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Planars vs. Horns Discussion

Posted by George S. Roland (A) on June 19, 2012 at 08:44:30

I have owned a LOT of different speaker systems over the years. I have been musing recently over a question I pose now for some discussion. It regards the quality of sound produced by horn-loaded versus electrostatic speakers, more specifically, Quad ESL-63s vs. Altec Lansing Model 19s. (I have also owned Magnepan MG 1.6 QRs, Klipschorns and Klipsch Cornwalls, so my experience with planars and horns is not limited solely to the two systems I'm discussing here.)

I have owned both of these systems and had them together in my listening room for over a year. I sold the Model 19s, much to my regret, but doubt I could ever give up my Quads. So here's the question...

Electrostatic are pretty well known as "fast" speakers. (I recall the ESL-63 demo of reproducing square waves.) Yet, to my ears, their onset transients are slightly rounded and smooth-sounding compared to the horn-loaded treble of the model 19s, which sounded crisper. On orchestral strings, I prefer the Quads that seem to have both the rosiny bite, sheen and good character of this instrument while the horns could sound a bit screechy. On other instruments, banjo for example, the crisper sounding horns seemed to get the metallic twang of a plucked banjo string down while the ESLs seemed slightly to soften them.

I wonder if others have noticed these kinds of differences, and to what do they attribute them?

Do you consider horns "clean" or to exaggerate slightly the edges of reproduced sound, something like the way Photoshop's "sharpen" filter seems to crisp up some imagery to its benefit, but can add an artificial crispness to others?

Do the large radiating surfaces of the Quads and other planars, diffuse the focus of reproduced sounds, or are there other factors involved that might account for the differences I'm discussing.

George

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