Hiya,
I built an Altec 211 bass horn and I found some Altec 511 sectoral horns to go with it. I've got Altec 802G drivers and some Emilar EA 175 Alnico drivers to use with the 511s.
The first thing I tried was plugging the output directly from a 35 watt tube amp I built. It sounded horrible: "squawky, honk-y, and harsh" are words I'd use to describe it. I tried it with a few different amps I have and ultimately got slightly better results on that front with a different amp.
I've experimented with a lot of different crossover points and slopes, using a White Instruments 5024 digital processor. To my ears the Emilar drivers are a lot less harsh than the Altecs. I also find that these horns are happiest crossed over at 1000 on the bottom and 4500 on the top. I feel that 24dB Linkwitz-Riley crossovers sound the best.
Anyway, here's the weird part: the only way I can make them bearable to listen to is to apply a -6dB/octave lowpass filter at around 1500hz. This seems to make the 511s sound a lot more lifelike and not physically painful to behold.
i guess I'm looking for guidance. Are horns really this difficult to tame? I've read a lot of posts about how flat they are, response-wise but my experience is just the opposite. Granted, horns do an almost magical thing to vocals and brass instruments, so figuring this out remains worthwhile to me.
Thanks for any experience-based advice anyone has on the matter.
rs