Why not horns?

Dan_ed,

Have you ever heard omnis like OHMs or mbl?

I believe setup can surely affect the tendency of a horn to be more forward or not, but I am not sure if I can envision them being as laid back as omnis I have heard.

And again, to me, a forward tendency is part of the attraction for me in taht I like to look at radically different approaches to achieving good results.

I also suspect though that along with a more forward presentation goes an increased chance to offend or irritate, but I do not think that this necessarily has to be the case and that is the sound that I would be interested in hearing.

I have my own ideas but what do you mean by forward and laid back? I would not describe my horns as forward. I would say the are transparent and very revealing so bad recordings are revealed as such.

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I was wondering about some of the posts that mention time aligning of the horns;can anyone briefly explan this situation as I am not familiar in the setup of a horn based system.

"what do you mean by forward and laid back"

Laid back meaning the soundstage is mostly behind the plane of the speakers.

Forward meaning that the soundstage is not so much behind the plane of the speakers and some things may sound like they originate from locations that are in front of the plane of the speakers. In some lively rooms, due to reflections, sound might even sound like the origin is behind the listener to some extent.

I have heard both dynamic and planar designs have a quite forward sound in certain lively rooms, but not so much omnis. I expect horns might as well. granted, room acoustics play a big part in this.

Mapman, I thought it was obvious that I was questioning the midrange purity of horns. Horns are about as different as omnis as can possibly be. Based upon your love of omnis, (which I do appreciate), I can't help but feel that horns would be an anathema to you. I find horns to be the most colored of all the different speakers. I will say that they do do dynamics and loudness as well or better than just about all other speakers (though the Wilson's can give them a run). If one were to listen to nothing but big band music, I could understand one choosing horns, but despite literaly hundreds of demos, including some high touted and expensive rigs, I find horns to be a bad joke.