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  »  New  Horns with contra-profile baffles...  What "looks good" works better......  Horn-Loaded Speakers Forum     3  31888  04-21-2009
  »  New  Engaging the David Haigner’s ideas..  The degree of disagreement correction...  Horn-Loaded Speakers Forum     7  84953  08-30-2009
  »  New  Evaluation of tractrix curves based on visual surface r..  Re: The Delay of Time Delay...  Horn-Loaded Speakers Forum     17  163572  06-20-2006
  »  New  Stop having a fear of horn vignetteing..  Eclipsing the feathery edge...  Horn-Loaded Speakers Forum     1  26646  12-14-2007
  »  New  Jessie Dazzle Project..  Will this better to be auditable?...  Horn-Loaded Speakers Forum     172  1509364  08-03-2007
  »  New  Macondo vs. the “industry sponsored speakers”..  Correction : "Man in the street"...  Horn-Loaded Speakers Forum     4  57331  05-11-2008
  »  New  Russian mythology and Horn loudspeakers..  The Nutcracker horn...  Horn-Loaded Speakers Forum     9  120963  10-02-2005
  »  New  The state of High-Efficiency Loudspeakers...  Tom Danley’s brilliant law...  Horn-Loaded Speakers Forum     6  87688  02-25-2009
  »  New  Aries Cerat Contendo - the newest "fat" kid i..  It is very unfortunate then...  Horn-Loaded Speakers Forum     5  50030  09-08-2011
09-21-2009 Post mapped to one branch of Knowledge Tree
Romy the Cat


Boston, MA
Posts 10,049
Joined on 05-28-2004

Post #: 1
Post ID: 11793
Reply to: 11793
About beauty and ugliness of horn speakers.
fiogf49gjkf0d

Some folks from Australian audio site nominated my Macondo as the ugliest loudspeaker.  I would disagree but my objective in this thread is not arguing about tastes but to talk a bit about reference points of judgments. It is irrelevant to me personally if others feel that Macondo is ugly or not – I made it for myself and I like it. Furthermore if those guys who judge speakers ugliness were a bit less intelligent in horns and try to make a multi-way horn playback to work properly then they surprisingly for themselves would end up with the…. very same Macondo design.  Anyhow, the commentary of those guys about my speaker visual deficiency open an interesting subject about the beauty and ugliness of horn speakers in general.

I admit that my visuals perception of horn loudspeakers (that we familiarize ourselves from web) is very different from most of audio people. An average Audio Moron, including most likely those from Australian audio site, when they see a new horn acoustic system they sub-consciousnessly response with very few unavoidable for them limited reflexes: what is the price, how to buy it cheaper than others, where and how to steal it, is profitable for their social lives to worship or to damn the speaker. With all ridicules of this reaction it is the ONLY reaction that 95% of audio people have (among those who do did design speakers themselves). So, the views of those people about beauty and ugliness are very superficial and have zero regard to what the acoustic system is/does. It is like comparing a beauty of a young woman with an ugliness of a demolished building. I mean those categories are very different and it is not truly applicable to compare.

When I familiarize myself (visually from internet) with deferent horn loudspeakers I always try to disassemble the ideas that was behind the given acoustic system design.

 http://www.RomyTheCat.com/TreeItem.aspx?PostID=11790

The horn speakers are very simple and if to get rid in ourselves a very few common but very mistaken notions about horns then whatever is left is very straightforward. So, looking at the horns I see first a functional purpose and the ability to perform properly the functional objectives. Then I recognize how pretty and how elegant an acoustic system was implemented in respect to those objectives. To me “prettiness” is not an abstract, absentminded esthetic characteristic but an esthetic rendered with respect to what works in horns (in minimum format outlined in Macondo Axioms article).

To me, Macondo is not pretty or ugly, I do not think about it in those terms.  To me Macondo is a rendering of what is properly works in horns under the given conditions and from this perspective I find Macondo is being quite elegant and graceful.  Perhaps my perception of elegance and grace is ugly but it is what it is.  Probably if I do Macondo from scratch I would do some things differently from visual perspective but not a lot.

