"Please allow me to introduce myself..." from Azzolina Audio
- Thread starter Azzolina Audio
- Start date
Hi guys, to continue where I so abruptly left off... Thank you for your patience - "...I will be faithful."
There are few current production speakers well suited for triodes in the home IMHO. Most vintage horn systems are suited for public address and appropriate large space distribution. When these are put in personal listening spaces and listened to "near field" the negative horn sound reputation is born. Horns are quite capable of sounding as natural as anything else in these same spaces, perhaps more so, when they are designed for it. Our ears, throats and mouths are testimony.
It was not that much of a reach to determine that despite the PA application of vintage systems there was more to the endeavour than efficiency. Triodes and a certain genre of loudspeaker driver evolved together. Not only efficient but also with low inertia, low Xmax, and high self dampening. Paper, curvilinear cones, textile surrounds, phenolic spiders, etc... are a few of the other descriptors.
As the transistor arrived on scene there was a celebration in burning these specifications, restrictions and costs. A new genre of loudspeaker was born which were smaller, cheaper and easier to make. As the abundance and economy of the transistor increased the orientation of the collective consciousness changed from efficiency to power. "How many watts?" is a question that is still with us today.
The American military surplus equipment left in Asia was a seed which sprouted in the "discovery" of triode sound into the commercial realm as we know it today. This meant that instead of the quantity the quality of the watt came back into focus. As a friend of mine recently said: "If the first watt is not right, one cannot make up for it with all the watts in the world." The endless racks of Cinema and PA tube gear which were, for decades, thrown down stairs enthusiastically on the way to the tip are only now lamented. Even so, the speakers of that time were not generally suited for living space.
This is where we enter. Our goal is to utilise as much pertinent knowledge as possible to create a speaker which is suited for triodes. Instead of PA/Cinema applications we design horns for the personal listening environment. This means that besides becoming conversant with acoustics, tube and horn lore, new design and manufacturing processes, the familiarity with live music remains the most valuable asset. When all is done it is the experience of music which we are after: to bring back to life the treasures of human experience, understanding and creativity stored in recorded media.
There are few current production speakers well suited for triodes in the home IMHO. Most vintage horn systems are suited for public address and appropriate large space distribution. When these are put in personal listening spaces and listened to "near field" the negative horn sound reputation is born. Horns are quite capable of sounding as natural as anything else in these same spaces, perhaps more so, when they are designed for it. Our ears, throats and mouths are testimony.
It was not that much of a reach to determine that despite the PA application of vintage systems there was more to the endeavour than efficiency. Triodes and a certain genre of loudspeaker driver evolved together. Not only efficient but also with low inertia, low Xmax, and high self dampening. Paper, curvilinear cones, textile surrounds, phenolic spiders, etc... are a few of the other descriptors.
As the transistor arrived on scene there was a celebration in burning these specifications, restrictions and costs. A new genre of loudspeaker was born which were smaller, cheaper and easier to make. As the abundance and economy of the transistor increased the orientation of the collective consciousness changed from efficiency to power. "How many watts?" is a question that is still with us today.
The American military surplus equipment left in Asia was a seed which sprouted in the "discovery" of triode sound into the commercial realm as we know it today. This meant that instead of the quantity the quality of the watt came back into focus. As a friend of mine recently said: "If the first watt is not right, one cannot make up for it with all the watts in the world." The endless racks of Cinema and PA tube gear which were, for decades, thrown down stairs enthusiastically on the way to the tip are only now lamented. Even so, the speakers of that time were not generally suited for living space.
This is where we enter. Our goal is to utilise as much pertinent knowledge as possible to create a speaker which is suited for triodes. Instead of PA/Cinema applications we design horns for the personal listening environment. This means that besides becoming conversant with acoustics, tube and horn lore, new design and manufacturing processes, the familiarity with live music remains the most valuable asset. When all is done it is the experience of music which we are after: to bring back to life the treasures of human experience, understanding and creativity stored in recorded media.
Hi Charles,
Great post - thanks for your thoughts on this subject.
