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Horn-Loaded Speakers
Topic: It is not for night reading in bed...

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Posted by Romy the Cat on 09-14-2019
As some of you know the long-standing horn-loading topology enthusiasts Bjørn Kolbrek and Thomas Dunker from Norway deseeded to write a book about Horn Loudspeakers. It will be called "High Quality Horn Loudspeaker Systems" and will be available from Amazon for $150 
 
http://www.hornspeakersystems.info/images/pdf/TOC.pdf 
 
They put up a website with info about the book. 
 
http://www.hornspeakersystems.info/   

Long time due….

Posted by noviygera on 10-25-2019
"As of now, the book will only be available from amazon.co.uk, but amazon users on other continents will be able to order the book from the UK site"
I'm looking forward to building my horn base with this read! 

Posted by Romy the Cat on 12-26-2019
Got the book a few days ago. Wify bought it to me for Xmax, nice wify…. 
 
I am quite surprised with the side per cost of the book.  As it was initially proposed I felt the $150 is kind of stiff. As I got the book and see how it was published and the volume of it I do feel that Mr. Kolbrek and Mr. Dunker are selling themselves cheap. This is quite a fundamental work and considering that it is an extreme narrow market I hardly believe that anything like this ever will be compiled again. For those few people out there who will be willing to have this book it would not be a problem to pay significantly more for this book. I do know that if Bjørn and Thomas stop publishing the book than in a few year it will be selling on second hand market for a few thousand dollars. Anyhow, I do feel that the book is grossly under-priced. I am not able to comment on the context of the book. I think as my kids grow up and live house for collages then I will start reading it… :-)

Look at the size of this thing....

HornBook.jpg

Posted by anthony on 12-27-2019
...you've got to set it down on a table.  

My wife also gave me this book for Christmas, and I agree with your value assessment.  I cannot see anything like this being published again and it very much seems to be a labour of love for the authors.  A compendium of vast knowledge and enthusiasm, a historical record, something unique.  


Posted by Romy the Cat on 12-27-2019
I spend probably 30 mins with the book today, mostly browsing some areas that I would be interested. You know I was not thrilled with what I have read. Certainly, there is a lot in the book that has been covered but covered from some very strange perspective. The book feels like it is an academic thesis, some lab study and for some reasons it has very little analyses of actions and consequence of horn   design decisions. The most unpliant to me that the book has no practical implications. The purpose of horns-loading installation is to produce sound and the authors as it appears absolutely did not explore sonic values of the described design ideas. That all feel more feel to me like a book about horns autopsy then horns as music making instruments. In the way the tone of the book reminds me the conversations with Joe Roberts who has encyclopedic knowledge on the subject but who in practical term able just to run mouth to pimping the pre-paid campaigns.  I certainly do not blame Mr. Kolbrek and Mr. Dunker to have bad intentions - they did their share of the labor of love but I wish they found less academic, less hypothetical and more loving way to sell the subject of high-fidelity horn loading installations.  I do not know Mr. Kolbrek but Mr. Dunker use to have a very elegant and very populist (in positive and elitist connotation) way to talk about horns. I am not sure why for the book they chose that dry, denied any applied practicality, denied any feelings narrative. I might change my mind as I read more but my initial looking into the book gave me some cold shoulder.

Posted by N-set on 01-10-2020
Just got it (the last copy on German Amazon) and after an initial going through it have same impressions - more of an encyclopedia than a practical guide.  Still ind it v valuable, especially in combination with old classics like Leo Beranek and Harry Olson.
Cheers, Jarek

Posted by Romy the Cat on 01-10-2020
I did a few times more efforts to look into this book but I was constantly was turning off by a feeling that I do not need it. It is not the information that in the book not valid but from what I do or am interesting I feel that the information in the book is not useful to me. If the book was called “Horn Loudspeaker Systems” then if might be OK a reference academic book, even though it has quite a lot of historic omissions. However, I was interested in that book as “High Quality Horn Loudspeaker Systems”. In my mind what book is failed to answer is what makes Horn Loudspeaker Systems to be High Quality. The High-Quality aspect is the key and from what I saw there was no analyses in the book of any kind. I might understand that the authors would like to ask as “scientists”, do not take sides and to present raw data but frankly speaking I accepted from them much more. The whole idea of to be smart and experienced is that you are able to elevate yourself 60.000 feet up and to observe not fact but tendencies. Churchill use to say: if you want to confuse ordinary people then give them fact. The others do give some fact but they do not guide the reader over the connection of the fact, the relativity of the fact and do not observe how the fact serve the purpose of Higher Quality. Yes, it is a good book collector item, or a good prop to make eBay listing but not so valuable methodology to audio people.

Posted by Paul S on 01-11-2020
Funny, because, as far as I know, this site is the only place that deals with hi-fi in terms of developing sound from a personal perspective. While the book format is a nice way to present information, wouldn't it be nice if the contents were derived from this site? We can see from many posts over the years that most visitors who post here are looking for something specific that they bring with them to the site. I wonder how many people visit and soon recognize the value here, then begin reading the site seriously. The "good stuff" is where you find it here, scattered through thousands of pages; but it's here for patient, perceptive readers, along with the opportunity to participate personally in the Sound Development Dialog, and this is something very important that the book does not offer.

 Paul S


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