Huge Horn Speakers - Why?
 

I see a lot of pictures of very large horn style speakers.

I'm not sure why you would build them unless you were entertaining large crowds in large spaces. However I see these larger than life speakers in what are obviously private residences.

I've heard horn style speakers before, albeit smaller than the units I am referring to, and I like them.

Why so big? Is there an advantage to such a large speaker? :scratch2:

Or are the owners/builders just showing off? :D

https://photos.smugmug.com/Audio/Spe...n%20Spkr-L.jpg

I suppose like anything else in this hobby, it's part vanity, part performance :)

With a speaker like that, you can fill a room with only a few watts. The concept is kinda cool, but I am not sure "why" you need to do it. I believe you can get better sound with conventional amps/speakers. That being said, I haven't heard a lot of these, and it's possible I just don't "get it".

In a new survey... the larger the horn style speakers, the higher the WAF... NOT! :D

I think part of the answer is that large horn speakers can be driven by low powered
tube SET amplifiers. These rarely go beyond 10W-15W and they are revelled in many
circles. The only way to make use of these low power amplifiers is with very high
efficient speakers, and horns do exactly that.

The other side of it, is that horn speakers also have a particular voicing. I'd like to listen
to some of those, but yes, having those in your living room must be interesting.

Yeah, I don’t get them either.

But then again, I have a wife ;)

Why not? Horns Rule!