What are the Top Horn Speakers in the World Today? Vox Olympian vs Avantgarde Trio vs ???

[morricab]

Of the three times you have heard the Cubus, what were the amps driving the Cubus?

I heard the Cubus sound excellent with (I think it was) Thrax and several times REALLY horrible with Mola Mola

I think he was referring to Cube Audio (single driver speakers from Poland) and not the Lansche Cubus, which I doubt he has heard.

 

[bonzo75]

Of the three times you have heard the Cubus, what were the amps driving the Cubus?

I heard the Cubus sound excellent with (I think it was) Thrax and several times REALLY horrible with Mola Mola

first watt, Aries cerat, LM 845. The AC guy shifted over to the wooden Odeons which were better than the cube. Only the LM system was analog the other two were digital.

 

[bonzo75]

I think he was referring to Cube Audio (single driver speakers from Poland) and not the Lansche Cubus, which I doubt he has heard.

Correct.

of the Lansche I have heard one 20k model and one 60k. I had also heard an older smaller model with the tenor 75 OTL. All had active woofers

 

[christoph]

Correct.

of the Lansche I have heard one 20k model and one 60k. I had also heard an older smaller model with the tenor 75 OTL. All had active woofers

I thought because we are in the "Top Horn Speakers" Thread that it should be the Lansche Cubus and NOT the Cube fullrange

 

[bonzo75]

I thought because we are in the "Top Horn Speakers" Thread that it should be the Lansche Cubus and NOT the Cube fullrange

i was replying to someone who bought in a generic whizzer cone reference with cube audio as an example in a reply to a post on AER. Maybe direct this to him?

 

[christoph]

All good, just a minor misunderstanding that could be resolved

 

[Bjorn]

What is one of major strengths with a well designed a horn speaker? Directivity control or uniformity of the dispersion.
Despite of that, there doesn't seem to be much talk of that here and horn speakers with quite poor directivity are mentioned as being among the best.

 

[Ron Resnick]

What is one of major strengths with a well designed a horn speaker? Directivity control or uniformity of the dispersion.

For me, neither. To use your terms I don't care for the presentation resulting from directivity control, nor do I care for the presentation resulting from uniformity of the dispersion.

In general, I don't like loudspeakers that are positioned by pushing them against, or close to, the front wall. Of course this is all personal preference.

What I think the best horn speakers do better than any other type of loudspeaker is reproduce believably the sounds of brass instruments and string instruments and pianos and move air in a way that is consonant with the way that brass instruments and string instruments and pianos themselves make their sounds.

 

[bonzo75]

For me, neither. To use your terms I don't care for the presentation resulting from directivity control, nor do I care from the presentation resulting from uniformity of the dispersion.

In general, I don't like loudspeakers that are positioned by pushing them against, or close to, the front wall. Of course this is all personal preference.

What I think horn speakers do better than any other type of loudspeaker is reproduce sounds in a way that is consonant with the way that brass instruments and string instruments and pianos themselves make their sounds.

And of course the good ones have better integration, bass, flow, continuity, agility, and nuance, and transparency to recordings, in addition from the tone and timbre effects that you refer to

 

[Bjorn]

For me, neither. To use your terms I don't care for the presentation resulting from directivity control, nor do I care for the presentation resulting from uniformity of the dispersion.

In general, I don't like loudspeakers that are positioned by pushing them against, or close to, the front wall. Of course this is all personal preference.

What I think the best horn speakers do better than any other type of loudspeaker is reproduce believably the sounds of brass instruments and string instruments and pianos and move air in a way that is consonant with the way that brass instruments and string instruments and pianos themselves make their sounds.

Well, uniformity of the directivity is essential in speaker design and have major impact on sound quality as it directly relates to how it interacts with the room. Whether one understand it or not.

 

[morricab]

And of course the good ones have better integration, bass, flow, continuity, agility, and nuance, and transparency to recordings, in addition from the tone and timbre effects that you refer to

Beliievability is much than tome and timbre effects…it is micro and macro dynamics as well.

 

[morricab]

I thought because we are in the "Top Horn Speakers" Thread that it should be the Lansche Cubus and NOT the Cube fullrange

Cube Audio and Pnoe both horn load single drivers (Cube with a TQWT and Pnoe a backloaded exponential horn)….we can argue how far they are from the top but they are both horns.

