn-based systems when done right. Horn midrange drivers can cover a fairly wide band of frequencies so that the crossover points can be away from the 1,000 to 3,000 hz range where the ear is particularly sensitive to problems of speaker integration.

Isochronism, you asked about active crossovers. I have heard various horn and non-horn systems with active crossovers. I generally like active crossovers when properly implemented--the music sounds very clear, clean and more dynamic, even when high volume and additional power is NOT an issue. The "problem" is that those who have undertaken this approach have told me about how hard it actually is to get things right and the added complexity creates a lot of headaches (particularly when tube-based crossovers and amps are involved). The most impressive example of the difference between active and passive crossover that I heard involved the Active Advent speaker that the company put out; it was supposedly the same speaker as the conventional Large Advent, but with an active crossover and built in amplification. It in no respects sounded like an Advent to me--this thing had LIFE.

Audiokinesis, you mention "waveguide" horns. Do you mean systems where the horn is primarily acting as a means to control dispersion and where "loading" of the diaphragm with a column of air is not a primary part of the design? Also, the Classic Audio Reproduction speakers that you liked, were they the reproductions, like the Hartsfield, or the contemporary design like the T-3? I personally like both lines, perhaps more so the contemporary line.

Wharf, I have no idea if the Avantgarde Duo represents a "flawed" horn design with a lot of bandaids or if it is a correctly engineered horn design by whatever standards one could apply to make such a judgment. I do know that it is a hard system to setup (getting bass to balance correctly is extremely difficult). I also heard a certain "one note" quality to the bass even when it was properly set up. But, all those issues aside, that system can really deliver musical enjoyment. I also noticed that the Duo is quite amplifier friendly and sounded great with a fairly wide range of amplifiers I heard it with. You should, if you get the chance, hear it with an OTL amp--that is a lot of fun.

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.

The Audiokinesis Jazz Module based on it's description, size and price would seem worthy of much consideration. I get the feeling that it would outperform many speakers that cost more. An added bonus it's very friendly to lower power amplifiers.
Charles,