Jeff:

My mains don't sound much like Klipsch horns at all, and if fact, they don't sound much like any horn speaker. They really sound more like any good dynamic type speaker, but with much more authority. People who hear them tend to say that the sound of the speakers is "cinerama" in nature, and big, but not "blairing" like horns can be. I've tried through the years to get them to sound this way, basically having the best parts of dynamic radiator and horn. Tube amps help tremendously, especially SET triodes for the HF horns.

Klipsch horns have always sounded to me like I would expect a horn to sound; a bit forward and sometimes biting. I would imagine that if you did the same things I have done to my A-7s, the early Klipsch horns would loose all of these harsher qualities.

As an aside, the "constant directivity" horn concept was originally developed at Altec Lansing shortly before I started working for them. All currently available horns, including Klipsch with their "tracix" design are of this type. I do not like this type of horn design, and never did from my first contact with them. While the concept of "even" dispersion of all frequencies in all planes seems like a solid benefit for a horn, in practice, what results is simply a horn that sounds like it has too much treble, and this accentuates the traditional bad tendency of horns to sound "forward". The current Klipsch HT speakers sound a bit like this to me, and I have read some posts making comments on their relative excess high frequency energy.

The design of horn that I do like is the traditional exponential flare type. The dispersion of this type of horn somewhat matches that of a direct radiator dynamic speaker, and sounds more like them. When matched with appropriate electronics and crossover, they can sound basically like a good "direct radiator on steroids". Unfortunately, exponential flare horns are no longer manufactured, at least in any quantity.


[This message has been edited by soundhound (edited June 11, 2003).]