Are Horn Speakers good or bad or simply a complete joke?

Any speaker that makes use of metal throated horn bodies can tend to sound hard, bright, glaring, piercing, ringy, metalic, etc... It is not necessarily the driver itself but the horn body adding its' sonic signature. Anybody that thinks that this is incorrect needs to dissassemble ANY metalic horn and simply "flick" it with your finger. You will hear a very resonant "riiiiiinging tone" that is bell like in clarity. Any type of vibration applied to the horn throat, such as mechanical resonance from the driver attached to it, can excite that "bell like ringing" to various extents.

Talking through the throat of the horn will also demonstrate how the horn body can effect tonality. This is where it pays to have someone that knows what they are doing design the horn body and then use that horn within the frequency range that it is most effective.

If special attention is paid to the design ( flare rate, materials used, damping, baffle diffraction, mounting, etc..), horns can sound EXCELLENT. As a case in point, the only system that i've ever seen get a standing ovation from the audience after a demonstration at an audio show consisted of horns made by K.A.R. ( Klassic Audio Reproductions ) being driven by Atma-sphere OTL ( output transformer-less ) tube amps. With some well chosen vinyl cuts, the sound was outstanding. All of this in a standard hotel suite with NO room treatments whatsoever. Sean
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Duke, i've never seen or heard the Avantgarde's. Given my past experience with listening and modifying horns, i have a REAL hard time believing that they could sound "good" to MY ears. I've read the reviews and customer raves, but that is just a LOT of horn body in terms of resonances and ringing. Do you know what they use for materials ? Is it some type of phenolic or is it metal ???

I currently have a set of Klipsch Heresy's and La Scala's. I've had and modified more than a few sets of each of these, but they keep finding new homes when i'm done with them : ) The La Scala cabinets are in REALLY rough shape and need a complete overhaul. When i get around to doing these, i'll probably just start from scratch. I've been compiling notes ( both written and in my head ) for quite some time and this would be the perfect opportunity to apply ALL of them. I may need to sneak over to Bob Bundus' house and snag his ALK crossovers first though : ) Sean
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Unsound: Thanks for the kind words and vote of confidence. Having said that though, i don't think that there is any one speaker design that can do it all.

With that in mind, I like to compare speakers to women. They may all have some worthwhile and / or beautiful trait's, but i have yet to find one that combines all of the "features" and "performance" that i'm looking for*. As such, i've resorted to having multiples to choose from ( speakers, not women ) and tried to work with each of their strengths and minimize their weaknesses within each system. While we can't have it all, I sure can try : ) Sean
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* I'm sure that the ladies feel the same way about men too, especially my girlfriend : )

Hahahaha... Good for you Judith. Do you have any sisters ? : ) Sean
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The bottom line is that each and every speaker design will benefit from specific strengths, suffer from specific weaknesses AND contribute their own sonic signature to whatever is being fed into them. There is not a speaker made that can be distanced from the above generalization. Until we do have speakers that can make that claim, the selection of speakers will remain a VERY personal and subjective decision. Let's just hope that people are happy with whatever it is that they decide to buy / use and can enjoy their favorite musical selections with their speakers of choice, regardless of the various trade-offs involved. Sean
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