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04-30-2007 Post does not mapped to Knowledge Tree
SearcherOfBetterSound
Posts 16
Joined on 04-25-2007

Post #: 1
Post ID: 4293
Reply to: 4293
The most interesting horn ideas to me so far

I'm very inexperienced but I still try to observe things around me carefully. Here's what I'm getting at what can be potentially pretty good.. Well, all I can really say is I've been mostly interested in the design implementations of companies such as Maxxhorn or Cessaro. Here's what I've been following, great horns may actually not be the usual "flowery" type that curve outward or are too boxy/rectangular-ish, don't these along with smallness/tallness, weight, flexibility issues or whatever, create more distortion?...great horns go beyond the usual Lowther, Fostex driver deals... The "full range" approach seems to have SOME potential, I mean, I've read that they are not usually very high-end...but overall, the simplicity is great as an idea and probably can be used better in the right hands and minds. The round-ish, "bowl-ish" design of Cessaro or Romy's speakers catch my eye now.

You all see where I'm going with this? I'm still sort of just guessing, but I'm just saying what I'm most interested in. Me personally, I think I'd go for something like a Maxxhorn or Aspara Accoustics speaker along with Coincident's new low powered amp or whatever, if I had the money... Well for budget, I think a GR Research speaker and DAC, along with like a C.E.C. transport, McAlister SET amp, or something along those lines, would be pretty cool. This is coming from an inexperienced person, but still idea-experimenter, but I think I can get on to somethings at times, and anything that's good at a very low price, is actually like a fun thing, and probably would still sound great perfect-like to a lot of more-casual people trying to find good sound.

04-30-2007 Post does not mapped to Knowledge Tree
Paul S
San Diego, California, USA
Posts 2,570
Joined on 10-12-2006

Post #: 2
Post ID: 4297
Reply to: 4293
First, the Idea

Without addressing your particular choice of brands, I suggest that you keep looking and listening to get an idea of what you want to hear in trerms of the sound itself and how that differs from what you are hearing or have heard.  We all have to start somewhere, but none of the  labels make real sense without a sort of mental blueprint, which IMO can be vague enough to simply reject what one does not like.  OTOH, it is very helpful to know what you want well enough to be able to "listen for it" and from there, with luck, try to determine, steer and refine a whole system into the sort of sound you want.  You are way ahead if you can get a speaker/amp/room pairing to build on.  At some point you just have to ante up and start working with a combination you think has enough good to merit working with it.  If you have the money for the big Cessarios, congratulations on a nice commercially-available place to start.  But you still need to have the idea first, IMO.

If you mainly want brand recommendations, I recommend Auido Assylum, or similar.  There are plenty of experienced audiophiles on these boards who will be happy to steer you along.

You will be amazed at how winding the road you will follow on others' recomendations.



Best regards,
Paul S

05-05-2007 Post does not mapped to Knowledge Tree
SearcherOfBetterSound
Posts 16
Joined on 04-25-2007

Post #: 3
Post ID: 4350
Reply to: 4297
All I know is that I don't want to spend THAT much
I mean, even if I was extremely rich, there's sort of a "point" of return or guilt or something, like worrying perhaps TOO much on other aspects to compliment them. I wouldn't buy Cessaros even if I was rich...for some reasons. I'm not sure what the price points of the models were, but I remember you all said their top end was in the $100,000 range. Now, if I got that, I'd feel stupid even if it was like the best thing ever...that's like over 6,500 ALBUMS, over 4,000 hours of music (or about half a year) I could've gotten..and I bet you could get just as good sounding or better speakers for way less than half the price of that thing, custom if need be (most likely), whatever, but there's still that "point".

I did go a bit off topic there with talking about products I might want or like, but the point on horns was to say I was more interested in sort of different-than-usual designs (at the least the high-end ones), not the usual Avant-garde or Acapella. I'm also saying in a way that I'm sort of tired of those two companies and their flowery designs and expensiveness taking up too much of the popularity in the market. I'm not saying they're bad, they're what keep the high-end horn market alive, but I KNOW there's more to high-end horns than just them..the market just needs more of this "more" and have stuff that's popular enough for people to start thinking more about stuff than just Avant-garde or Acapella. I think a good amount of high-end searching horn people become exposed to them at first, and then if they are destined enough or whatever, "move" on to something else--this is what I'm talking about and trying to convince people here to consider.
05-05-2007 Post does not mapped to Knowledge Tree
SearcherOfBetterSound
Posts 16
Joined on 04-25-2007

