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In Reply to: HORN! posted by benjamin sheares on March 24, 2001 at 08:02:33:
They do have a small sweet spot, an advantage and a disadvantage. The advantage is that there is little room interaction. I have wood floors, *floating* (not nailed - the house is 100 years old) Lath/plaster ceiling, wood wainscoting. Very, very live, boxes sound like crap in here, and Maggies too. My horn just sings in this room, all the sound shoots at the couch I sit on and gets harmlessly absorbed, diffused for the most part. Of course the disadvantage is that only one, or max two people get the advantage of the good sound. Fine with me, any more than two is a crowd, and means either a party or home theater, so a box design works there.Now the size issue is not a universal. See the Oris approach (www.bd-design.com) These go down to 150Hz, with a normal box type speaker to go from there down to 29 Hz, and you know what? it sounds great! These horns are smaller, and better looking than Maggie 3.6's. Even my wife likes the looks (and she's an artist)! They are a bit bigger and more imposing than 'average' floor standing speakers. They are smaller than many expensive boxes, such as the JMLabs. Now what about horn bass? Well, so happens that I have two corners, so I'm going to try Khorn bass bins, and still have smallish speakers. But if you don't have corners then you are stuck with HUGE bass horns, or just do the Oris (or AvanteGarde) solution.
Loudness, eh? These babies play just as well softly as they do loudly. Of course, they can handle realistic dynamics that other speakers can't touch.
As for cost, the Oris betters all other horns I and others have heard (including AG Duo's), and they cost much less (3200$ fully loaded with the best drivers and cones) than a Maggie 3.6. That doesn't include DIY work however. FWIW.
Dan
Follow Ups:
Hi,
So, you're listening to the Oris "sans bass" right now? I'm probably going to buy one of the kits with a bass cabinet. I figure, that mounting the horns on the bass cabinets would give a better image/soundstage height. When I listen to some box speakers, I always notice that the sound is coming "from below". Which is one thing I like about Maggies and other planars.Call me weird, but I sort of like the monolithic look of Maggies (and other large panel speakers). I just had to play "Sunrise" from "Thus Spoke Zarathustra" on my maggies once I got them. It seemed appropriate for somereason. :-)
I don't know if I like the look of horns, but looks really aren't important in my case.
There doesn't seem to be a lot of DIY work for the Oris 150s, at least for the horn part. Am I mistaken about this? I don't know if I'd want to build the bass cabinets myself, I haven't learned to love woodworking. But, I can have a friend do it.
Chia-Hao
Dan,
Saw one of your posts on the high-eff forum and noticed you said you DO have onken bass cabinets. When you mentioned you're getting corner horns I assumed you didn't have bass cabinets.I'll follow your suggestions and get the PM4AER drivers. I generally try to get the best available that I can realistically afford, even if it means buying later rather than sooner. But, I also don't like to spend more money if there isn't any significant improvement.
Thanks for the discussion, it's been helpful.
Chia-Hao
They are very good, but they can get a lot better. The ONken's match pretty well, but my old Maggie 3.6's had much more clarity in the bass, albeit less oomph. I would rather have the Maggie bass however. I'm hoping the Khorn will fix this.I can't judge if the AER is worth the extra money, because I haven't heard them without it. But these are so good, my reaction is that its worth it at ANY price. You'll be happy with the PM4AER.
Dan
I like Maggie bass too, there isn't a lot of it, but it's of high quality. And I've always cared more for quality than quantity. But, if I can have BOTH...What crossover are you using with it? Did you get the Revielle crossover? The kits look like it'll give me a lot to do, I hope I'm up for it all.
Chia-Hao
If all posters were to be as wonderful as you and not take comments about their horns so personally... :)I love horns. I hope to be able to get them one day soon.
To say that they have no grace would be a mistake. I hope I didnt say that. I have heard guitars sing very sweetly on horns. Nothing is perfect however. It is such a pity that some people cannot see past that... :(
Thanks. I just don't have much ego in it (not saying others do however.) I took a chance on these, and was rewarded with the best that I've ever heard, approaching 95% of reality, or something. Not perfect though. But if, no when (superconducting magnets anybody?) something better comes, I'll drop what I have in a hurry. I'm not holding my breath however ;)Dan
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