trying horns :)

Hi Chris,

Blimey! These sound interesting. Tell us more about these horns. You are going have fun getting them up your stairs. :D

SCIDB
 
Dean, you might have seen them before. Nick has taken them to shows before, he calls them 'emporihorns'.

as I understand it they are vitavox compression driver with a living voice horn apperture. Theres a big cavity below (like on an air partner) which must be some sort of horn loaded bass unit. I didnt ask too many hard questions, as Im not so very technical.

The only dissapointment in the shop dem was distorted guitar on a rock track which sounded thin. Voice and acoustic instruments were something special though to compensate. Faithless, Talvin Singh and Bill Withers all sounded great.

Perhaps the eventual integration of a sub or 2 may get round this, or perhaps even in a room of my moderate size I wont need the deep stuff.
 
NB I got a sneaky listen to the range of ''Viva'' Italian valve amps that the Emporium is the distributor/importer for.

They look stunning, and I'd reccomend a look at their site and a dem to anyone looking for a high end valve amp/pre/phono.

I heard two models and they sounded great. I cant remember the model numbers. One was a 300B set, and one used enormous valves Ive never seen before.. about 1.5-2 times the size of a 300B, could have been 845's.

Here is the website

http://www.vivaaudio.com/
 
bottleneck said:
NB I got a sneaky listen to the range of ''Viva'' Italian valve amps that the Emporium is the distributor/importer for.

They look stunning, and I'd reccomend a look at their site and a dem to anyone looking for a high end valve amp/pre/phono.

I heard two models and they sounded great. I cant remember the model numbers. One was a 300B set, and one used enormous valves Ive never seen before.. about 1.5-2 times the size of a 300B, could have been 845's.

Here is the website

http://www.vivaaudio.com/
Click to expand...

asolistfrt.jpg
 
Julian, according to the emporium website, those are 845's on the Viva amp, I believe the model is Solista. They do look rather nice, and yours for only £5000 -7000 :yikes:!
 
SCIDB said:
Hi Chris,

Is this it?.




emporihorn.jpg



SCIDB
Click to expand...

Dean, you are the master of the internet!!
Where in the hell did you find that!?

Thats the one.

Nice one mate :)
 
That speaker seems to be very much derived from the Altec Voice of the Theatre A7 - Itself a truely stunning speaker (and very popular in this part of the world).
Interested that Bottleneck was not impressed by the big Tannoy. I was seriously bowled over by a pair of very very large Westminsters the other week. The ultimate nearfield monitor in many ways.
 
Hi Chris,

I have an interest in horn speakers. One of the speakers that I have had a big interest in has been the Living Voice horns. These were based around the Vitavox units. the speakers were a joint effort between Kevin Scott, Guy Sargeant, David & Neil Young of vitavox. I recently stepped up my quest for horns & started to look at Impulse horns. Hunting round for info I came across this site.

http://website.lineone.net/~empson/index.html

On here are loads of details on the Vitavox units plus stuff on Living Voice & Emporihorn. There is also some people who have made speakers with Vitavox units.

The downside of many horn speakers has been the size. You need a big horn to get deep bass. So most are folded which still can take up space. Some horns will use corners to boost the bass.

I would love to hear these as something like this may be the next step down from the Living Voice horns.

SCIDB
 
Dean, youve got an open invite anytime you want mate.

Thanks for the link. Its interesting learning more about some of these forefounding companies of hifi. Some of those early vitavox cabinet designs look just like living voice horns. Im sure this is where Kevin Scott went for inspiration.

Data - have you had a chat with Nick at the emporium? He is a horn nut, and can tell you all about klipsch, tannoy, vitavox, impulse and just about any horn speaker out there.

Joel - I was impressed with the big tannoys, just the horn on them wasnt as good as the vitavox or altec I heard. The bass on the tannoys and its integration with the horn were its strengths. It was the most expensive option on test aswell. It was a bit of a clash of the titans though, and the Tannoys could hold their head up next to any high-end speaker Ive heard yet, surpassing many.

Penance, I just live in a very ordinary place, but I love my music of course, like nearly everyone here :)
 
Good luck with your horns, Chris. I'd like to come over for a listen as well (if you allow eBay exiles).

Personally, I'd go for 300Bs over 845s. I'm sure that each application varies enormously but the 845s I've heard didn't sound as neutral and some were a bit syrupy. I still favour the BPs.

Incidentally, have you got any idea of the efficiency of those babies?
 

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