Post #: 4
Post ID: 4352
Reply to: 4350
I think there's this around $10,000 high-end "standard" for speakers
Personally, speculatively. It's my belief that one or one maker *shouldn't* have to wander too far past this range for practicality and morality...I can understand if some goodness can't be value developed easily (even then, there could be problems from too much concentration on non-value), but this is the general feeling for great acceptability. I'm not saying that it won't get better, in whatever price point after it or before it, but this price seems like a good general reference point for the most dedicated people. Aren't Romy's horns around this price too?

So far for around $10,000, there might be some fun to be had around for some stuff. Maybe this is too much for a lot of people, not enough value..but for "all-out" stuff, high-end "value" is my intended meaning. Most things in higher price ranges look too "industry-ish" if you ask me. Will all of the higher-priced stuff be bad? Probably not...but what, is like Cessaro and Cogent the only really interesting high-price guys or what? This is the feeling or at least atmosphere I get now...

Well, another interesting maker is Acuhorn. They also seem to have a pretty good new model around now that looks worth checking out.
05-11-2007 Post does not mapped to Knowledge Tree
SearcherOfBetterSound
Posts 16
Joined on 04-25-2007

Post #: 5
Post ID: 4375
Reply to: 4352
Looking for best horn values
Not too many of the cheaper horns have really interested me so far, but I think that we here should help others with this as it could better help them have some horns and horn interest in general. I haven't payed too much attention to much models at all recently, but Zingali looks worth checking out. At first, their design sort of turned me off, like it could be problematic (I don't know enough to better explain why I feel it, but maybe I'm thinking the dynamic capabilities of horns would vibrate that smallish looking cabinet too much and there wouldn't be enough air, along with any possible problems with the horn and drivers), but that made me not pay attention to their possible potential. Now that I think about it, they don't seem as "industry-ish" now as they might appear to be somewhat at first. Cheap horns are rare and popular in such a way that it's mostly the more independent looking models that are popular for cheapness, besides Klipsch or Tannoy. Zingali have sort of this technical standard-look thing that makes it more interesting to me than a lot of the other cheaper horns I've seen out there...too many are too full-range based or just..whatever. I don't know, but these don't really look that bad in a way...they probably fit in pretty nicely in like a...say, the "industry trinity" of Klipsch, Tannoy, Zingali. Still...I'm unsure on the desirability of those 3, and in comparison with other companies..it can be hard to tell, but now I know at least when it comes to reference, that there's also an around $5,000 point for reference instead of "just" $10,000. I recommend anyone who's considering horns on the market to try to stick around these prices instead of going much higher when it comes to reference, unless you want too..it can depend.

The weird looking designs of Classic Audio Reproductions sort of turned me off (but it could be said the opposite too) because I've never seen much things like it, and they might've seen too "vintage-ish", but now I'm starting to see the light of their plan better. I would consider their T-5 for reference..it's their lowest priced one I think, for around $6,500. So far I could say that this could be the most overall desirable horn speaker for me. Just because the price is lower than other models I've considered, that's already enough to make me not care as much if the more expensive speakers were better...that's like $5,000 I could contribute to a turntable, transport, DAC, amp.

Page 1 of 1 (5 items) Select Pages: 
   Target    Threads for related reading   Most recent post in related threads   Forum  Replies   Views   Started 
  »  New  Magico: Robert Harley’s upperbass mouth...  Surprisingly interesting write up by Federated Mike abo...  Horn-Loaded Speakers Forum     35  322426  02-19-2006
  »  New  Battling stupid Horn Criticism as a concept..  Some Brit’s take on the Horn sound.......  Horn-Loaded Speakers Forum     32  209788  08-03-2009
  »  New  Living Voice Loudspeaker..  A Polish Infomercial from Kevin Scott....  Horn-Loaded Speakers Forum     80  657368  08-09-2009
  »  New  Greek Anima Loudspeakers..  Sealed subs...  Horn-Loaded Speakers Forum     33  244747  11-03-2009
  »  New  Horn-Kultur 5-Way from Germany..  Horn-Kultur 5-Way from Germany...  Horn-Loaded Speakers Forum     0  18718  08-10-2011
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