I think it was more of a nostalgic look at a time in their lives, a shared enjoyment for horn speakers and the social aspect of colleagues shared experience at the firehouse. No technical information and no measurements taken. Steve is the first to admit his channel is for entertainment value.
What kind of engineer? Audio? Electronics? Aviation? I'm an audio engineer myself in case it makes a difference.
You're basically trying to say that if I were a painter, I wouldn't bother painting with any other color than red just because it's my favorite color, even though you need more than one color to complete a realistic portrait of pretty much any natural object. Can you paint with just red? Of course, but that wouldn't be as faithful to the subject as using all colors available to you.
Where does it say in my first statement that I think ONLY midrange frequencies are important? Why on earth would that be the case if a faithful reproduction of the FULL audio spectrum is important to me as well (as I also stated)? What's there to not make sense?
I don't understand the need to argue if I explained the purpose of my first two (supposedly contradicting) remarks?
Are you just trying to shoot down everything I state just because you disagree with me and can't understand why midrange frequency reproduction is ONE of the MOST important aspects to accurate music playback? Obviously I don't just sit and listen to a midrange speaker alone (if you think I'm from the 1950s and only listen to mono).
What part of the audio spectrum in comparison do YOU think is the most important to faithful music reproduction? Bass? Treble? What would you rather give up if you had to chose? Without midrange there wouldn't be much of anything to listen to, sort of like what all the kids were doing in the 90s car audio scene, adding subs, tweeters and amps while leaving the stock door speakers running off the built in deck power... boom, sizzle...
If that didn't make any sense I don't know what would.
honestly, the video was mostly just banter IMO. I dont really care about nostalgia that much. I'm mainly interested in good audio and appreciate the input of anyone willing to share even though it may end up being irrelevant and boring.
I've heard some really horrible sounding expensive horn systems driven by top notch SET amps. Some fullrage driver stuff like most lowthers also come to mind and usualy sound just as bad, especially when compared to decent 2.5 or 3 way direct radiating speakers. I'm not willing to mortgage my house for some overpriced retro gear or be obsessed with finding that rare NOS tube so I can feel all warm and fuzzy playing those old WW2 era 78s.
Modern, well engjneered large horn speaker systems carefully paired up with state of the art amplification (mostly solid state) can blow away most anything in terms of convincingly lifelike sounding audio. As was the case with the avantgarde audio trio speakers, the ability to cover the entire audio range with realistic uncompressed dynamics and percievably low distortion while placing the musical event right in front of you is incredibly hard to achieve. Those speakers were some of the first I've heard which were able to pull that off and completly disappear in the process.
Member
Joined 2009
Paid Member
it was a few comments once posted by ‘wavebourn’ that turned on the light bulb for me and made me see clearly that the Doppler effect does not occur in speaker drivers (except in the case of nonlinear extreme behaviour which is not the context of discussion) but boy do people love an argument!
At minimum you get the reduction of BL coming into play, modulating the audio which is definitely noticeable. With the doppler effect, I've seen research papers done by a university in Germany back in the 80s and they determined it to be audible under certain circumstances. I'll have to read that link posted.
Personally I really appreciate the "banter" of Steve and Herb. It's not all about measurements, it's also about the joy of the moment, call that nostalgia OK what's wrong with that. Horns always have and always will need the right room to play in. I loved the La Scala's back in the day, even used a pair for a folk concert benefit for my son's school, but they are not my cup of tea for home. That's ok we all enjoy what we enjoy. Personally I think Steve and Herb add a lot to our hobby.
I had a pair of ACR corner horns when I lived in Germany, which were basically a klipsh horn copy with Fostex drivers. They sounded very good with the right amplification and needed a huge room to work well as you would expect. I was lucky to live in a place with high concrete walls and that really helped with the low end of the corner horns. I had to sell them when I moved over here and never owned another set of horn loaded speakers after that with the exception of various PA stuff which doesn't count.
Ice cream versus okra. Personal preferences are unique to the individual. I know that a good percentage of the audiophile crowd has a disdain for horns, and nothing being perfect, and choice and compromise thrown into the mix and all, but I can say without hesitation, that hearing a Klipschorn setup in a fully treated room was a near religious experience that I had never heard up to that point. I've listened to quite a few systems that the speakers cost more than double that I found to have nowhere near the impact that the big horns had on me. The visceral impact chilled me to the bone. Glenn.
I enjoy Steve's videos, he's a very likeable guy. But he's a card carrying audiofool and I take almost nothing he has to say about audio seriously. It's more 'audio entertainment'.
Klipsch are terrible representations of horns. It's really too bad that they are the first speaker many people think of when they think of a reference horn.
Klipsch are terrible representations of horns. It's really too bad that they are the first speaker many people think of when they think of a reference horn.
Last edited:
Steve knows what industry is paying for and money earned from Police Academy is probably spent long time ago.
What is 'visceral impact'. I don't recall getting that in a symphony hall so it doesn't relate to any real musical event.
One only knows what they know when they know it. If a Klipschorn was all that I had ever heard, it still would be light years beyond any non horn that I have listened to, for what I liked about it. That being said, I would love a pair of 4367 JBL's, but I much prefer my IRA, and investment accounts to keep growing . I don't doubt that there are horn systems that I may like even better, but I can only base my preferences on what I've had direct experience with,. That is what draws me to diy. Quality to cost benefit. Glenn.
I thought this was truly lieutenant M. but I figured his face looked differently than before on account being exposed to horn speakers.
The drums and percussion from that experience hit me with impact, like standing in front of a kick drum feeling the hit. The guitars cut just like having my head 8 feet from a Marshall stack, and horns with the bite that I got from sitting next to them live. I played many years in orchestras, and have played 1000's of live electric gigs, as a drummer, and that's just my ears, and gut reaction. Purely subjective. I was listening to rock and Latin studio mixed music. An orchestra would sound much different if all the instruments were individually close mic'd and pumping through horns too, but that's not what orchestra's are about, and that's not what I personally prefer most often. Again, after hearing 4367's, I wouldn't even consider any Klipsch system that I've personally listened to over them. I just can't justify spending that much of my money on them. Glenn.
Big speakers can play loud (dynamic) and it is so much fun they only need be good enough not to sound bad. So, no way going back to small speakers even if they were more "hifi sounding" or technically better. So, totally can understand horn speaker geeking 🙂 There must be worse and better sounding big systems, but still they are all very much fun.
Last edited: