I've been looking into the "piece meal" Jubilee system which uses a tapped bass horn and K-402 horn above it. This isn't the old school Klipsch school of design which I am not a fan of probably because the FR is all over the place. K-402 was designed by Roy Delgado around objective design goals. The upper horn has excellent pattern control all the way down to where it crosses with the bass horn.
IMHO outside of directivity control the real benefits of horn loading are in the bass where there is quite a bit of driver excursion and energy. Since the bins sensitivity is also much higher (I think Klipsch claim ~ 101-105 db/w, I was not able to find an exact number. 105 seems really high) than a direct radiator there is also less padding down on the upper horn/CD.
(this is for a multi entry "Synergy" type horn)
More on the piece meal version- cinema dealers let you buy the bass horn and K-402 without a passive crossover and the designer of the system has done full anechoic measurements for the active version. I think this is based around miniDSP. The compression driver options are Klipsch (someone else makes this, maybe BMS) or the TAD 4002.
Downsides are even piece meal the system is pretty expensive. Prices from a few years ago look to be around $8k range a pair and it might have gone up. TAD 4002 are $6k. And of course the speakers are enormous, though I have read they work in smaller spaces since they are controlled directivity. This isn't an issue for me. And your pal with the Magicos will make a face like someone farted when you tell him you own a Klipsch. I'm planning to listen to a couple of versions, I'll report back if anyone cares about sighted listening thoughts.
IMHO outside of directivity control the real benefits of horn loading are in the bass where there is quite a bit of driver excursion and energy. Since the bins sensitivity is also much higher (I think Klipsch claim ~ 101-105 db/w, I was not able to find an exact number. 105 seems really high) than a direct radiator there is also less padding down on the upper horn/CD.
(this is for a multi entry "Synergy" type horn)
More on the piece meal version- cinema dealers let you buy the bass horn and K-402 without a passive crossover and the designer of the system has done full anechoic measurements for the active version. I think this is based around miniDSP. The compression driver options are Klipsch (someone else makes this, maybe BMS) or the TAD 4002.
Downsides are even piece meal the system is pretty expensive. Prices from a few years ago look to be around $8k range a pair and it might have gone up. TAD 4002 are $6k. And of course the speakers are enormous, though I have read they work in smaller spaces since they are controlled directivity. This isn't an issue for me. And your pal with the Magicos will make a face like someone farted when you tell him you own a Klipsch. I'm planning to listen to a couple of versions, I'll report back if anyone cares about sighted listening thoughts.
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