Best Horn Speaker under $250K?

Believe High Fidelity

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chelseadave

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To start with, I prefer my horns big. I don't like their smaller brethren.

For example, I love the Trios with bass horns, and duos not at all. Same for Tune Audio Anima.

Now, to answer your question, let me first out the disclaimer that each of those 3 brands is incredibly different, and should not be clubbed from an evaluation perspective. Each one needs to be heard, much easier to buy a box speaker or a planar blind.

The AG trios are the best in imaging, scaling, bass, dynamics, if you like orchestral music. They also have optional DSP you can turn on for room issues. You need a minimum 4.5m width, and 6m room. The bigger the room the better they sound. Can sound great with a plain oppo and cheap amp and cables. Certainly on my list of dream purchases.

Acapella Violon/Violoncellos which fit into that price have a nice midrange with their plasma tweeters. If one is listening to amplified vocals, this might be a better choice. The plasma tweeters need servicing every couple of years so buy if you have a DIY guy or support centre around you that can help with that. Fit better into smaller rooms. Show up at large discounts used though

Cessaros - you will struggle to get anything other than the Chopin at that price, and there is one model between that and the Liszt. Purite Audio is selling his Chopin cheap. For smaller rooms. The Liszt, on the other hand, requires a lot of room, and like Acapella, is known for it's midrange, but with different drivers. The TADs are compression drivers that project sound more outwards. The 400k or so Cessaro at Munich had bass horns but at Liszt level and below you don't get a bass horn.

Of these, I would personally would go only for the Trios with the bass horns.
I have just sold my AvantGarde Uno Fino and they were great speakers with a well integrated bass (the Duo's and Uno's do not!)
But for my tastes just a little bit sharp in the treble. I was going to replace the Mundorf Caps with Duelund Casts (AG approval of course) but I had the chance to buy Blumenhofer's fs2 speakers at a great price. I have heard these at Munich 2 years running and loved there sound. Should arrive soon.
 

Believe High Fidelity

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bonzo75

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no one has mentioned klipsch. Are they not considered worthy?

Heard a brilliant DIY horn, possibly the best I have heard with a modded Klipsch K55 driver. There is a lot of potential in the DIY VoTT designs.
 

Believe High Fidelity

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Heard a brilliant DIY horn, possibly the best I have heard with a modded Klipsch K55 driver. There is a lot of potential in the DIY VoTT designs.

DIY Horn using a Klipsch driver is not the same at all as a Klipsch hornspeaker. About half of the horns I have heard have been DIY which usually sounds terrible unless it has a solid throat and a lot of man hours spent on this. This attention to detail on this one area translated in the builders attention to detail and seriousness in all other areas of the design.

So if I see a picture and it looks like off the shelf no matter how good the driver it will sound bad
 

Believe High Fidelity

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If the thread goes over 250k then we could talk about the Aries Cerat Contendo.....

Have you listened to the Contendo? How does it compare to the Symphonia?

The Contendo is like a Unicorn, Big Foot, or any other mythical creature. Those who have seen (heard) are forever changed, but no matter how convincing people relay the information they think they are crazy.

One day the world will know and everything people thought was impossible will be turned upside down....
 

bonzo75

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DIY Horn using a Klipsch driver is not the same at all as a Klipsch hornspeaker. About half of the horns I have heard have been DIY which usually sounds terrible unless it has a solid throat and a lot of man hours spent on this. This attention to detail on this one area translated in the builders attention to detail and seriousness in all other areas of the design.

So if I see a picture and it looks like off the shelf no matter how good the driver it will sound bad

Every DIY horn is different. This guy is already professional with his electronics so might go pro with his horns later. Not to mention in the room he also owns two of the most famous and beautiful sounding horns. Hey, if you zero distortion a 1000 clicks, the names will magically appear
 

FrantzM

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Indeed, i'll bet it does. Complete with fan noise.

We may have to audition it first before summarily dismissing it. Fan noise can be avoided by placing the amps in another room. Inconvenient ? TO an extent but eminently doable. I haven't heard it but have heard some JBL speakers and they are as good as advertised. JBL could well be one of the gem many audiophiles have no idea of .. Witness the cult following in Japan and many other Asian countries ...
And in my book $250K for a speaker .. Horn or not ...
 

Keith_W

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I have had one of those Crown amps in my system, many years ago. That thing sounded like a whirlwind. Unacceptably intrusive. You might be able to quieten it down a bit by changing the fan on it, but that still doesn't improve the sound quality, which was dismal. This suggestion was a joke, you would think that he joined WBF to troll us.
 

bonzo75

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We may have to audition it first before summarily dismissing it. Fan noise can be avoided by placing the amps in another room. Inconvenient ? TO an extent but eminently doable. I haven't heard it but have heard some JBL speakers and they are as good as advertised. JBL could well be one of the gem many audiophiles have no idea of .. Witness the cult following in Japan and many other Asian countries ...
And in my book $250K for a speaker .. Horn or not ...

I have auditioned many K2s in proper private set ups and M2s at shows and dismissed them
 

FrantzM

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I have auditioned many K2s in proper private set ups and M2s at shows and dismissed them

Bonzo that is your take. It is far from universal. There are systems you praise and other people would loathe.. The nature of things you know.
 

bonzo75

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Bonzo that is your take. It is far from universal. There are systems you praise and other people would loathe.. The nature of things you know.

Well most, if not all, the arguments are with the people who haven't heard the systems or components I am specifically mentioning, but they are using some weird extrapolation technique to denounce the systems I rate. In my case, I only denounce what I have stress tested
 

FrantzM

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Well most, if not all, the arguments are with the people who haven't heard the systems or components I am specifically mentioning, but they are using some weird extrapolation technique to denounce the systems I rate. In my case, I only denounce what I have stress tested

"Denouncing" implies much more. You voice your opinions and they should be taken at face value: The opinion of one person. I wouldn't call an audition at a person place a "stress-test" either. For that you need more time, more resources perhaps home audition.
In our hobby little things can break a system. Those are facts. A system at a person place or worse a dealer however lengthy the audition might have been is far from a "stress-test" rather it helps for an opinion. Useful, hardly definitive, factual or a denunciation.
 

jeff1225

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Well most, if not all, the arguments are with the people who haven't heard the systems or components I am specifically mentioning, but they are using some weird extrapolation technique to denounce the systems I rate. In my case, I only denounce what I have stress tested

I've heard all the systems in this discussion except for the Tune Audio Anima. This is the most interesting to me as it's all horn, time aligned and visually attractive. If I ever go back to horns, I'd go this direction.
 

bonzo75

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"Denouncing" implies much more. You voice your opinions and they should be taken at face value: The opinion of one person. I wouldn't call an audition at a person place a "stress-test" either. For that you need more time, more resources perhaps home audition.
In our hobby little things can break a system. Those are facts. A system at a person place or worse a dealer however lengthy the audition might have been is far from a "stress-test" rather it helps for an opinion. Useful, hardly definitive, factual or a denunciation.

Testing in different rooms with different amps benefiting from the different learnings of different people will teach you much more than setting it up in your room with your limited space and amp budget
 
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bonzo75

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And it definitely is much better than extrapolation
 

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