well I'm off, I have had it!!

not really...just a growing suspicion for some time that something isn't quite right with conventional hifi.

I am off to super hifi geekdom, I put it down to regular box speakers, good as they are in some ways, not for me.

I am going totally single ended class A no feedback lo power, with some very sensitive horn types(96 db+), I am going to become an anorak of hifi.

bye bye regular hifi.....

 

Thumbs up for class A

Did you have any particular horn types in mind. Let us know how you get on

 

you don't need 96db+ to enjoy class A!!!!!

 

You do for regular SET class A. Usually put out a max of 8watts for 300b and less for 2a3 etc. Only 211 or 845 give out more, but need in excess of 1000v on the HT side.

 

you have started speaking some strange language that i don't understand,but it sounds impressive

 

Go for it LCD!

I expect we'll have you back in civilisation in a few months time but do report on your findings in the strange and exotic land of SETs and horns.

I would recommend Border Patrol. Art Audio have some good stuff too, although perhaps a little sweet for my tastes. I'd also like to listen to the US/Chinese Sophia Electric stuff - an 845 that will fit in your living room - sounds interesting.

You've just inspired me to start a new thread.

 

Strange you should say this LCD as only the other day I had an urge to sell all of my hifi/home cinema gear and to replace it with a Croft Vitali SC/Series 5C, a pair of Spendor SP2/3e's and I don't know what source.

Matt.

 

must be the full moon, when the audio druids come out. Vibes start affecting us all.

go for it!!, spendors are great, as is croft, you will never look back.

Not sure I will be returning in this incantation, 7V

 

I've been to many hi-fi shows in my time and have worked out that the correct dress-code for SETs and horns is actually brown or green woollen cardigan, full beard (bald head optional), thick horn-rim glasses, brown polyester 'slacks' and either those Clarks shoes that look like Cornish pasties or sandals (obviously in brown). Enjoy!

Tony.

PS SETs and horns really do some things so right, but I've yet to hear any horns sound anything but grossly coloured - when that happens I may be down the pastie shoe shop myself... I love the dynamic freedom and integrity of the things.

 

Do you know I think you're right. Amazing really isn't it?

BTW, Tony, have you heard all the latest horns out there? I'm curious as hardly a new design comes out then some magazine review somewhere announces that the speaker is free of the normal horn colourations.

 

Not at all – my experience of horns is pretty much limited to shows. I've heard several Lowthers, some of the huge 'b' things, the massive Avant Garde 3 way horns and those new huge transparent Perspex things. All of which really did the 'horn thing' which I see as an incredible ease with dynamics, but all had some degree of what I can only describe as the kind of colouration a railway station PA has – kind of a mid emphasis / honk. The single driver Lowthers all appear to have almost no bass or treble regardless how huge the box – most of the time I was left feeling that I could set Kans up to sound far more weighty and flat tonally. The thing is that I totally get why people love them, there is real magic there, but I suspect the tonal aberrations would drive me completely insane. They make everything else sound sat on.

Years back one of my friends managed to score a pair of free Lowther Acousta corner horns when he bought a LP12 / Ittok out of Loot for 350 quid. Quite a deal! They are a bloody weird design, the driver is mounted on the back of the cab at about a 45 degree angle so it fires into the corners of the room in a Bose / Jimmy Hughes type way. We played round with them on the end of a old Sugden A21 he had lying round and again there was magic there, but also a huge trade off – superb freedom in the mid, but nothing else at all really, definitely no frequency extremes whatsoever, and that whole singing down a tube thing tonally. He still has them but one of the drivers has since decided not to play so he's in a dilemma as to whether to get them fixed before they meet eBay.

Strange things horns…

Tony.

 

I hope you're taking notes, Ian.

 

Klipschorns, seem to manage the dynamic freedom without obvious colouration. I insisted on listening to a Bach choral piece through a pair being driven by EAR 509s once. The clarity of sound and the way they could put you in the Cathedral, came as a bit of a shock having heard horns previously sounding as Tony describes.

Perhaps that is why they have been in production for over 50 years. Progress, humbug.

 

Tony
Your friend should still put them on eBay as is. Expalin the perished driver, but then say that Lowther have a great trade-in scheme, as they rebuild all of their old drivers. Contact Lowther for details.

 

watching with interest, Steve

hmmm, maybe I should do a comb over for my thinning hair, get a pair of horn rimmed specs, tuck my pants in my white socks and wear sandals and smoke a pipe, with a woolly jumper and a jacket with leather patches:then stand at the end of a train platform with a thermos flask, looking like a charlie chester

Not going TOO radical, seeking something like klipsches, beauhorns or rehdekos.Maybe adire audio, but you have to build them
Just something immediate and sensitive.
I like a BIT of colour in music...brass that reaches out and you can almost see the instrument, the fatness, the resonance.

 

You've also just perfectly described the correct dress-code for a Unix expert

Michael.

 

Also reminds me of the guy that runs the comic book shop in The Simpsons.

 

Hi,

All very interesting.

I don't dress like that. or do I

I have been a user of Single Ended Triode amps since the late 90s. Before that I was a user of a triode push pull amp for most of the 90s. All low powered. (sub 10 watts per channel) In this time I have used a high sensitivity speakers. These have been Snell J, Snell K, Audionote J, Horning Agathons & Living Voice Avatars Obxs. I find the strengths out weigh the weaknesses. Since last year, I have owned pairs Impulse H5 & H2s. The Horning & Impulse speakers are horn loaded speakers.

At the moment I have the H2s in place & they produce enjoyable sounds with both vinyl & cd. One of the thing I did find with the Impulse was a type of colouration that did stand out when I went from the Avatars. This was benign as you soon forgot about it & enjoyed the music.

A system of vinyl, SET & horns can give you a lot of strengths that other system struggle to give. If the system is well designed, then the weaknesses will certainly disappear.

A high quality front end, A SET with a very good design, high quality output transformers, low noise & stable power supplies & aquality components matched with a well designed horn system is of the order.

The downside is that this will not be cheap if bought new. It is easy to build a single ended amp but a lot are just nice sounding in the mid. You have to go to town (with the design) to get the goods.

The good thing is that you can get stuff 2nd hand if you look around. Also if you a dab hand at DIY, there are plenty of designs & kits you can go at.

It's all good stuff.

SCIDB

 

Exactly! I use Impulse H5s and while not strictly neutral, I couldn't care less.

How do you find the H2's in comparison? I just missed a pair locally and I'm kicking myself....

 

Hi Felix,

The H2 are three way speakers but the intergration of sound is very good. I find these seem to be less benign with the colouration & more enjoyable to listen to. They are the sort of speaker that get yoy to think "Sod it with upgrading, I stick with these".

They are bigger as well. Mine I have been tweaked & are now single wired. Worth a look.

SCIDB