Creating machines to reproduce music is a sacred task and should be done in the most delicate manner. Altering the recorded art in any way, even if it is done to make it more pleasant for personal taste or more fancy, should not be accepted as high fidelity audio.
Most people spend their lives in noisy environments with less live music experiences. More and more settle for poor sources and or material. They are shifting their preference for more “circus like” reproducing techniques with blown up frequency extremes, sloppy bass, razor sharp highs,artificial imaging, unnatural dimensions, uninvolving mid.
For people who reference reproduced to live music yes, it is possible.
Comparing system to system is a common mistake which gets people away from high fidelity and music enjoyment in the end.
No, not at all.
Take a seat in front of a natural sounding system set your reference to the latest live event you attended
and your instincts will not be fooled.
Horn’s most famous characteristic is that of high efficiency. And it’s true, as the horn has the highest ratio of converting electromechanical energy into sound pressure energy. It is the most advertised virtue of horns, but we believe the ones described next are far more important.
….the diaphragm or cone of a driver, made of materials like paper, metal or ceramic has much higher density compared to the air that is trying to move. Looking from let’s say a 8” driver’s side, the load that it “sees” is the amount of air in the whole listening room. Not an easy job you would agree. In a horn the diaphragm or cone works with limited amount of air just in front of it (that’s the throat of the horn) where a high pressure could be build increasing the density of air. That would give the driver something more solid to work with. The high pressure air is then expanding as it travels down the horn till the horn’s end (that’s the mouth of the horn). That is the best loading for a driver.
Thanks to the better coupling of the driver’s cone to the air, little movement is needed to produce the same work compared to conventional designs, resulting in minimal distortion figures. The high pressure build at the horns throat requires a diaphragm or cone that can withstand it without deforming in any way. Additionally a powerful motor assembly of strong magnet plus a small gap between the voice coil and the magnet are needed. Selecting the proper driver becomes a critical task and success is to be revealed amongst mediocre. Finally the directivity of the horn would excite the first reflections of the listening room from the side walls and floor/ sealing, much less than any other arrangement. That would make horns more room friendly and placement less problematic. This also doesn’t come without the price of a sweet spot, in which you get the perfect imaging and maximum energy.
We use Tractrix horns in our designs for mid and high horns, as they own minimal distortion figures compared to other contours. We use only horns also for the bass. The transient response of the bass horn is not something to sacrifice just for real estate space. Our technology of virtual mouth and mass loading allow the real bass horn benefits with a fraction of the space normally needed.
Finally bass horns are as fast as it can get and unload the energy in the room in a way that you will forget what booming is. We tune our horns on the “as simple as possible” principle which means no additions to cure design ills. Designs are perfected so, no correction networks or excessive damping materials are used.
Building high fidelity horns is much more demanding than most conventional designs. The material being an active part for the energy transfer is as critical as the drivers themselves. For every application different materials are up for the task. Our low and mid frequencies horns are build of grade A Baltic birch plywood. Birch plywood of high thickness gives the stiffness and low energy build up needed for the horn to be as silent as possible and maximize the energy transfer.
Grade A, guarantees a void free and uniform density material needed for repeat ability. For high frequencies we came up with our proprietary mixture of epoxy resin and several aggregates. With this specific mixture we achieve maximum energy transfer without losses and distortion figures next to nothing.
We design our horns and then select the drivers for each task. Not the other way around. That’s why, using drivers from one manufacturer is not our practice.
We pick drivers from respected European and Japanese manufacturers and then modify them in house.
The modifications guarantee an excellent integration with the original design.
Using high purity Italian OFC copper we build our own cabling. We believe that copper of adequate thickness has the lesser sonic footprint than any other conductor. We do also our own insulation using old fashioned techniques. Copper is covered with cotton fabric and then submerged in bees wax. After polished and twisted the cable is terminated with brass connectors.
We use only 1st order crossovers hardwired on Bakelite boards with secured brass screws. Crossovers are located as far from the drivers as possible and their magnetic fields. The crossover components are also well spaced to minimize any kind of interference. We time align our drivers on the physical design, not thru electronic correction networks. That way we do not add more components trying to correct design faults.
High efficiency provides a clear way for explosive dynamics without power compression. Additionally high efficiency will free your choices on amplifiers and cables. Our designs are amplifier friendly presenting an easy load so there is no need for high feedback ratio amplifiers. Amplifiers with a low stage count are preferred as those amps are in line with our “as simple as possible” approach.
Handcrafting all modules with traditional building practices. We build all critical parts in house. No sub contractors. Finishing options are not preselected or limited in any way. Our performers are offered in any color paint customer selects. We also offer finish of natural wood veneer for an additional cost. As a result our performers are build to order and the delivery time varies for each model.
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