Quote Originally Posted by skeptic
Efficiency = Performance is rediculous.

"The only reason to NEED more power is bad speaker design - Higher efficient speakers ALWAYS sound more dynamic more lifelike..."

" maybe a reason this 1940's K-Horn is STILL being sold is because it's probably one of the best 10 speakers ever built by anyone."

If efficiency were the standard of performance, a Volkswagon Beetle would be a much better car than a Ferrari and a Rolls Royce. It gets much better gas mileage hence it is more efficient.

Maybe the real reason Klipschorn is still manufactured is that it is regarded as the Founder's claim to fame 65 years ago and is heavily subsidized by profits from much more modern and successful designs offered by the same company. In the late 1950s AR1 clearly demonstrated that it could produce much deeper less distorted bass in fact about an entire octave lower at around a fifth the cost and the space. These enormous dinasaurs are museum pieces. Few serious manufacturers of high fidelity loudspeakers actually use horns anymore for midrange and treble because of their poor dispersion and uneven frequency response. Only a handful of diehards are wedded to them. Their one legitimate use is in being able to produce an acceptable sound level from puny antiquated amplifier designs like the SET. It is sad to see so many people nostalgic for the obsolete technologies of a time that existed long before most of them were born. Why were these techologies abandoned? Because better ones replaced them, that's why. Same as in every other area of life.
It's interesting to note that JBL's new top of the line speaker under Floyd Toole and Harman are what do you know Horn speakers - and McIntosh's NEW top of the line is what do you know a tube amp - and the K-Horn is still being sold NEW. Yes all horns and tubes are obsolete junk all right. And it all looks like abandoned technology to me - I don't suppose anyone today could take those obsolete technologies and make them better.

JBL and Tannoy are obviously not serious - fine by me their lower lines are dreadful and I can't say I've heard the K http://www.jbl.com/home/products/pro...rId=K2&sCatId=

Of course for $25,000.00 it has less bass and the same sensitivity as the $4500.00 AN E and in fact the J has more bass and only sacrifices 1db on the sensitivity at half the size - so perhaps you are right. I mean 35hz -10db - the thing weighs 198lbs each and 15 inch woofer - despite all that the can't match the E or J in the bass department - WOW $25,000.00 for a pair - and Audio Note's are a ripoff? Well they might me that's up to you but look at JBL. Hell my Wharfedales beat these numbers for a mere 2k per pair. JBL will take twice the watts though...so that must be worth the extra $23,000.00 - and if you actually want a WOOD finish tha's an extra $2,000.00.

Tannoy's Westminster Royal at 304 lbs and also under Harman - A dual concentric Compound Horn will grant you - 99db sesnitivie also uses the Acoustic Waveguide that Audio Note uses and interestingly also puts up the exact same 18Hz - 22kHz -6dB spec that Audio Note claims - the Westminster though does use a 15 inch woofer and 530 litre Ply wood cabinet. I'm sure Harman has kept her around for goiod reason since it is the companies top of the line flagship and best speaker. Costs a bit more than the E - not gonna be good for average rooms - I like it because it too is rather pedestrian. I'll grant you this one specs better in the sensitivity and ultimate volume department - but man it took a lot to get that 4.5db extra. http://www.tannoy.com/frame.cfm?ID=1&D=1