Klipsch speakers with horns instead of tweeters....What's better? (1 Viewer)

[Anthony Chiu]

I've never heard the sound of speakers with horns instead of tweeters. I see that the Klipsch speakers in have them.

Are there any advantages/disadvantages to having horn tweeters?

 

[Lee-M]

Are there any advantages/disadvantages to having horn tweeters?

The advantage of having horn tweeters (or midrange, or bass-reflex, for that matter) is that they sound really, really good.

More specifically, you get less distortion and greater sensitivity, but you really need them being run by a quality amplifier to get the best use out of them.

Many horn-dogs like tubes. I prefer solid state, but quality... but that's a subject for the amp forum...

 

[Manuel Delaflor]

They have tweeters, just like other speakers, but they use the mechanical amplification of the horn to make the job of the tweeter a lot less stressful.

Some people think that this is not an advantage, but I disagree. I hardly like a speaker that do not use horns. The sound is IMO more real and palpable.

 

[Anthony Chiu]

You do realize that I ask because the mid-priced Klipsch-lineup uses horn tweeters.

I like what I'm hearing from Klipsch. I'm just not sure what sized speakers I need.
The quintets are "cute", but my room is 16x15.
Any suggestions?

 

[Rory Buszka]

I like even the smallest Synergy bookshelves better than the Quintets. I would say only do quintets if you are doing a 7.1 system and get the Synergy bookshelves for the front two channels, or only do the Quintets in a 5.1 system if you want to hang them from the walls.

 

[Robert AG]

Just be aware that there are two varities of "horn" tweeters. A traditional (and best sound/quality) one will make use of a compression driver to drive the horn. The lower end Kilpsch and a lot of others use a conventional dome tweeter driver in back of a horn. This arrangement does not have nearly the efficiency or all the advantages of a compression driver. When they do this, the "horn" is really more of a "waveguide" than a horn. The higher end Klipsch speakers use actual compression drivers, as do all professional horn systems.