Do you have any thoughts on why the topology as above is able to carry the life and emotional content of music often absent in some modern designs with low efficiency and requiring oodles of watts to even begin to wake up?
Cheers
Hello Bill, thank you.
Yes, I have many! One of them, in the cards all along is sensitivity. If we agree that once we loose information during reproduction we do not get it back then low loss becomes a priority. Low loss, efficiency and sensitivity are synonymous.
Once sensitivity is given away many things begin working against the process. An infrastructure becomes required to compensate for attempting to shout through a wall. Cables, spikes, and similar treatments are examples of attempts to reclaim what was so readily given away at the beginning. To quote Paul Klipsch: "High efficiency results in reduced distortion in the speaker and less demand on the amplifier."
Here are some other quotations on horns:
"...But when you get a horn system set up right, the sound quality is amazing. The most obvious advantage is in the dynamic range and transient response of the horns. For me, the emotional impact of recorded music is in the dynamics. Most speakers just do not produce realistic dynamic contrasts. Horns do, and they do so with ease. They also excel in low distortion. The sound seems unusually clean even at high levels..."
"One of the major challenges in setting up a horn system is finding an amplifier which will work with the horns. High power solid state amplifiers sound best when mated to inefficient speakers. With horn speakers they tend to sound really awful. The efficiency of horns is so high that your average big hog solid state amp never really gets turned on. Likewise, big tube amps using banks of 6550s just don't sound that clean when operated in the milliwatt power range. Horns work best with low power tube amps."
- Greg Boynton, "What about horns", Sound Practices Vol.1, #1
"At equal acoustic outputs, as compared to conventional dynamic or electrostatic loudspeakers, horns offer a dramatic increase in dynamic capability, image size, and presence. Harmonic distortion drops to a quarter of the value found in audiophile direct radiator systems. In contrast, most direct radiators severely compress dynamic contrasts and reduce image size to the proportions of a symphony on a table-top. These are bothsevere distortions for which there are no measurements. More importantly, these are distortions which reduce the fun and excitement of music.
When reproduced music lacks weight and body, when sudden transients fail to startle, and the lead singer is only two feet tall, what's left? Detail? Transparency? Tonal balance?
People often say that most horns "sound like horns" and are therefore "disqualified from audiophile consideration". To me, a 90% reduction in image size is a gross distortion, but owners of minimonitors talk endlessly about imaging and transient response. But without weight and body, the transients fail to startle and lose most of their emotional power.
A system capable of reproducing an enormous soundstage, that showcases dynamic contrasts, and presents music with realistic presence, weight and body will never fail to excite and arouse. These are the traits that the triode/horn systems use to communicate. These are the traits that stimulate our body and unconscious mind..."
- Herbert E. Reichert, "The Science of Beauty: Audio Culture in the Nineties", Positive Feedback (The Journal of the Oregon Triode Society) Vol.5, #1
"...If you have only heard nasty horns, you might find it hard to believe that a good horn system can be the best speaker PERIOD."
- Herbert E. Reichert, "Casual Reactions", Sound Practices, Vol.1, #4
"...If you don't think a speaker can have explosive dynamics, wall-to-wall imaging, a seamless midrange that just won't quit, incredibly low distortion, a sweet, airy top end, and do all this without a hint of strain, you just haven't driven a good horn system lately!"
- Jeff Markwart and John Tucker, "Altec Voice of the Theater speakers for Hi-Fi", Sound Practices Vol.1, #4
"...Once horn speakers get in your blood nothing else will do. They put you IN the music in a way other types of speakers rarely do."
- Paul Eizik, letter to "Readers' Forum", Sound Practices Vol.2, #1
"...Horns have a very forward presentation. Back in the Seventies, "too forward" was a common criticism of speakers. What people were looking for was that backward sound, I guess.
The illusion horns provide is a "they are here" sound rather than the old "you are there" illusion. That is, the sound is so dynamic and alive that it sounds like the music is going on IN YOUR ROOM."
