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 :-)

Great write-up, thanks!

I had a great time at Lima and am glad I got the chance to meet you. I'm happy your getting around to doing a few things with the horns you got and thanks for the input on what you hear from tham them all. One small note, the 17" horns you got from me are a exponential horn that can be crossed as low as 800hz by my recomendations. I have tested these horns with some drivers that have lower frequency output and the horn will give good results to 600hz. So for that reason I label the 17" horn a 800hz model. Take your time blending in the throat to the horn or you might notice a little peak. Have fun finishing all those horns too! The Dynaco is sounding very good. I might play around and mod it a little but I'm not in a hurry to mess with it. I have it set up with the same Arezzo speakers I displayed at the show and I listen to something almost every day using it.

Bill

I really do like these horns, my Altecs are in the basement already :-)

Cheers, Ron