I too, endorse getting in contact with Deja Vu about a custom horn system and also contacting Charney Audio. The Deja Vu stores in San Diego and Miami are affiliated with Deja Vu in Tyson's Corner Virginia. If you can find your way to Virginia, you will see where the speakers are made and you will find more options (in any case, you can talk to Vu at the VIrginia store). With both Deja Vu horns and Charney single-driver back-loaded horns, you have the considerable advantage of being able to utilize low-powered tube amps.
Low powered tube amps, to me, sound considerably better than either solid state or high-powered tube amps. But, that does not mean that you cannot use solid state with a horn system.
I hardly think that the Charney speakers look bad, but, that might just be my particular taste. They have models that are quite compact which makes them quite easy to place in a room and for their modest size, they sound BIG. To me, that is a big plus in the "looks" department.
Avantgarde makes nice sounding horn systems that are also quite efficient too. Certainly, they should be on any short list as well. They have some quite strange looking systems, but, I kind of like that look.
Good luck on your search.
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Given your budget, you should consider going to New Jersey (Charney) or the Washington DC area (Deja Vu) to get a good audition. The other choice would be to attend a show that has some of the brands you are interested in. Although shows often don't present speakers at their best, they at least will give you more than any description or review can ever deliver.
Although they are not horn speakers, Voxativ makes systems that have similar characteristics--dynamic, vivid, good at lower volume levels. Another brand (also not horns) to look into is Trenner and Friedl. Someone, above mentioned Rethm speakers; I heard their $3,000 model (Bhaava) a couple of years ago and they were quite impressive. The Rethm had the liveliness of full range speakers (they use a full range driver plus a powered subwoofer), but none of the excessive peakiness that is common to full range systems). The Rethm was like a bargain Charney in sound quality. |
kornhent,
Those are very interesting looking systems. I noticed that some of the pictures look like Onken bass reflex cabinets for the woofers (I like Onkens). It is good to see builders making serious modern, but old school, systems. What drivers do your horns work with (what diameter, thread, etc.)? What drivers do you use?
willgolf,
Given your aesthetic requirements, my guess is that the Avantgarde Duo is a serious candidate. It sounds pretty and will work in your space and works with low power amps (I see low-powered tube amps in your future). |
kornhent,
Thank you for the additional information and links to more pictures. I am a fan of your kind of horn-based systems. My own system utilizes a small Onken with twin 12" drivers (alnico magnets, pleated paper surround). The 12" drivers were new drivers when I got the system in 2003. My midrange horn is a very old Western Electric 713b and 12025 straight, sectoral horn. I tend to like the older compression compression drivers, like those of IPC, Western Electric, YL and new drivers that are reproductions of old drivers (G.I.P.).
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willgolf, Since you like the looks of the Avantgarde speakers (I do too), I am wondering what you think of the AER Pnoe. This is a backloaded horn speaker that is very much like the Charney, in terms of design. I found out about this speaker when I started looking at AER drivers after hearing the Charney speaker with this particular driver. I have not heard the Pnoe, but, it should be similar to the Charney, albeit many times the price. I have not heard it myself, and I would not be that interested given how much more it costs than the Charney speakers I heard. It is way out of your price range, but, I thought it is at least interesting and I wondered if you liked the looks.
https://aer-loudspeakers.com/aer-pnoe/
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willgolf,
I have not made any sort of direct comparison between Charney and Avantgarde (I've heard the Charney more recently), so at best I can recall my impressions of the two. The Charney sounds extraordinarily coherent from top to bottom (not surprising given that it is a single driver speaker). The Avantgardes have a little bit of a problem with the bass matching the midrange and some unevenness in the bass. But, the Avantgarde goes lower in bass and you can adjust the bass to be extremely strong, if that is what you want. Both are very good systems.
There have been mention of several other horn systems or systems that share the characteristics of horn systems that are certainly worth looking into. The Classic Audio Reproduction field-coil speakers and the JBL Hartsfield reproduction, the Horning speakers, and Volti speakers I'e heard and generally like. They are lively sounding system, which I like, but, they are not my personal favorites, but this is entirely a matter of taste, so you must hear them yourself to decide. |
I have not heard the PureAudioProject speakers, but I like the looks and I like the concept. I like open baffle speakers, but, if deep bass is a must, I would caution that a relatively narrow open baffle speaker can be expected to roll off in bass response because of out of phase cancellation between the forward moving wave and the back wave. The open baffle woofer speakers that I've heard with somewhat deep bass (not really that deep), had pretty large baffles to reduce front and back interaction. Most recently, I heard a system with twin 18" fieldcoil woofers in a baffle that was about five feet wide. The Shearer systems that Johnk mentioned had baffles much wider than that. |
Larger horn systems may be hard to blend into the decor of multi-use rooms and smaller rooms, but, they do not inherently sound out of place in small rooms. To me, they are so much better than most speaker types as low volume that their biggest strength is playback at low volume in small venues. Yes, they will do loud, but, they are even better at doing soft (they still sound alive). Whether this is in the nature of the horns themselves, or the low-powered amps that can be used with these high efficiency speakers (I am guessing both are factors), it remains the case that it is somewhat harder to find non-horn based systems that are so lively at low volume (old quad 57 electrostatics come to mind as contenders). |
