Altec large format driver in Khorns

[dubai2000]

Looking at the forum statistics I seemed to be having my Khorns since the late 20th. century - wow, make me feel kinda old. Anyway, since then I replaced the original crossover, tweeter, mid-driver and mid horns - and I thought I had been done experimenting - well, I was wrong.

 

Looking at pictures of horn speakers on the net I had always liked to look of multicell horns - and there used to be a few people around here who had posted about their experiences using them on top of the Khorn bass bin.

At the time funds wouldn't permit such experiments and I was really content with the combination of Altec 511 and (eventually) 808 driver - but those multicells kept calling.

 

Latetly I was contemplating of having myself made a wooden replica of one of those large Altecs when I noticed on a local website that somebody was selling a tiny pair of Mantary MRII horns (for a fraction of the price) - yes, the small 564 - and, having read a bit more about those, I decided to have a go - planning to used my trusted 808 with them (and if I didn't like them I could still go multicell later). But wait, the horns were built for a larger driver so why not see what is available locally.

 

As luck would have it a pair of 291-16K was offered for a fair price (at least from a German perspective) so I decided to go all the way and try a new mid section.

 

I didn't know what to expect, but the result has totally blown my mind. Normally I like to hang on to audio gear (after all one never knows if one doesn't want to go back to some previous gear) but it became clear straight away that all the small format drivers, horns will have to go - not only to finance the new purchases, but because soundwise there is - to my ears - absolutely no contest. Everything my horns did before they now do so much better - bigger soundstage, truer "colours", a lot smoother mids. I just cannot stop listening to music - bad, because the new working week is going to start far too soon.

 

Now all I would like to try is a wider Mantary horn - hence my posting in the garage sale section. Otherwise I am a very impressed camper - though wait, another tweeter is on the way as well - but that is going to be a differnt story.