What are the Top Horn Speakers in the World Today? Vox Olympian vs Avantgarde Trio vs ???

[Al M.]

Coz Nobody's going to take this thread and raze it to the ground
Nobody's going to take this thread and claim they own the best sound
Especially those with driving power, big fat amps and everything
Like complex cross, woofer control and everything

Ps: I have been requesting Leif videos, and this was a request to have both the leads...mandatory streaming to speaker required for headbanging

I love it. I need it. I feed on it. Coz I am a video ****.....

Good one.

 

[christensenleif@msn.com]

Studer A80 Nextgen

 

[bonzo75]

Audio hobby title track

 

[andromedaaudio]

Good one.

Bonzo has no system , so its kinda replacement therapy Al

 

[andromedaaudio]

Good one.

What about a deal Al , you can brag about your system / dynamics one more time in this Horn thread in exchange for a system video of your system playing , so we can understand a bit where you re coming from

 

[Lagonda]

Ein wirklich cooles Stück HiFi-Geschichte. Der im CN191 verwendete S2-Kompressionstreiber ist bis heute eine völlig unterschätzte Konstruktion. Der Vitavox GP1 erfährt sogar noch weniger Aufmerksamkeit. Für mich ist er eine wahre Inspiration. Herzlichen Glückwunsch und weiterhin viel Spaß damit!

Freundliche Grüße S

Swen, we do not all speak German, yes it was close but did not happen, Ich spreche natürlich Deutch als Dänischer nachbar.

 

[Hornsolutions Swen]

Swen, we do not all speak German, yes it was close but did not happen, Ich spreche natürlich Deutch als Dänischer nachbar.

My mistake. Changed it already.

 

[Lagonda]

Audio hobby title track

You should buy Leif's speakers when he builds his next iteration Ked. You could have your living room in the left one, and your bedroom in the right.

 

[christensenleif@msn.com]

won´t be any next iteration.....only continuous refinement on details
all drivers and horns stays

 

[Hornsolutions Swen]

You should buy Leif's speakers when he builds his next iteration Ked. You could have your living room in the left one, and your bedroom in the right.

That's something I also said several times the last 30 years

 

[Atmasphere]

(Why would a four-way crossover even require so many resistors?)

As part of circuitry to tame a driver's peak at some frequency?

Ralph, my horns have this dial at the crossover which controls the level of the upper horn from 500 to 15,000 Hz. I find it quite useful for locating the most natural tonal balance across the frequency range.

That is because the midrange driver and tweeter are two different impedances compared to the woofer. So your amps, lacking feedback, will put out power levels that won't be right into those drivers unless the controls are there to set things right. So yes, they help correct tonal balance and are quite important!

 

[Argonaut]

Very cool piece of hi-fi history. The S2 compression driver used in the CN191 is still a completely underrated design to this day. The Vitavox GP1 receives even less attention. For me, it’s a true inspiration. Congratulations, and enjoy it further!

Have you any ears on experience of the Vitovox CN-191 Swen? Same question to @Kozak170 ? .

 

[Hornsolutions Swen]

Have you any ears on experience of the Vitovox CN-191 Swen? Same question to @Kozak170 ? .

No, I haven’t listened to the Vitavox 191, but I have heard at least ten other corner horns, as well as all three Vitavox compression drivers on various other horns such as the Sato, 66A, TAD/Konoshita, and the small WE32. Accordingly, I can form a fairly accurate idea of how the speaker sounds.

 

[Hornsolutions Swen]

As part of circuitry to tame a driver's peak at some frequency?
That is because the midrange driver and tweeter are two different impedances compared to the woofer. So your amps, lacking feedback, will put out power levels that won't be right into those drivers unless the controls are there to set things right. So yes, they help correct tonal balance and are quite important!

Hello Atmasphere. Of course.
But I had already written about this and my opinion about it Networks should separate and not correct

 

[microstrip]

Thermal compression isn’t complicated, it’s just basic physics (Joule heating). When each voice coil is fed with 100–200 watts, through a thin 0.2–0.7 mm wire, resistance inevitably rises as it heats up. That rise in resistance reduces current flow, output drops, and dynamics are compressed. Even at moderate listening levels, voice-coil temperatures can rise tens of degrees above ambient. This has been documented in AES papers and Klippel measurements on conventional drivers, not just horns.

