Loudspeakers have we really made that much progress since the 1930s?
@salectric No wish from me to rain on anyone’s parade. Horns can and do sound fantastic - it is all about the quality of drivers and the design - 2nd harmonic changes the timbre (more euphonic) but it is not bad sounding like odd harmonics. Magico’s most expensive design is a horn. It is just that this thread says claims "not much progress" since 1930’s. So I was just trying to show how there has been progress. |
@johnk I agree that nothing is perfect but in the context of this thread - horns have long been surpassed by the modern era of conventional drivers (starting in the 70’s) which have performance up to -70dB of THD - a massive 30dB less distortion than horns. 30dB less distortion - now that is incredible progress! |
@johnk What about non linear affects from compression in the throat of the horn? This usually results in high 2nd harmonic distortion. Since it is caused by air compression, my understanding is that it is an inherent design limitation of horn transducers. Here are some measurements of various high end horns. They ALL without exception suffer from high 2nd harmonic distortion. http://www.pearl-hifi.com/06_Lit_Archive/14_Books_Tech_Papers/LeCleach_Jean-Michel/Horn_Shootout_ETF... I am surprised nobody is aware of this. It is not a secret. |
I thought we got past the limitations of horns about 35 years ago - once transistor amplifiers became of good quality and allowed more power to be widely available. Horns are simply not the best in terms of accuracy but they do deliver exceptional SPL for little power - great for live music sound reinforcement. |
Agreed. Transducer design has not changed for decades. Mostly tweaks. Some older designs are extremely good even against the best available today. From my perspective, the biggest step change was when transistor based power amplifiers allowed greater flexibility in speaker transducer design and realistic LF bass frequencies. Greater power in power amplifiers has allowed wider directivity and less efficient transducers to be employed and active designs allow for better integration. So the 70's was when a step change occurred. Arena rock and the golden era of the recording studio helped drive the technology. |
Modern tweeters are excellent but almost all share an Achilles heal - ferrofluid! The stuff dries up over several years or sooner if you drive the speakers hard. It is insidious in that the change often occurs slowly so you get used to the sound as it changes. With the loss of ferrofluid damping, tweeters designed to function best with ferrofluid will sound harsh and dull or honky. |
