All You Need to Know About Horn Loudspeakers

Posted by thinkbiz on September 12th, 2016

The basic functionality of a horn loudspeaker is the diaphragm run by an electromagnet is supported by a horn which improves the coupling efficient between the speaker and the air. On the other hand, horn is an acoustic transformer that usually gives impedance matching between the material and the air. It has a low density. And it shows the difference in density and motion of the air and element.
Now talking about the first horn speaker, it looked simple. It was just a horn attached to a receiver and the sound quality was poor as per say. But we can say it to be better than the triode tube that was the base of a horn speaker. What happened in the triode tube is that it sends the electric signal amplified to the possible level and could produce audible output while driving the receiver. But the output power turned out to be low. Later on , this gave birth to high efficiency loudspeaker producing high sound pressure level. It was then in 1927 that Wente and Thuras, two bell laboratory engineers invented the compression.

When talking about horn loudspeakers, the things that made it popular is harmonic, distortion less sound. It has an increase in dynamic capability in comparison to other such speakers which suffered from dynamic compression for sure. It runs effectively with low powered amplifiers like single triode amplifiers. Moreover, they are designed to produce a wide range of frequencies using a small driver.  Horn speakers were big and heavy. In the later years, more powerful and portable systems came into the market. The market got flooded with options. But it cannot be said they were completely out of demand as they survived in movie theatres for long more than enough.

These speakers are used for audio application as it reduces the need for other western electric 16A horn speakers. It is now used by audiophiles for sound reproduction. But we cannot say the same for other types of horn loudspeakers for sure. There are speakers which differ in length, material, drivers and many such things so it is very confusing to state as which form is the best.
Choosing a Western Electric 16A horn loudspeaker could be confusing but not difficult provided that you have done your homework to buy it for sure. Besides, there are things that goes into account while buying a horn loudspeaker.