Calling thermal compression ‘sorcery’ is like in ancient times — when someone discovered a new law of nature, people thought he was a sorcerer and wanted to burn him at the stake. It wasn’t magic then and it isn’t magic now, it’s just physics. The only thing burning today is the voice coil when you pump 200 watts through it.

View attachment 157683

Nice cartoon to illustrate a post showing that you have the same physics knowledge as a 16 year old secondary school knowledge and you did not even read the papers you refer. One of them says that compression is easily measured and recorded, and if it exists can be easily shown by electrical measurements.

Your post is just a ridiculous try to change the sense of my posts. I claim that thermal compression is a scientific matter easily measured and should be discussed accordingly. You are the one reducing it to sorcery mixed with ambiguous technical verbose and rumors.

 

[Argonaut]

No, I haven’t listened to the Vitavox 191, but I have heard at least ten other corner horns, as well as all three Vitavox compression drivers on various other horns such as the Sato, 66A, TAD/Konoshita, and the small WE32. Accordingly, I can form a fairly accurate idea of how the speaker sounds.

Pretty much what I thought …

By way of some reference I have owned CN-191’s In the past , initially as a mono speaker in a dedicated mono system , later adding a second unit followed by a third close matching unit to the first to make a stereo pair and sold the spare , I know how they work and how they sound and they are a bit of a curates egg tbh .

Firstly and importantly they are *Coloured* , in the accepted sense of the word where transducers are concerned.

There is also a slight but distinct disconnect between the two drivers around the crossover point , which can be ameliorated somewhat with modification work on the crossovers , rolled off at both frequency extremes , not such a biggie perhaps material dependent , slightly compressed on male vocals in the lower register , female upper register , they can also become a tad ‘confused’ with really complex passages of music , the CN 157 Aluminium alloy horn can sound a little ‘glassy’ when pushed , being the reason imho for a slight metallic sheen on Violin , Trumpet Alto Sax , in the higher octaves , a brightness to some leading edges of notes , particularly with higher energy passages on some recordings, together with a tendency for notes to not fully flesh out in the fundamental , and then not decay in an entirely convincing manner , as per the instruments live.

This tendency can be eleviated somewhat by the application of dampening material to the outside rear of the CN 157 horn , however a delicate balance , as too much dampening and the horn lost some of its clarity and vitality, the soundstage as a whole is wide but without any great depth and can sound a tad 2 D .

Most Importantly perhaps *The CN-191 Do Not Present An Audio Signal In An Entirely Accurate or Convincing Way To The Source Recording* *They present their own version of events*.

All that said , stick on a Little Crooner , Rat Pack , Girl and Guitar , Lighter Classical or even a little Big Band ( if not pushed too hard ) and they are engaging and most enjoyable … However the larger scale Operatic and Symphonic works tend to be their Achilles Heal .

 

[Argonaut]

Accordingly, I can form a fairly accurate idea of how the speaker sounds.

No … No You cannot !

 

[Hornsolutions Swen]

Nein … Nein, das können Sie nicht!

Ok

 

[Kozak170]

Have you any ears on experience of the Vitovox CN-191 Swen? Same question to @Kozak170 ? .

I personally haven’t had the chance to listen to the CN-191 directly, but based on what I’ve heard and read, it really seems like a very special and valuable piece of hi-fi history, especially with the S2 driver.

 

[Kozak170]

Nice cartoon to illustrate a post showing that you have the same physics knowledge as a 16 year old secondary school knowledge and you did not even read the papers you refer. One of them says that compression is easily measured and recorded, and if it exists can be easily shown by electrical measurements.

Your post is just a ridiculous try to change the sense of my posts. I claim that thermal compression is a scientific matter easily measured and should be discussed accordingly. You are the one reducing it to sorcery mixed with ambiguous technical verbose and rumors.

I did read the papers, that’s why I mentioned AES and Klippel. They explicitly show that thermal compression is measurable and has been measured. That’s exactly my point: it’s not sorcery, it’s physics.

The cartoon was only humor to illustrate how some people dismiss obvious physical laws. My explanation wasn’t “ambiguous verbose,” it was simply stating Joule’s law applied to a voice coil: when current flows, it heats, resistance rises, current drops, output falls. That’s the mechanism behind compression.

So yes, we agree it’s a scientific matter that can be measured. The only difference is: I don’t downplay it as trivial, because the measurements show it happens even at moderate levels. That’s the discussion worth having.