Change to Horns or stay Dynamic

Kana813,

You missed, or simply ignored, the part in my post where I said "This is true with any of the many amplifiers I have used with them."
Two of them were monobocks, each worth over $30,000 a pair. One of these delivered 640 watts into 4 ohms and the other 220 watts into 4 ohms. Believe me, I've tried throwing high-quality watts at the tops (105Hz and up) of these speakers.

I only hooked the SETs up to the speakers as joke when I was between amplifiers; it turned out the joke was on me!

My 40 watt SET amps distort after 93db but MBLs get congested at loud volumes during complex passages no matter what amps you put on them and no matter how many watts you throw at them. The upper drivers simply reach their excursion limits.

The Spectron Musician III SE Mk. 2 monoblock amplifiers; the top MBL amplifiers; the CAT JL-3 Signatures; the top Boulders monoblocks, none of these is the solution because the problem isn't amplification, its the drivers.

I'm pretty sure I'll never find amps that sound better (to me) under 93dB so that's why I have the 40 watt SETs. If you heard my speakers without seeing my amps you'd swear the amps were putting out over 250 watts (not that I have to justify my decision to you or anybody else).

Dgad,
I have to ask you about the "air pressure in the room" with the Cessaros. One of the reasons I gave up on the idea of owning horns a few years ago was because I often felt a sort of pressure on my skull, which quickly let to a headache, when listening.
I know a horn lover in Italy who feels the same thing but puts up with it because the sound is so good.
Did you feel any sort of fatigue or discomfort with the Cessaros?

I went from electrostats to horns, bypassing dynamic altogether. In doing so, I have found what I didn't know that I was looking for. The dynamics and "you-are-there-ness" are far ahead of dynamic speakers. Years on, I still get the shivers with certain music.

Even good horns have weak points. It is difficult to integrate midrange and bass. Finding dynamic bass which has the "speed"/dynamics/delicacy to match the midrange is difficult. If I ever build my own place in the country (on a hilltop with a beautiful view), I will build large horns into the ground/walls. Also, to get to the mid-bass (say, below 200Hz), horns can get very large and some people don't like that. If you can live with the deficiencies and still like horns, then you probably belong with them.

I went from electrostats to omni-directionals.
Your speakers look very cool.
I also like the idea of building a house around horns like they do in Japan.

darren

for more on horns, see
http://www.goodsoundclub.com/Forums/ShowForum.aspx?ForumID=32

anyone have any thoughts on how a horn would do in a small (15*11) room, w horns on 15' wall?

best