 

[morricab]

Well, uniformity of the directivity is essential in speaker design and have major impact on sound quality as it directly relates to how it interacts with the room. Whether one understand it or not.

I don’t think one needs constant directivity in a horn for it to sound really good. I have heard too many examples of good sounding horns without CD to believe it’s necessary. What does seem important is resonance and diffraction control.

A non-CD horn might actually give less room interaction because of narrowing dispersion at higher frequencies. This might require more toe-in but more direct sound and less room.

 

[Ron Resnick]

Well, uniformity of the directivity is essential in speaker design

What is the "uniformity of the directivity" of a planar dipole loudspeaker? Do you just mean whatever is the radiation pattern of any particular speaker?

 

[Bjorn]

It means the directivity is uniform or constant. It implies the radiation pattern doesn't change much, thus the energy being sent out from the speaker is similar at the different frequencies. Highly regarded by any competent speaker designer and often considered the holy grail.

Obviously there are other important factors as well, but we can't disregard the spectral content when we listen in rooms with four surfaces. The energy being sent out from the speaker highly effects the result due to reflected energy from surfaces.

Take note the a uniform or constant directivity doesn't say anything about the beam width, or the "width" of the dispersion. It can be both narrow or wide, though horns are often generally quite narrow.

 

[Ron Resnick]

It means the directivity is uniform or constant. It implies the radiation pattern doesn't change much, thus the energy being sent out from the speaker is similar at the different frequencies. Highly regarded by any competent speaker designer and often considered the holy grail.

Obviously there are other important factors as well, but we can't disregard the spectral content when we listen in rooms with four surfaces. The energy being sent out from the speaker highly effects the result due to reflected energy from surfaces.

Take note the a uniform or constant directivity doesn't say anything about the beam width, or the "width" of the dispersion. It can be both narrow or wide, though horns are often generally quite narrow.

Thank you.

 

[Don Reid]

the whole point of AER drivers is to run them full range as much as possible, i understand some adding a woofer below to try a two way. Adding a tweeter makes even less sense

I have owned the AER BD3s for about twenty years and I have tried them in many different configurations including without tweeters. Just because they were designed to be full range drivers doesn't mean that they could not be excellent midrange drivers as they indeed are. As for making sense that is a quite subjective thing. Like all subjective judgements different strokes for different folks.

 

[Bjorn]

I don’t think one needs constant directivity in a horn for it to sound really good. I have heard too many examples of good sounding horns without CD to believe it’s necessary. What does seem important is resonance and diffraction control.

A non-CD horn might actually give less room interaction because of narrowing dispersion at higher frequencies. This might require more toe-in but more direct sound and less room.

While a horn that is beaming (narrowing as you go up in frequency) might give less room interaction at higher frequencies, the reflected energy from the room ends up being different for different frequencies. So you end with a colored result. The combination of narrow and wide band constant directivity would be better.

IMO, very beaming horns don't sound natural. Often, the sweetspot for the highs are tiny as well.

 

[bonzo75]

I have owned the AER BD3s for about twenty years and I have tried them in many different configurations including without tweeters. Just because they were designed to be full range drivers doesn't mean that they could not be excellent midrange drivers as they indeed are. As for making sense that is a quite subjective thing. Like all subjective judgements different strokes for different folks.

well you should move to BD4 or 5 then instead of compromising it. Lack of crossover is the best thing to have of extension enables it

 

[morricab]

While a horn that is beaming (narrowing as you go up in frequency) might give less room interaction at higher frequencies, the reflected energy from the room ends up being different for different frequencies. So you end with a colored result. The combination of narrow and wide band constant directivity would be better.

IMO, very beaming horns don't sound natural. Often, the sweetspot for the highs are tiny as well.

The sweet spot is often relatively small…but unnatural? Sorry, can’t at all agree with you on that one. I have heard a few examples that to me are the most natural sound I have heard and they were not CD horns.

I have both CD and non-CD horns I can exchange in my DIY setup and tend to prefer the spherical Tractrix horn over the FEA modelled CD design.