- Joe Roberts, "Reconsider Baby - The Promise of Horns in the Contemporary Situation", Sound Practices Vol.2, #3
"The higher the efficiency of a loudspeaker, the lower the distortion. In the absence of weight-loading, the distortion may be expected to be inversely as the square of the efficiency. In the case of weighted diaphragms, the major penalties are the power required to accelerate the extra weight and the resulting looseness of coupling between the electrical power and the air being moved. Transient response has to do with peak power output available with linearity (freedom from amplitude distortion) and the ability of the speaker to produce sound pressures proportional to applied instantaneous power.
Much effort has been expended to reduce weight of moving parts such as the diaphragm, and so forth - even to the extent of using aluminum ribbon voice coils instead of copper. There is seen to be a premium placed on high efficiency. This significantly applies not only to speakers but to amplifiers.
High efficiency results in reduced distortion in the speaker and less demand on the amplifier."
- Paul W. Klipsch, "Speaker Power", Audio, October 1961
"The existence of subharmonics in direct radiator loudspeakers is well known. However, in horn loudspeakers the diaphragms are relatively small and quite rigid. Consequently, the conditions for the production of subharmonics is not particularly favorable."
- Harry F. Olson, "Elements of Acoustical Engineering", Chapter 7 - "Horn Loudspeakers"
"As far as the ear can tell, consistently clean and spacious bass can be reproduced only by a driver unit coupled to a horn-type acoustic transformer..."
- "Toneburst", "Low-cost Horn Loudspeaker System - Details of successful experiments", Wireless World, May 1974
"Although full-range horn systems are used today only by a small number of enthusiasts, most experts are unanimous in acclaiming their virtues as loudspeaker enclosures, especially their high degree of realism and "presence".
- Jack Dinsdale, "Horn Loudspeaker Design", Part I, Wireless World, March 1974
"The advantages of horn-loaded systems lie in the fact that it is possible in such systems to obtain relatively distortion-free output at the low frequencies because of the small motions of the diaphragm even when large amounts of acoustic power are realized. Secondly, the high efficiency of the horn-loaded systems means, of course, that for a given power output the system does not have to be driven as hard electrically as the direct radiator baffle. This naturally results in more conservative use of amplifier power with consequently reduced amplifier distortion and better linearity of response during peak bursts of power."
- Abraham B. Cohen, "Hi-Fi Loudspeakers and Enclosures", Chapter 11 "Horn-Type Enclosures"
"In every case - woofer, squawker, tweeter - the horn offers "cleaner" sound at all practical levels of sound pressure output. Indeed the horn is about the only means for delivering extremely high sound pressure levels with reasonably low distortion."
"Modulation distortion is directly affected by the amplitude of diaphragm motion, and would thus be greatly reduced by horn loading."
- Paul W. Klipsch, "Loudspeaker Performance", Wireless World, February 1970
"...Another great advantage of horn loading is that it results in heavy damping of the cone movement and consequent elimination of resonances."
- H.J.F. Crabbe, "Design for a Folded Corner Horn", Wireless World, February 1958
"A small diaphragm may be designed to be extremely rigid and to move as a piston up to frequencies much higher than can be achieved with a large paper cone; as a result, the variations in sound output over the frequency range will be much reduced. A properly designed horn presents a resistive load to the diaphragm that is high and constant over a wide frequency range and down to a much lower frequency than is possible with a direct radiator speaker. Transient oscillations of the diaphragm are thus largely damped, and this gives the reproduction from a properly designed horn a solidity and body unequalled by any type of direct radiator speaker."
- James Moir, "High Quality Sound Reproduction"
"These speakers' high efficiency and dynamic range provide an impact and realism to percussive sounds I haven't heard in many nonhorn systems."
- Rick Steiner, "A Back-Loaded Wall-Horn Speaker", Speaker Builder 4/91
"...The model proved highly successful and gave good correlation with measured results, which used a Community M4 as a signal source (capable of producing signals with less than 1% harmonic distortion, even at 150 dB).
- Philip Newell and Keith Holland, "Round the Horn", Studio Sound, March 1994
"The use of horn-loading provides, I believe, the best acoustic coupling yet devised, with superior transient response, smoother frequency response, and high efficiency, while the configuration improves the polar response of the unit."
