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RE: you've never heard of "cupped hands" distortion?

On-topic: the Beyma TPL drivers might be good for you. Ribbon-like but more robust. They go loud. Not cheap.

Off topic: If those 'infinity reference minis' and 'pinpoint imaging' are your thing, maybe look at a single driver forum for ideas. Something like a pair of Visaton B 80 with sealed subs might be more your cup of tea. That would image like a thing that images really well.

HF hearing: "down around 20dB @ 20kHz for ALL OF THEM"
This doesn't matter at all. Since you were already an adult in the 80s, you simply cannot hear 20kHz now. I'm slightly younger and my hearing tests as normal-to-good for my age, but it is essentially gone above 15kHz.

Try it for yourself - go to http://www.audiocheck.net/audiofrequencysignalgenerator_sweep.php

Make a 10 second swept tone from 20kHz-18kHz. Play it, and crank the volume until you can clearly hear the HF tone.
Can you hear the tone right from the beginning? If not, you can't hear to 20kHz.
Can you hear the tone at all? If not, you can't hear to 18kHz. Try again, but with a swept tone from 18-16kHz. Still no luck? Keep going until you find the range where your hearing clearly switches on.

For me, this is in the 16kHz-14kHz range.

That's sweep [A]

Now make a 10 second swept tone from 1kHz-8kHz. That's sweep [B]

If I play [A] loud enough to hear it CLEARLY, then play [B] at the same level, [B] will be stunningly loud. This should show you that your hearing at that upper threshold is MUCH less sensitive than in the midband. Blame age (and gender), not Talking Heads. Every hour wounds; the final hour kills.

...so I don't care whether my speakers go >15kHz on a test or spec sheet, since I cannot actually detect those tones via my aging faceholes.

About horns:

I also dislike most PA treble, but I like horns at home.

You picked bad examples. The most $ drivers are 2" drivers, which (in general) are bad as tweeters. They usually get used in 3 or 4 way systems. Dual horns and diffraction slots are PA hacks that don't get used at home.

e.g. the JBL 2446H is expensive, but for hifi, you'd only use it from 1-5kHz (or 800Hz to 4kHz, or some similarly narrow range).
Also, you wouldn't use it on the horn that plot was measured on: the 2380A is a PA horn (only). It has a diffraction slot, which sacrifices sound quality to get wider audience coverage.

Instead look at the specs of a good 1". I'd suggest a non-titanium one, such as the FaitalPRO HF10RT. Ignore the part >15kHz (or wherever your hearing fails).


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  • RE: you've never heard of "cupped hands" distortion? - hollowboy 23:20:28 02/22/17 (0)

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