Sunship Audio

Comparing Two Horn Designs Through a Listening Test

When you finally get two horn-loaded systems side by side, the temptation is to declare a winner within the first minute. Real comparisons demand slower work: matched levels, a controlled room, and material that actually stresses the differences between horn geometries. A methodical listening session turns vague impressions into a usable record of how each design behaves across frequency, dynamics, and space.

Australian conditions add their own texture to this process. Many enthusiasts in Sydney, Brisbane, and Perth live with open-plan living areas that bleed into tile or polished concrete floors, which colours horn dispersion long before the first note is played. Travelling between Melbourne and the Sunshine Coast to audition gear at a specialist facility such as Sunship Audio takes planning, and summer humidity can swell wooden horn flares and shift tuning by the time you set up.

Preparing the room and the system

The first job is making the two speakers as similar as possible in everything except the horn under test. Position each pair on identical stands, toe them in by the same angle, and treat the room with the same rugs, curtains, or bass traps during both sessions. Horns radiate energy into a defined solid angle, so even a small change in listening seat height will move you in and out of the horn's coverage pattern and skew the comparison.

Climate plays a larger role than most owners expect. A birched plywood horn sitting in a Darwin studio at 85% relative humidity will measure and sound different from the same horn after a week in an Adelaide lounge room running the air conditioning. Let both speakers acclimatise in the same room for at least 24 hours before you begin, and run pink noise through each for half an hour to settle drivers and crossover components.

Building a playlist that exposes horn character

Material selection decides whether your test reveals anything useful. Horns shine on transient-rich material, so include a recording of a struck triangle, a snare drum with brushes, and a solo piano. They also expose colouration in the upper midrange, so female vocals with close-miked sibilance and a tenor saxophone with breath noise will tell you whether a horn is adding metallic glare or smoothing the presence region.

Add a full orchestral piece with a wide dynamic range, a sparse jazz quartet, and one track you know intimately on your own headphones. The familiar track anchors your memory of the recording itself, while the orchestral material shows how each horn handles complex passages without congestion. Keep the playlist short enough to hold attention across both speakers; fatigue is the enemy of any listening test, particularly during long sessions at hi-fi gatherings in venues like the annual Australian Hi-Fi & AV Show held at Melbourne's Convention and Exhibition Centre.

Level matching and rapid switching

Mismatched loudness is the single most common flaw in a casual horn comparison. The louder speaker almost always sounds better, even when its distortion and colouration are objectively worse. Use a calibrated SPL meter or, better, a microphone and REW to set both systems to within 0.2 dB at the listening seat using broadband pink noise. Recheck after any cable or amplifier change.

A reliable switching method matters just as much. A passive A/B switch built into the speaker line keeps the source and amplification identical, and an assistant who can swap pairs without you watching prevents visual bias. Mark each listening run so you do not know which horn is playing; even experienced listeners in Adelaide and Hobart have been caught out by expectation bias when they could see the cabinet being moved.

Aspect Constant-directivity horn Tractrix or exponential wooden horn
On-axis response Smooth, predictable rolloff above crossover Warmer lower treble, more variation off-axis
Off-axis behaviour Even across the listening window Falls off more quickly outside the main lobe
Dynamic headroom High, with controlled directivity at high SPL High, but room reflections colour the sound more
Cabinet size for a given driver More compact for the same pattern control Often deeper to achieve the same mouth area
Sensitivity to room placement Forgiving, but height matters Less sensitive to height, more sensitive to side walls

What your ears should track in horn-loaded systems

Listen for the leading edge of transients, not just the average tone. A good horn should reproduce the initial attack of a plucked string or a rim shot with the same speed as the recording, without smearing or rounding. Equally important is the decay: the way a note dies away should match the acoustic of the original space, not the resonant signature of the horn throat.

Pay attention to the depth of the soundstage and the focus of vocal images. Horns with a well-shaped biradial flare can throw a precise central image that stays stable even when you move your head a few centimetres, while a poorly designed horn will leave the image wandering or sitting on top of the speaker. Listen for chest resonance on male vocals and the sense of air around cymbals; these reveal whether the horn is gently loading the compression driver or fighting it.

Weighing the results with honesty

Record your impressions immediately after each track, while the memory is still raw. Note the system, the track, and your unfiltered reaction, then revisit the notes a day later before drawing conclusions. Horn designs often reveal their character only after extended listening; first impressions favour the more forward or exciting speaker, but long-term comfort usually goes to the one with the gentler midrange and lower distortion.

Be wary of comparing speakers that differ by more than one variable at a time. If one pair has a larger cabinet, a different crossover topology, and a deeper horn mouth, you are testing the system, not the horn. Where possible, audition the same compression driver on two different horn flares, or swap a single horn between identical cabinets. The goal is not to crown a universal champion but to understand how each design behaves in your specific room, with your music, at the levels you actually enjoy.

Reference tracks that stress different horn behaviours

Scoring criteria for each speaker pair