I have a lot of places within my site where I, in one or other way, spread propaganda about horn-loaded loudspeakers. Frankly speaking, if I were an “ordinary audiophile” then I would look at the Romy the Cat’s exuberance about horns and perceive it as a typical preoccupation of an audio-Moron about something the he have happened to have in his room - I perfectly understand the sentiments of that vision. The problem is that an “ordinary audiophile” has no knowledge and NO EXPERIENCE with a properly bult horn-loaded installation and therefore for the horns there is no entry points into the “ordinary audiophile awareness”.

There are no seriously performing commercially available horn-loaded loudspeakers, period.  Even in you go for the outragesly expensive systems or for the outragesly vintage systems then they all have severe problems and they all were NOT PROPERLY DESIGNED AND IMPLEMENTED. I know ALL commercially manufactured models and I can testify that by auditioning them you expose to very remote result from what it might be.

The home-bult horn systems are also very-very pitiable. The low sensibility of the DIYers, thier severely primitive reference points, lacking of suitable public knowledge about horns practice, shortage really useful and well performing components, severe ignorance/insufficiency of horn-vendors, absents of serious collaborative horn- framework and many other factors created a satiation where DIYers bult completely foolish, pitifully performing systems, replicating each other misstates and archiving very poor Sound.

There are very few people out there (I would VERY optimistically estimate a couple/few-dozens around the world) who have sensibility, knowledge, recourses, seriousness of objectives and who brings horn insulations at the point where the performance of the systems can actually indicate the REAL capacity of the horns. However, usually those people do not associated with the crowd of the “ordinary audiophiles” and therefore the “ordinary audiophiles” or the industry freaks never had a chance to the experience to the REAL horn sound.

So, when the “ordinary audio people” or the industry’s hoodlums express thier attitude toward to the “horn universe” then I perfectly understand their “evidences” and reasoning.

Rgs,
Romy the Cat

Romy the Cat wrote:

So, when the “ordinary audio people” or the industry’s hoodlums express thier attitude toward to the “horn universe” then I perfectly understand their “evidences” and reasoning.

You are very much correct. All existing critical mass of knowledge and practices about hors is completely irrelevant for a home use and partially if user’s demands are more evolved then a typically-Moronic: “look the saxophone sounds like the real one”. I’ve written about it many times: whatever the Morons know, or believe that they know, about horn has to do ONLY with the propagation of pressure and has a little to do with the actual sound. Most of the horn guys do not bult sound but rather they pursue the sounds at high sensitively…

That is why I very rarely can seriously to talk about horns with people, even if then believe that they do horns for 30 years. For instance go to see those retarded at the cretin’s Todd W. White’s Altec forum, to the AA’s High Efficiency community or to the countless other places where the horns-related idiots exchange thier pathetic and see the level of this interests not to mention the level of this accomplishment. What they depict are not the horns but this own primitivism regarding … whatever they touch in audio.

BTW, here is one of the reason why no one vintage horns sounds well, or at least as good as it could sound: those guys bult thier pressure system with very little musical and sonic objectives.

Romy the Cat wrote:

It is not about horns but about people.

Actually, I very much disagree.

Whatever “people working on this around the world” … they work on very irrelevant directions. I did not see from ANYONE in the horn universe any more or less serious attempts or serious intentions to combine the benefits that horns MIGHT do with the intentional and targeted desire to say something by the means of an installation. I have seen the installations-statements and the systems- statements but there were the audio statements and frankly speaking they were very unfortunate even audio-result-wise. I did not see/hear any horn installations, or even attempts, from the owners of the system to demonstrate something more then juts to fight with the typical audio problems. To listen thier systems is like to read a novel written with a language of a BMW’s user manual. I did not see people who “do horns” and witch whom is possible to talk about Sound. Not about the Sounds but about Sound as a psychico-physical or a spiritual force, not to mention to talk with them about the intentional managing of this force via the horn/systems manipulations. Most of the horn people are just as bored as the “direct radiator people” and I do not thinks that “people are working on this around the world” would bring any optimism in my vision.

Rgs,
Romy

Romy the Cat wrote:

Actually, I very much disagree.

Whatever “people working on this around the world” … they work on very irrelevant directions. I did not see from ANYONE in the horn universe any more or less serious attempts or serious intentions to combine the benefits that horns MIGHT do with the intentional and targeted desire to say something by the means of an installation.

...... To listen thier systems is like to read a novel written with a language of a BMW’s user manual.

I did not see people who “do horns” and witch whom is possible to talk about Sound. Not about the Sounds but about Sound as a psychico-physical or a spiritual force....

Rgs,Romy

rdrysdale wrote:

Romy , I think for many people it's not even possible to reach a level of musical spiritual force. I've talked to Dr. Edgar at length about this,he and I believe that to have this feeling about music, one needs to be exposed at a very early age.

So many people today are interested in audio only to make money, or for show, or as one of their many passing hobbies. Horns are not even remotely related to anything mainstream audiophile, so we are on our own. The research and development of a proper horn system was basically stopped many years ago, at that time the reasearch was only in it's infancy, and there is much to be discovered. Rich