Attention Horn Owners

@unreceivedogma 

Re your comment above: When they get honky, it means something is not set up right, or something is failing. 

I'm interested to learn just how you approached this issue. I've owned Altecs on & off since 1960. I currently have a pair of 604Es in my system and also use Mastering Labs crossovers. The speakers have a distinct, cupped-hands sound that I cannot get rid of. My amps range from a solid state Hegel H-20, to an Elekit 300B. My preamps are EAR 912, CJ PV5A, and ASL. They all sound different but don't change the basic sound ot the speakers.

So, I'm curious to find out what you did

Many thanks,

Fred

Not sure Charles. They may be Khorns, which I’m assuming are Klipsch. Greg said that they have Volti something or others in them. Since I’ve never heard horn speakers before, I thought it might be a good place to start. I can listen to horns and pick his brain and ears as well. 

@earthbound 

I’ve had a pair of AN-Es with custom crossovers from Vu for years.  I also have a pair of restored/modified Altec Santiago horn speakers in another system, so I have a few thoughts:

1) For deep bass, unless you have them in the room corner, per AN recommendations, AN-Es will not have nearly as much bass as a DeVore O/96, and the DeVores are more room friendly (unless you want to plant them in a corner).  The problem with AN corner placement is you don’t get great soundstage, so if that’s important to you… I would also note that Art Dudley replaced his Es with DeVore O/93s a number of years before he passed.

2) Someone mentioned Cessaro speakers - they’re sublime, and expensive.  If you want to have a good time, visit Jeffrey Catalano of High Water Sound in NYC.  He carries amazing stuff.  

3) Tennessee - you need to visit Gestalt Audio in Nashville if you’re doing a road trip.  They carry a number of really top-notch, highly efficient speakers, including some horns, that you could listen to (e.g., Wolf Von Langa, Zeiler, Horning, Cinnamon, etc.). They also carry Cessaro!  And if you’re gonna see all of the state, there’s a dealer in Kingsport, TN called YFS that carries Aretai speakers, which is an interesting horn design.

Good luck!

@earthbound --

Higher efficiency needn’t see the necessary use of horns. While I’m not sure there is a U.S. distrib for these, the Stage Accompany M57 speakers are excellent and not very well known around here. They’re 97dB sensitive in the passive version, and around 97/100dB actively (woofers and ribbon sensitivity respectively). Locally they retail in the vicinity of $15k/pair, which is very fair considering the competition from JBL and others - against which they compare favorably, I find. Ideally I’d pair them with higher eff. subs, actively all the way through and with the SA1205 woofers high-passed in the 80-100Hz region, but passively and unassisted they’re still a very neat package.

I like what’s basically a 2-way design in a main speaker, which the M57’s are. A higher efficiency solution with large air radiation area will typically grant you the opportunity to cross over lower to the woofer section, while maintaining HF-extension from a single driver element that takes over. Should augmentation be needed in the frequency extremes the crossover points here are usually outside of critical areas; that’s the case with my own setup that houses 2-way high eff. main speakers that are augmented at ~11.5kHz on up and ~85Hz on down. HF-augmentation is not needed with the M57’s from Stage Accompany, although the limited vertical dispersion of the SA8535 ribbon (and its very clean, lack of smear sonic properties) necessitates for one to sit with the ears level to them.

Joseph Crowe’s designs have been mentioned - they look very interesting, not least these. I have no personal experience with them, but they are made in the U.S. (not the drivers, which are mostly EU-based) and by all accounts should give you the benefits of (very) high efficiency - with excellent craftsmanship to boot. I’d love to listen to them, and paired with SET’s they’re no doubt very capable sounding.  

Thank you mdalton. I sort of assumed the Devore, based on a similar design would have similar bass as the Audio Notes. Would you say you can feel the bass with Devores?

As far as horns go, I may get a listen and not like them. If I do, NYC is a quick train ride away. I will look on the website and perhaps go in for some auditioning. I appreciate the tips!