Horns

Listen to horns before buying. If you are used to other types of speakers you will find horns have a unique sound and specific attributes that you may or may not appreciate. 

Well I believe that the type of transducer has a huge impact on the sound of the speaker. So the difference in sound when comparing dynamic speakers is not as significant as comparing dynamic speakers with horns or panels. I have never heard a horn speaker that sounded like a dynamic speaker nor an electrostat. I think the sonic differences are very fundamental and very easy to recognize. 

Oh and by the way, who is your source for the information about the 50s and 60s tactics to sell AR speakers? Perhaps you should say you dont like the old ARs and prefer horns. To assume that many of the negative opinions regarding horns arent based on listening is a bit of a stretch dont you think?  

Well what type of speaker used for mastering has no bearing on the quality of reproduction in your home system. For example those awful JBL speakers used in so many mastering studios for decades should be proof enough. The goal with speakers is to reproduce, as accurately as possible, the source material. Each speaker design contributes positively in different ways to this material. But the same thing always emerges from the horn crowd and it is dynamics and lack of dynamic compression. Legitimate points. You have to laugh when people claim to have heard a recording being made but are listening in the booth with whatever monitor the studio was using at the time. Instead of considering what the monitors used in the studio got correct, it is equally legitimate to consider what was missed by these same speakers.  

No you arent wrong about the way the press covered tube amps or early digital. Doesnt make your point one bit about how they covered dynamic speakers vs. horns and that the same mistakes were repeated. If you want to point me to a specific article about what we were actually discussing then I am game. 

I have heard Klipsch both stock and modified, various Antique Audios both at shows and at the home of the owner of Atma-sphere and Triplanar, various designs by Bruce Edgar, Cessaro, Avant Garde, various Altecs (including several Voice of the Theatres), all horn (including bass horn) from China at Axpona, Living Voice for a start. I have no idea what you mean about linking reviews about horns/my listening tests.

I have never owned any JBL or horn speakers. The JBLs of which I refer are the dynamic design JBL ( L series ?). No need as they all share a sonic attribute that I find distasteful. Would you buy a speaker which had attributes that you didnt like? A "chinless" speaker if you will. I can find things I like about horns but nothing about those older JBLs.

The thing I find very unusual is how aggressive horn fans sometimes seem. This is nothing new to me as I was introduced to this in high school and college. A Klipsch dealer in Iowa built a S.S. amp (a Leech if memory serves) and a pair of horn speakers for a friend that sounded just awful. When we would go into the dealership where he worked he displayed a nastiness towards those who didnt like horn speakers that was most unbecoming. As a college student especially, it was very disheartening to actually want to learn and to be lectured and belittled by a overweight, slovenly salesman without a pot to piss in nor a window....He felt that he elevated himself by belittling others, especially those younger and less schooled and loved to do this around others. Dont know why but this has stuck with me as the way not to be and how not behave in this industry. Last thing you ever do is knock a product that someone just spent their hard earned money on. Also I learned from this guy never to ride an older Japanese twin with straight pipes....rude. 

So I guess if you want to continue to try to objectify the subjective I will do my best to help. But, dont be like the Klipsch salesman I described earlier. 

I wanted to make certain that he had heard this design before buying. His statement about "buy and try" raised some questions. Dont get me wrong I love aspects of horn speaker reproduction, but in the areas which I find most important I think they fall a bit short. I dont like it when another member concludes that I havent heard horns because I dont prefer them to other designs. I also reject the notion that other speaker types arent viable or are intrinsically inferior. 

I didnt say definitively that it was an L this was just a guess. The 4312 comes to mind if this was the speaker with the midrange and tweeter on the same horizontal plane when upright. Why dont you just say you like JBL speakers and my comment that I thought they sucked got under your skin. But you are right I dont know what I am talking about. Now lets move on to horn speakers and how I dont know anything about them either. 

What happened to johnk? I thought we were just getting started. I wonder if perhaps he does or used to own a Japanese twin with straight pipes?