13Audio writes: “We have been educated to the idea that speakers are on a vertical plane firing at the listener. For most of us that is how we were introduced to hifi and got us dreaming about huge and tall towers projecting sound at us. For woofer based speakers this is at large the way to do things.
Then perhaps one enters the game of large coiled acoustical horns such as the We12 or we15. We commonly see installations with the horn mouth vertical or close to vertical. Guess we carry our belief (stemmed from classical speaker setups) that the vertical plane is appropriate. Well it just isn’t in the vast majority of cases. Scout with buddy google we15a you will see numerous setups, including mine in my « younger WE days ». Now today after so many western electric horns i’ve installed around the world I can admit my mistakes…
Having the horn mouth vertical actually points the sound axis at the feet, or in front of, the Listener. Well if the listener wants that then that’s all fine, but from my perspective and for my taste I just find that having sound just die at ones feet seems truly unfortunate. If the listener would like a balanced and harmonious sound pressure distribution presentation then please read on.
So 1stly did the designers of the 12 and 15 horns have any clues at all? Take a glance at this book and you’ll get the answer to that…it’s hey « YES » they did know what they were doing! https://13audio.com/2019/09/15/a-must-buy-for-anyone-serious-about-horns/
See below some drawings of the 15 and 12 horn and you can notice the « sound axis » line ? Well the very purpose of that is do that during installation the horn sound axis was pointed to center area of audience seats. So it is easy quite to understand that if the private listener places the mouth vertical then that sound axis goes straight to the floor. By doing so this actually eliminates many of the benefits of the horns extraordinary micro detail and dynamics, the sound pressure dies on the floor or worse bounces off it.
The upper frequencies of the 555 fitted to a large Western Electric horn are a little edgy, typically above 5khz. Partly due to the 555 but also because of the curvatures and length of the horns. You will see cloth dampening in the mouth of the horn on some installations and it was at one time a fixed feature of the 15 horn and is systematic on the 16. It’s my belief that some place the horn mouth vertical to avoid dealing the this aspect of the horn. The conjunction of the horns design and 555 are the root issue. This can be addressed with careful attention to setup, filtering and partner electronics.
So what is going on ? Some obviously notice this edgy aspect and well ? they just point the sound axis to the ground to avoid this issue, only it’s a very poor solution in all honesty. It actually is not a solution, it’s avoiding the matter, like an Ostrich putting its head in the sand…yes I have made that mistake in my Western Electric horn setup journey.
One can also notice other setups that have other horns or huge space age tweeters for highs being placed right at the point where the higher frequencies achieve the highest SPL (sound pressure level). These listeners have I guess spotted the issue and placed a band aid on it, it remains an avoidance strategy not addressing the root of the matter.
So what angle ? No straight answer here I am afraid, room, distance from horn, height of horns all play their part and most importantly the ears of the listener,
Western Electric horns will sound good in most situations upright of not, yet to make them really sing its a game of knowledge, time and experience. Once again patience is one’s best friend and trust me you will be rewarded.
So folks go ahead and lay back your horns!
Hope this post opens some ears.
Another interesting topic is the lateral and vertical dispersion patterns of the 12, 13, 15 and 16 horns, that 13Audio has measured, a lot is to be said on this topic and truly deserves a separate post, later…?
All Fun…. founder of http://www.13Audio.com