Yet another myth-I find horns require no more set up than a really well tuned car with regular components. It requires different techniques and methods than regular speakers, but once you are familiar with horns it is no more tedious than a regular "tuned" comp car. Have you actualy used horns for a significant amount of time, or are you just reffering to when you had them listed in your signature a while back?

A set of kick pannels can take up as much or more room than a set of horns depending on the vehicle/dash. Granted horns AND a kick mounted midbass will take up a lot of real estate, but IMO it is worth the trade-off.

[ May 11, 2005, 11:11 PM: Message edited by: Kilowatt ]

the timing problem with a door mounted midbass and a set of horns is far worse than a door mounted tweeter and mid. you still have left and right timing problems but not as big of difference between the mid and tweeter, compared to door mounted midbass and underdash horn. i have had the luxury of using horns, and subsequnently removing 3 sets of horns from cars over the years and was far better off doing it, until the can make a horn that will play 60-16000 i'll just wait

I find many people seem to have problems with their tweets not keeping up with their subs...I find that my tweets and mids have no problem keeping up with my subs in either of my cars. One has 3x12" with 900 watts and the other has 2x12" with 1000 watts. Both of the mid/tweet combos are getting 4x 50watts(I have rear speakers also)and sometimes I even have to turn them down with the eq to make it less bright. This is with very bass heavy reggae dancehall tracks. Just curious as to what may be causing the lack of highs.

I have a bit of an under power situation right now for a couple of reasons. Not enough headroom on the current amp (Fusion FP-504, 4x50), and the fact that the VR's are kinda soft and mellow to begin with.
The first thing I'm gonna do is try a bigger amp up front, and then go from there.
The sub is very efficient....it is designed to be "horn loaded" behind the rear seat and works very well. Haven't metered it yet, but I'd guess we're over 146 dB at 40 hz. Could be less, but it's not too pleasant in there for more than a couple of seconds without protection.

I haven't heard most of the current high end speakers, and am looking for opinions...I have a lot to choose from. Customer is leaning towards the SS Kickers....I think the budget may be going up to $5k or more...

I did some testing with USD's in my Buick because it had a pretty decent dash. Used ID CD2 X-overs and ID midbass. All courtesy of my friend James from Oshawa. It was louder than all hell and it was bright at many frequencies.

I'l stick with my Utopia's...I don't need 30 bands of eq to tame them.

I did some testing with USD's in my Buick because it had a pretty decent dash. Used ID CD2 X-overs and ID midbass. All courtesy of my friend James from Oshawa. It was louder than all hell and it was bright at many frequencies.

I'l stick with my Utopia's...I don't need 30 bands of eq to tame them. [/QB]</font>[/QUOTE]Well if you used the ID passive crossovers, then that was you first big problem among other things...In fact, there is no such thing as CD2 crossovers, you must have made that up. You do realize that the CS1.X's are not crossovers at all, rather just notch filters for the midbasses right? No wonder they were peaky if they were playing full range. Did you bolt them in, or just lay them on the floor similar to your miraculous Utopia install? You can't just "test" gear and expect miracles...

[ May 12, 2005, 07:51 PM: Message edited by: Kilowatt ]

Indeed PLD's between horn/midbass will become an issue with a door mounted midbass, just like a A-Pillar tweeter will also be a PLD nightmare in most cases. On the other hand though, both horns are on axis with longer PLD's, and cover a broad frequency range which can lessen the near side soundstage effect, and the tonality difference between left and right will much less. It's all about compramises, neither set-up it perfect, and they both have advantages and disadvantages.

A more pedestrian concern, size... the horns are physically large and don’t always fit into a vehicle as nicely as a traditional cone and dome. If you go with the horn be prepared to modify the interior. A properly done horn system is a thing of beauty (super-realism, detail, clarity, dynamics) poorly done they ARE very peaky and edgy (to the point of pain). The front wave leaving the horn is important too, so the shape of your car will affect the sound a lot.
I think the correct answer to the question you asked is the horn driver. But the easy answer to your question is cone and dome, I am using cone and dome and am very satisfied. I have not heard a lot of cars in the last 2-3 years with horns, ribbons, or planar drivers… could it be cones and domes have improved that much or is everyone getting lazy?

use good horns if and only if you can aim them properly, and i dont think you can in your vehicle, and you have a good audio control 30 band eq. horns are a maralous thing thats why klipsh has been very sucessful in the home spkr market. in your vehicle i would go with seperates in the kick pods, try the quart qsd 216 or psd 216 components. if harry k. richard c. todd m, eric and patrick h, and mark e. can all win in iasca with horns, they cant be that bad.

far more vehicles win without horns than win with them