Favorite horn/driver combinations

[Allanvh5150]

Hopefully this hasn't been talked about before. Right through the eighties I was a proffesional live sound engineer. Most of the gear I used was JBL starting from fully horn loaded systems in the early 80's right through to direct radiating systems in the late 80's early 90's. Early days I used 2482 driver with the old "Radial" (cant remember the model) flare coupled with 2402's. I never realy liked the radial flares because they "barked" a bit much. I also used the 2441 driver in the same setup. Later on I used the 2445/2380 with 2404's. I loved this setup, but one day I thought I would try an experiment. I had one side of my system with 2445/2380 and 2404 while on the other side I had 2482/2380 and 2402. To this day the 2482/2402 combination still rates right at the top of the heap. The 2445, IMHO, never lived up to the "flat to 20K" spec that it had at the time. Even with a 2404 added to it, I dont think it sounded as good for live music. And the 2482 would probably survive a nuclear detonation as
well!
Thoughts and opinions please.:)

[pocketchange]

2482 w/GPA dia. & 2380A... & 2404H...
(not too shabby).

[Akira]

The 2482 with the large radial was a particularly bad combination. It had one purpose "loud projection". We used to call them Ear Slicers, but they could keep up with anything you put underneath them without blowing up. On the other hand the 2380 horn is a short flare and does not magnify all of those harsh tones the way the big radials did.
On it's own the 2482 phenolic had some excellent properties it you could tame the velocity. For example they sounded excellent on the 2395 large slant plate lenses.
The very best mid/high horn pack I used was:
2482/ with large lense
2470/ with 1" radial
2x 2405 slots
Well balanced, short and long throw coverage while not sounding harsh...big and comfortable image, fabulous on everything!

[pocketchange]

Yep, the 2482 is a killer but... I'm not attempting to shatter glass. The 2380A @ reasonable db's sound great.
2393 won't work in my case and the 2380A was the closest thing for the money I could find that had a 400 Hz cut-off
(@ reasonable listening levels) to match a folded corner horn bass bin (350-400 Hz).
I'm trying for perfection but until I can afford a spec built pair of horns, I'm happy with these (for the time being).