- James Nicholson, "A High Efficiency Mid & High Range Horn", The Audio Amateur
"I first became acquainted with horns when I heard a fellow engineer's home built system in 1977. I was literally blown away by the realistic dynamics of the system and set about learning all I could about horn design..."
- Dr. Bruce Edgar, letter to "Readers' Forum", Sound Practices, Vol.1, #2
Ultimately we must listen and decide for ourselves.
Yes, I have many! One of them, in the cards all along is sensitivity. If we agree that once we loose information during reproduction we do not get it back then low loss becomes a priority. Low loss, efficiency and sensitivity are synonymous.
Once sensitivity is given away many things begin working against the process. An infrastructure becomes required to compensate for attempting to shout through a wall. Cables, spikes, and similar treatments are examples of attempts to reclaim what was so readily given away at the beginning. To quote Paul Klipsch: "High efficiency results in reduced distortion in the speaker and less demand on the amplifier."
Here are some other quotations on horns:
"...But when you get a horn system set up right, the sound quality is amazing. The most obvious advantage is in the dynamic range and transient response of the horns. For me, the emotional impact of recorded music is in the dynamics. Most speakers just do not produce realistic dynamic contrasts. Horns do, and they do so with ease. They also excel in low distortion. The sound seems unusually clean even at high levels..."
"One of the major challenges in setting up a horn system is finding an amplifier which will work with the horns. High power solid state amplifiers sound best when mated to inefficient speakers. With horn speakers they tend to sound really awful. The efficiency of horns is so high that your average big hog solid state amp never really gets turned on. Likewise, big tube amps using banks of 6550s just don't sound that clean when operated in the milliwatt power range. Horns work best with low power tube amps."
- Greg Boynton, "What about horns", Sound Practices Vol.1, #1
"At equal acoustic outputs, as compared to conventional dynamic or electrostatic loudspeakers, horns offer a dramatic increase in dynamic capability, image size, and presence. Harmonic distortion drops to a quarter of the value found in audiophile direct radiator systems. In contrast, most direct radiators severely compress dynamic contrasts and reduce image size to the proportions of a symphony on a table-top. These are bothsevere distortions for which there are no measurements. More importantly, these are distortions which reduce the fun and excitement of music.
When reproduced music lacks weight and body, when sudden transients fail to startle, and the lead singer is only two feet tall, what's left? Detail? Transparency? Tonal balance?
People often say that most horns "sound like horns" and are therefore "disqualified from audiophile consideration". To me, a 90% reduction in image size is a gross distortion, but owners of minimonitors talk endlessly about imaging and transient response. But without weight and body, the transients fail to startle and lose most of their emotional power.
A system capable of reproducing an enormous soundstage, that showcases dynamic contrasts, and presents music with realistic presence, weight and body will never fail to excite and arouse. These are the traits that the triode/horn systems use to communicate. These are the traits that stimulate our body and unconscious mind..."
- Herbert E. Reichert, "The Science of Beauty: Audio Culture in the Nineties", Positive Feedback (The Journal of the Oregon Triode Society) Vol.5, #1
"...If you have only heard nasty horns, you might find it hard to believe that a good horn system can be the best speaker PERIOD."
- Herbert E. Reichert, "Casual Reactions", Sound Practices, Vol.1, #4
"...If you don't think a speaker can have explosive dynamics, wall-to-wall imaging, a seamless midrange that just won't quit, incredibly low distortion, a sweet, airy top end, and do all this without a hint of strain, you just haven't driven a good horn system lately!"
- Jeff Markwart and John Tucker, "Altec Voice of the Theater speakers for Hi-Fi", Sound Practices Vol.1, #4
"...Once horn speakers get in your blood nothing else will do. They put you IN the music in a way other types of speakers rarely do."
- Paul Eizik, letter to "Readers' Forum", Sound Practices Vol.2, #1
"...Horns have a very forward presentation. Back in the Seventies, "too forward" was a common criticism of speakers. What people were looking for was that backward sound, I guess.
