In Reply to: Sound characteristics of different horn flares and materials posted by pk on May 27, 2002 at 00:05:22:
pk---I never heard a horn and good driver that wasn't clear and I've heard lots of them, clarity ain't a problem. Dispersion makes a big difference in the sound of the horn IME. I have some 130 degree McCauley horn-lenses and they bounce lots of sound off the sidewalls making for a "big", diffuse kind of sound with a very wide image. With 90 degree horns like Altec 511s the image draws in and sounds more "collected", I like that better. But the big image I got from 120 degree EV SM-120As was far better than the stock K-400 horns on some Klipsch LaScalas I had, the stock horns were so directive, like a laser it seemed, they gave me big-time earwire (like a wire being twisted in your ears). Now I use Edgar "saladbowls" and all I can say is they sound "right". Supposedly the tractrix curve gives a better launch to the soundwaves, I dunno but they sound good. I've used Altec, EV, JBL, PAudio, McCauley and Klipsch horn flares, I prefer the Edgars, 2nd best is the Altec 511B. My opinions ya understand. Here's a funny thing though. One day Paul Eizik came over with his home-made tractrix horns and we spent the afternoon listening to a variety of horns and drivers: Paul's horns, the Edgars, Altec 511s with 4 different sets of Altec and JBL drivers, mixing and matching. You know what? They ALL sounded good. Yeah, you could hear a difference going from say, Paul's horns with JBL 2426s to JBL LE-175s on Edgars to Altec 806s on 511s, but the differences were in detail not in quality and after a few minutes we were just listening to the music and forgetting about which horn-drivers were in use. Horns are low distortion-high clarity devices, once you have that going the music sounds good.
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