Best Small Horn speaker? Horn speaker lovers. (Piano sound)

[Willgolf]

I bought a pair of Viking acoustics Berlin's last summer. I live in Santa Fe so I able to audition them. I wasn't looking for another pair of speakers but once I heard them I wanted them. What i like about them is their smallish size and big sound. My room is 17x17. They work perfectly in my room. With my other speakers I use a pair of subs. Not needed with the Berlins. David's technology of porting the bass through the horn is in unusual but delivers great bass. Deep and tight. The mids and highs are also exemplary. I'm very happy with them till I move up to L'instrument in a year or so.
John

Did you get a chance to hear my Grande Voix's while David had them in his studio? I think you might bypass L'Instrument for your next speakers. My only option is the Gottenberg's. LOL. Thankfully I love the GV's.

 

[loki1957]

Yes I did hear the Grande Voix. Incredible. The sound filled his cavernous studio. Problem is they are way to big for my room.

 

[djsina2]

Yes I did hear the Grande Voix. Incredible. The sound filled his cavernous studio. Problem is they are way to big for my room.

If I had a bigger room I’d get the Fantom. My Berlin R mk3 will hopefully arrive in another few weeks.

 

[bazelio]

Yes I did hear the Grande Voix. Incredible. The sound filled his cavernous studio. Problem is they are way to big for my room.

How big is your room, and what about the L'Instrument?

 

[loki1957]

My room is 17x17. I am concerned about the size of L'Instument but I haven't seen them yet.

 

[djsina2]

My room is 17x17. I am concerned about the size of L'Instument but I haven't seen them yet.

My room is smaller and David said they would work for me. Came close to getting those, maybe someday.

 

[Willgolf]

If I had a bigger room I’d get the Fantom. My Berlin R mk3 will hopefully arrive in another few weeks.

I DID HEARTHE FANTOMS. THEY ARE VERY GOOD ALSO. I have not hear L'Instrument but I would think in a smaller room they would explode with sound.

 

[marmota]

"Small" and "horn" are mutually exclusive words, even more so if your objective is a convincing reproduction of piano, and even more so if you want to use low powered amplifiers. "Cheating" with a driver loaded to a TQWT instead of a horn may be your closest option. With such priorities and the small room size, I'll look at something like the Cessaro Chopin, which is smaller than it's successor Wagner. Downside is that, due to being discontinued, it may not be available for audition at a dealearship unless it is a used or ex-demo pair. I have not heard the Chopin, but it is a speaker I plan to hear and probably buy if I like due to it's characteristics and relatively low used price. Ditto for the Horning Eufrodite, it may be a tad big for your space, but due to having 39300391 different revisions, used prices are ridiculously low compared to new.

 

[loki1957]

I must say that the Berlin's are very good speakers and I'm very happy with them. I have a problem with upgrading things every 2 years.

 

[djsina2]

I must say that the Berlin's are very good speakers and I'm very happy with them. I have a problem with upgrading things every 2 years.

Which Berlin version do you have?

 

[loki1957]

I think they are 2's. They aren't the latest version.

 

[morricab]

"Small" and "horn" are mutually exclusive words, even more so if your objective is a convincing reproduction of piano, and even more so if you want to use low powered amplifiers. "Cheating" with a driver loaded to a TQWT instead of a horn may be your closest option. With such priorities and the small room size, I'll look at something like the Cessaro Chopin, which is smaller than it's successor Wagner. Downside is that, due to being discontinued, it may not be available for audition at a dealearship unless it is a used or ex-demo pair. I have not heard the Chopin, but it is a speaker I plan to hear and probably buy if I like due to it's characteristics and relatively low used price. Ditto for the Horning Eufrodite, it may be a tad big for your space, but due to having 39300391 different revisions, used prices are ridiculously low compared to new.

Both my main speakers (Odeon La Boheme) and my project system (Supravox Alizee + horn) “cheat” using a high sensitivity wideband cone and a horn loaded compression driver tweeter. Piano on the La Bohemes is one of the more realistic I have heard, especially with what I call “action” on the piano itself. Dynamic scaling is also superb.

 

[marmota]

Both my main speakers (Odeon La Boheme) and my project system (Supravox Alizee + horn) “cheat” using a high sensitivity wideband cone and a horn loaded compression driver tweeter. Piano on the La Bohemes is one of the more realistic I have heard, especially with what I call “action” on the piano itself. Dynamic scaling is also superb.

It's a very interesting topology, and certainly a very good option for getting proper dynamics and high sensitivity because it allows the use of high sensitivity, very low qts (low mass + huge magnets) drivers that wouldn't work that well in more conventional bass reflex or sealed enclosures. Also, some constructions use the TQWT/horn gain and room placement close to corners to avoid a baffle step circuit, and as such they have simpler, more efficient crossovers. This kind of speaker + low power SET is a very wise choice for a small-medium size room IMHO.

 

[morricab]

It's a very interesting topology, and certainly a very good option for getting proper dynamics and high sensitivity because it allows the use of high sensitivity, very low qts (low mass + huge magnets) drivers that wouldn't work that well in more conventional bass reflex or sealed enclosures. Also, some constructions use the TQWT/horn gain and room placement close to corners to avoid a baffle step circuit, and as such they have simpler, more efficient crossovers. This kind of speaker + low power SET is a very wise choice for a small-medium size room IMHO.

As I don't have huge rooms for hifi, i have found this to be the ideal combination for dynamics of horns with much of the bass and power of a vented box. The Odeons are using a very old doped paper driver from Focal (from the 1980s), which is beautifully smooth and flat out to over 5Khz and with a 95db sensitivity. However, it has very low Qts (0.21 I think), which means a huge Onken style vented box or something like a TQWT, which is what Odeon went with. They then coupled that with a nice wooden round horn (Tractix or Spherical...I am not sure) and a 1 inch compression driver from Beyma (CP350Ti).

The Supravox system has the 8 inch driver 215-2000, which is 99db but with a Qts of 0.23. It also has a moving mass of only 7 grams! Super transparent and alive sounding driver. What is amazing is that in the TQWT designed by Supravox this speaker is getting down to 30Hz in room. I am coupling this to an 18 Sound XT1464 horn + Beyma CP755Ti or Iwata 600 + Beyma CP350Ti for the highs.

The Cessaro Chopin and Wagner also use the same Supravox 215-2000 driver as the main driver, a nice wood or composite horn and a TAD compression driver. It is not clear to me though what the backloaded horn configuration is that they are using. From the mouth it looks more like a traditional exponetial horn, although in their description they call it something like a hornreflex, which could be a hybrid design or another name for a TQWT. Not sure it will produce the same quantity of bass as I have found traditional exponential backloaded horns to sound somewhat weak in the bass unless the horn is pretty long. TQWT takes less space and seems to be more powerful sounding.

I only heard Hornings a long time ago but was very impressed...have always considered them but ultimately didn't buy a pair...yet.

 

[dcktr]

Has anyone heard the LMH "Horny One"
Active, Built in DSP.
Thanks
Ron