The illusion horns provide is a "they are here" sound rather than the old "you are there" illusion. That is, the sound is so dynamic and alive that it sounds like the music is going on IN YOUR ROOM."
- Joe Roberts, "Reconsider Baby - The Promise of Horns in the Contemporary Situation", Sound Practices Vol.2, #3
"The higher the efficiency of a loudspeaker, the lower the distortion. In the absence of weight-loading, the distortion may be expected to be inversely as the square of the efficiency. In the case of weighted diaphragms, the major penalties are the power required to accelerate the extra weight and the resulting looseness of coupling between the electrical power and the air being moved. Transient response has to do with peak power output available with linearity (freedom from amplitude distortion) and the ability of the speaker to produce sound pressures proportional to applied instantaneous power.
Much effort has been expended to reduce weight of moving parts such as the diaphragm, and so forth - even to the extent of using aluminum ribbon voice coils instead of copper. There is seen to be a premium placed on high efficiency. This significantly applies not only to speakers but to amplifiers.
High efficiency results in reduced distortion in the speaker and less demand on the amplifier."
- Paul W. Klipsch, "Speaker Power", Audio, October 1961
"The existence of subharmonics in direct radiator loudspeakers is well known. However, in horn loudspeakers the diaphragms are relatively small and quite rigid. Consequently, the conditions for the production of subharmonics is not particularly favorable."
- Harry F. Olson, "Elements of Acoustical Engineering", Chapter 7 - "Horn Loudspeakers"
"As far as the ear can tell, consistently clean and spacious bass can be reproduced only by a driver unit coupled to a horn-type acoustic transformer..."
- "Toneburst", "Low-cost Horn Loudspeaker System - Details of successful experiments", Wireless World, May 1974
"Although full-range horn systems are used today only by a small number of enthusiasts, most experts are unanimous in acclaiming their virtues as loudspeaker enclosures, especially their high degree of realism and "presence".
- Jack Dinsdale, "Horn Loudspeaker Design", Part I, Wireless World, March 1974
"The advantages of horn-loaded systems lie in the fact that it is possible in such systems to obtain relatively distortion-free output at the low frequencies because of the small motions of the diaphragm even when large amounts of acoustic power are realized. Secondly, the high efficiency of the horn-loaded systems means, of course, that for a given power output the system does not have to be driven as hard electrically as the direct radiator baffle. This naturally results in more conservative use of amplifier power with consequently reduced amplifier distortion and better linearity of response during peak bursts of power."
- Abraham B. Cohen, "Hi-Fi Loudspeakers and Enclosures", Chapter 11 "Horn-Type Enclosures"
"In every case - woofer, squawker, tweeter - the horn offers "cleaner" sound at all practical levels of sound pressure output. Indeed the horn is about the only means for delivering extremely high sound pressure levels with reasonably low distortion."
"Modulation distortion is directly affected by the amplitude of diaphragm motion, and would thus be greatly reduced by horn loading."
- Paul W. Klipsch, "Loudspeaker Performance", Wireless World, February 1970
"...Another great advantage of horn loading is that it results in heavy damping of the cone movement and consequent elimination of resonances."
- H.J.F. Crabbe, "Design for a Folded Corner Horn", Wireless World, February 1958
"A small diaphragm may be designed to be extremely rigid and to move as a piston up to frequencies much higher than can be achieved with a large paper cone; as a result, the variations in sound output over the frequency range will be much reduced. A properly designed horn presents a resistive load to the diaphragm that is high and constant over a wide frequency range and down to a much lower frequency than is possible with a direct radiator speaker. Transient oscillations of the diaphragm are thus largely damped, and this gives the reproduction from a properly designed horn a solidity and body unequalled by any type of direct radiator speaker."
- James Moir, "High Quality Sound Reproduction"
"These speakers' high efficiency and dynamic range provide an impact and realism to percussive sounds I haven't heard in many nonhorn systems."
- Rick Steiner, "A Back-Loaded Wall-Horn Speaker", Speaker Builder 4/91
"...The model proved highly successful and gave good correlation with measured results, which used a Community M4 as a signal source (capable of producing signals with less than 1% harmonic distortion, even at 150 dB).
