Hey all!I am finally regaining my normal schedule after that wonderful weekend in Lima at the MAF. It's really nice to come home with new toys, I have hooked up my Altec 806 drivers to the new horns I have now. Here is my initial listening observations between the horns.
The Edgarhorns are round tractix horns that I picked up from the good Dr at the show. These are yet unfinished (stain/etc), but I will get to that in the future sometime.
The Martinelli horns are rectangular horns that are unfinshed also, but I have to play with both of these before I will get them finished.
I am using my standard Pi crossover (1.6khz) with JBL 2226J's. My first observation is the Edgarhorns are very directional compared to Martinellis. The round horn almost reminds me of a domed driver with very high efficiency, but drops quickly off-axis". On the up-side of this, when the horns are toed-in to the sweet spot, incredible energy to conveyed to the listener, the sweet spot is small however and I tend to like these for single-person listening. The Martinelli horns are the choice when a larger listening is desired(read that as more than one person listening at one time), the sweet spot is much larger and doesn't lose as much off axis. I have found that these 2 horns each have their merit. These horns are as different as they are the same, directionality, on/off axis response are the differing factors.
Now for the real eye opener for me, I have been using Altec 811Bs/511Bs in the past. I may have been stubborn in my approach that the ringing did not affect the sound quality. What I do know is that the wooden horns are superior in that they excel in what they don't do!!! They don't add as much coloration as the aluminum horns do. But, since the midrange is not as "hot", the high end becomes more tight and clear.
I am still playing around with everything yet, I envy you folks with large rooms to play in, my Living room is small and not acoustically friendly, so I use some sound dampening and other tricks to get the best out of the room that I can.
In conclusion, I would like to thank Dr Bruce Edgar and Bill Martinelli for helping me get one step further into better sound. The wooden horns have made a dramatic difference, now I will find new homes for my old Altec horns, as they have been relegated to "Backup" duty!!!
Bmar, sorry to work you so hard on the horns, how is the Dyanco amp running for you???
Dr Edgar, thanks for answering my never-ending questions, most people at the MAF know that I don't run out of steam that quick when I am on a roll. Maybe I should change my moniker to "Motormouth"
Cheers all :-)
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