From visual point of view prettiness or ugliness there are very few horns speakers that like out there. I like the Cessaro Gamma

http://www.romythecat.com/Forums/ShowPost.aspx?postID=3257

http://www.cessaro-horn-acoustics.com/index.php?id=44

… but there are some aspects that I do not find attractive

I very much like the idea that I have in past

http://www.RomyTheCat.com/TreeItem.aspx?PostID=3355

… I think it was the most elegant design I have seen. Unfortunately I did not go for it and it require the MF Island to be free-standing.

Jessie’s version of MF Island is hugely attractive as it has a lot of design advantages over Macondo

http://www.RomyTheCat.com/TreeItem.aspx?PostID=7828

… but I personally like the idea of the stand-alone horns. I guess in Jessie’s case the horns are much heavier then mine and then need to have more heavy support. Still, the idea of a “monopod tree” and the horn sticking out of the tree like tree branches is very attracts me. I did not see people explore this direction however.

It kind strange to me but when people design horns then for whoever reason try to hide the horns, making the acoustic system to look like a box loudspeaker. This is so unfortunate in my view.  I very much like the idea of horns “flying away” from some kind of center of gravity and I have no idea why horn people do not capitalize upon this concept. Perhaps the B&W need to start making horns…

Anyhow, as you might expect I do not find a lot of attractively looking horns systems out there, not to mention that I do not see a lot of properly made horns systems.  I would like to see interesting multi-way 4-7 channels designs with unconventional-elegant take about the MF Island’s sculpturing. I am sure there is a lot more that could be done in this direction.

Rgs, Romy the Cat


"I wish I could score everything for horns." - Richard Wagner. "Our writing equipment takes part in the forming of our thoughts." - Friedrich Nietzsche
09-21-2009 Post does not mapped to Knowledge Tree
Dominik
Poland
Posts 48
Joined on 09-14-2008

Post #: 2
Post ID: 11796
Reply to: 11793
The right thread in the right moment...
fiogf49gjkf0d
I am on begining (1 week in progress) to design frame for my future horns.
115hz
400hz
ribbon
and 200hz or direct radiator as fundamental channel.
I  like functionality of Jessie frame, and Romy "flying horns" look.
I think my project will be ready at the end of the week.
I will count on Yours suggestion and advices about my project...


Dominik
11-02-2009 Post does not mapped to Knowledge Tree
Romy the Cat


Boston, MA
Posts 10,049
Joined on 05-28-2004

Post #: 3
Post ID: 12126
Reply to: 11793
And of course there is always something like this….
fiogf49gjkf0d

munny_speakers.jpg

I wonder where they connect the cord….


"I wish I could score everything for horns." - Richard Wagner. "Our writing equipment takes part in the forming of our thoughts." - Friedrich Nietzsche
Page 1 of 1 (3 items) Select Pages: 
   Target    Threads for related reading   Most recent post in related threads   Forum  Replies   Views   Started 
  »  New  Horns with contra-profile baffles...  What "looks good" works better......  Horn-Loaded Speakers Forum     3  31888  04-21-2009
  »  New  Engaging the David Haigner’s ideas..  The degree of disagreement correction...  Horn-Loaded Speakers Forum     7  84953  08-30-2009
  »  New  Evaluation of tractrix curves based on visual surface r..  Re: The Delay of Time Delay...  Horn-Loaded Speakers Forum     17  163572  06-20-2006
  »  New  Stop having a fear of horn vignetteing..  Eclipsing the feathery edge...  Horn-Loaded Speakers Forum     1  26646  12-14-2007
  »  New  Jessie Dazzle Project..  Will this better to be auditable?...  Horn-Loaded Speakers Forum     172  1509364  08-03-2007
  »  New  Macondo vs. the “industry sponsored speakers”..  Correction : "Man in the street"...  Horn-Loaded Speakers Forum     4  57331  05-11-2008
  »  New  Russian mythology and Horn loudspeakers..  The Nutcracker horn...  Horn-Loaded Speakers Forum     9  120963  10-02-2005
  »  New  The state of High-Efficiency Loudspeakers...  Tom Danley’s brilliant law...  Horn-Loaded Speakers Forum     6  87688  02-25-2009
  »  New  Aries Cerat Contendo - the newest "fat" kid i..  It is very unfortunate then...  Horn-Loaded Speakers Forum     5  50030  09-08-2011
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