- Philip Newell and Keith Holland, "Round the Horn", Studio Sound, March 1994
"The use of horn-loading provides, I believe, the best acoustic coupling yet devised, with superior transient response, smoother frequency response, and high efficiency, while the configuration improves the polar response of the unit."
- James Nicholson, "A High Efficiency Mid & High Range Horn", The Audio Amateur
"I first became acquainted with horns when I heard a fellow engineer's home built system in 1977. I was literally blown away by the realistic dynamics of the system and set about learning all I could about horn design..."
- Dr. Bruce Edgar, letter to "Readers' Forum", Sound Practices, Vol.1, #2
Ultimately we must listen and decide for ourselves.
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We don't need to rehash this debate but let us remember that Mike's speaker are a 2 ohm load. They are not easy to drive.
In contrast, Most field coil drivers are 16 ohm load.
agree we don't need to waste any more bandwidth on my experience, however (1) the Lamm ML3's output 32 watts (not 20) according to the manufacturer, and (2) my Evolution Acoustics MM7's have a nominal input impedance of 7 ohms (not 2 ohms) according to the manufacturer (and the amps are not required to do the lowest octave as the bass towers are active). but then there are my room size, musical choices and high expectations (uber power solid state alternative) of drive capability to be considered too.
so not sure my particular experience is a good analogy of what might be satisfactory for others. 32 Lamm watts will be sufficient in many situations.
Charles, your passion on all this comes thru loud and clear. FWIW, I've heard the Denman Exponential Horn, utilising a 27' length, opening into a 6'x5' horn mouth, powered by a bespoke field coil driver off specialised 1W triode.
And I've never had such a transcendental listening experience, before or since.
If you can achieve something approaching this, I will be so impressed.
And I've never had such a transcendental listening experience, before or since.
If you can achieve something approaching this, I will be so impressed.
Hi, thank you. I hope I did not overdo it on the last post. I have those quotations on file. My intention was to create a pause in which giving good horns consideration might seem worth while...
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Charles, no apology needed, it's refreshing to take in such a purist approach, w real love for the past translated into a solution that works today in a domestic setting, and keeps much of what made that WE sound so compelling.
I've heard a WE in the most preposterous shoe horned and hamstrung domestic setting, and it ranks as the single worst and most embarrassingly poor audio experience I've ever had the misfortune to hear.
But it'll be something to behold in the Hadrons since it looks like you've got it right.
Can I ask if you've developed the Hadron listening to music across a wide variety of genres? Ie will the Hadron in addition to excelling where horns always do well (female vocals, well recorded classical and jazz), also do well where many horns become jittery and unreliable, ie bass heavy electronica, dance and funk, flat soundstage multi tracked rock and pop, well worn 70s staples like progressive rock and fusion?
Put it another way Charles, do the Hadrons perform as well w classic French genius band Magma, as they do w Monteverdi?
I've heard a WE in the most preposterous shoe horned and hamstrung domestic setting, and it ranks as the single worst and most embarrassingly poor audio experience I've ever had the misfortune to hear.
But it'll be something to behold in the Hadrons since it looks like you've got it right.
Can I ask if you've developed the Hadron listening to music across a wide variety of genres? Ie will the Hadron in addition to excelling where horns always do well (female vocals, well recorded classical and jazz), also do well where many horns become jittery and unreliable, ie bass heavy electronica, dance and funk, flat soundstage multi tracked rock and pop, well worn 70s staples like progressive rock and fusion?
Put it another way Charles, do the Hadrons perform as well w classic French genius band Magma, as they do w Monteverdi?
Hi, my perspective is that a good loudspeaker should be able to play all types of music with aplomb. I have never agreed that there are different loudspeakers for different genres. I enjoy many types of music and without prejudice (that I am aware of). A loudspeaker should keep pace with whatever needs playing at the time. It is my intention that our speakers perform in relation to this.
Charles, "should" occasionally translates into "struggles to". I should know, my Zus are a little jittery when it comes to classical.
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