Quote Originally Posted by E-Stat
I'm not aware of any full range horns. Most I see are three way designs with each driver having a decidedly different radiation pattern and profoundly more moving mass at the low end. Especially since most horns are supplemented by direct radiator woofers at the bottom. The discontinuity at the crossover points is electrically evident as a saddle in the impedance curve and changes in phase.
You have never heard of the Klipschorn? It is a full range horn design.

You seem to think that all horns are exactly alike, and exhibit the same characteristics. Not all horns are made by JBL or Klipsch.

Have you heard Klipsch's new top of the line speaker?

How about Sunny Cables horn loaded speakers.

How about Acapella Audio or AvanteGarde designs?

How about any of TAD horn loaded speakers?

How about the many custom studio designs out there?

The point I am trying to make to you is you have not heard enough of the current implementation of hybrid cone/horn loaded technology that does not sound horn like, exhibit a saddle in the impedance curve, or changes the phase at the crossover.

Do you know of any studio class microphone that isn't a full range condenser design?
Yes, it is called the ball by Blue Microphones. It is a dynamic design with a frequency response of 35-16khz, and a dynamic range of 162db. Another is the Heil sound PR-40 dyanamic microphone with a frequency response of 28-18khz.

It is for the same reason that I prefer a single driver solution especially for wide band instruments like a piano.
Single drivers especially electrostatics have one big deficiency, total output and sensitivity. They make good music speakers, but are not so good for hometheater application where the SPL go well into the 100+db region.




Would you care to cite an example?
Doug Sax's custom design. Authur Mendell custom designs which are my favorite because he uses beryllium drivers behind the horns. These are not horn loaded speakers you will find in any high end shop, but perfect examples of hybrid horn loaded designs that could easily keep up with electrostatic designs note for note.

To each his own.

rw
Exactly!