German loudspeaker manufacture Duevel specializes in designing and manufacturing unique full-range horn units.  This design is said to provide full 360^o radiation of the drivers to provide a precise and full room soundstage.  An interesting 2 way horn design...

Glitch...

Oh no!  Double glitch...

While we're on the subject of horns, seen here is the CarfraeHORN.  This UK made horn unit is claimed to give room filling sound with only four watts of power!  In fact we are talking all the way down to 32 Hz cleanly!  Using no crossover on the Lowther DX4 driver unit, the CarfraeHORN takes advantage of the tractrix contour because it is recognized as being the most musical.  The cabinet is made to high precision specifications and using continuous sections of birch laminate.  Hmmm...

Zingali use a combination of compression driver/horn-loading and bass reflex woofer(s) to give their speaker line very high sensitivity.  Toulipiè wood is used for the horn and other parts of the speaker.  Seen in the photo is the Butterfly .3 (left) and Butterfly .2 (right).  Nice...

Rarely seen.  Most folks don't even know about it.  Sadly, never reviewed... the B&W Emphasis speaker!   It uses B&W's Kelvar bass/midrange driver and of course their metal domed tweeter.  All this came about while B&W were playing around with the Nautilus idea...

Developed by Paul W. Klipsch in 2001, this dual 12-inch loudspeaker system couples the horn-loaded woofers with the KPT-402-MF mid-bass Tractrix Horn coupled to the Klipsch K-1133 two-inch exit titanium compression driver. The high frequencies are easily handled by the KPT-Grand-HF-T Tractrix Horn.  Now I wonder how popular this system would be if it was dressed up for consumer sale...

Whew!  I'm tired.  On the Jubulee note, I'm hitting the sack.  Goodnight from me, and goodnight from Kate...

edwinr:

German loudspeaker manufacture Duevel specializes in designing and manufacturing unique full-range horn units.  This design is said to provide full 360^o radiation of the drivers to provide a precise and full room soundstage.  An interesting 2 way horn design...

 

That Dueval is not a horn loaded speaker. It is a speaker design based on sound reflection and those wooden cones are there for that purpose. Positioning them in the room is tricky to get a soundstage but once done you can revolve them on the spot without affecting the soundstage at all.

Sonically they are amazing when properly driven - they were about the best in show at last year's High End gathering in Athens.

They would be in my top 10.

For reference my top ten is as follows (I think).

1. Avantgarde Trio.

2. Tannoy Westminster.

3. Khorn.

4. The big Maggies (model 20?)

5. The Dueval above.

6. B&W 802N (not the D - and not the 801 - too hard to drive).

7. Triangle Magellan (the smaller one - not the full tower).

8. Final 0.3 (cheap speaker - bloody expensive amplification - horrid impedance curve - down to 1.1 ohm - blissful sound when driven properly).

9. The large Cain and Cain speaker (again from last year's high end show - stunning but with some bass problems that might or might not have been room related so there is an * on this one).

10. Belle / LaScala / RF7 depending on my mood and the demands of the music (note - the Belle and LaScala are the only speakers in this list that I feel really need a sub so they fall to 10th on this basis.

If I were to accept the sub as an option my list might look very different. Hell - even my home built speakers might make the top 15 if not the top 10 but as they are matched with a $4000 sub that is really not fair.

Up to about 140 on the combined list; there are possible duplicates, etc. Question? Since it's beginning to slow down (except for those pesky glitches that keep "popping" up), should there be a review of what everyone has posted and forum members do a "final" vote , say, over the weekend?

Possible Categories: Overall Best; Best Bass Response; Best "presence"; Best "Thwack" Potential; Best Price For What You Get; Best Appearance; Ugliest; Strangest; Others?

Todays crop as of 6:00 AM Florida Swamp Time:

1. Acoustic Energy AE1 MkIII's

2. Advantegarde Trios

3. AE1

4. Allison Ones

5. Altec 19

6. Altec AlNiCo 604

7. Altec Voice of the Theatre

8. ATC SCM 50

9. Avalon Eidolon Diamond

10. Avantegarde Trio

11. Avantgarde Duo

12. Avantgarde Trio.

13. B&W 801

14. B&W 802D

15. B&W 802N

16. B&W Emphasis

17. B&W N800

18. B&W Nautilus

19. Bard by Loth_x

20. BB5/XBD stacked array

21. BBC LS3/5a

22. Bonneville 650s

23. Bose 901

24. Bosendorfer AC7E

25. Bozak Concert Grand

26. Cain

27. CarfraeHORN.

28. Dahlquist DQ_10s

29. DL_15/Bs

30. Duevel

31. Duntechs

32. Dynaco A25

33. Dynacos

34. Dynaudio C4

35. Dynaudio Conyour S 5.4's

36. Dynaudio Evidence Master

37. Dynaudio Master

38. Dynaudio Temptation

39. Dynaudio's Evidence Temptation

40. Edgarhorn Titan

41. electronluv

42. Eliptica

43. ESS AMT

44. Final 0.3

45. Final Sound_1000_i

46. Gallo Reference 3's

47. Genesis Technologies II.5

48. Grand Monument Reference

49. Grand SLAMM X1's

50. Gryphon Technologies Poseidon

51. Harbeth Monitor 40

52. Infinity Reference Standard I A/B.

53. Innersound Kaya

54. innersound2

55. JBL 4311

56. JBL 4312

57. JBL 4313

58. JBL 4350

59. JBL 4430/ 4435

60. JBL Everest

61. JBL K2

62. JBL L100

63. JBL L166

64. JBL L200

65. JBL L_7

66. JBL4535

67. JM Lab Focal Grande Utopia

68. Joseph Audio Pearl

69. KEF 105

70. KEF B139 woofers

71. Kharma Grande Ceramique

72. Kharma Reference 1A

73. KL_650

74. Klipsch Belle

75. Klipsch Cornwall

76. Klipsch Heresy

77. Klipsch Jubilee

78. Klipsch KPT_Grand_HF_T

79. Klipsch LaScala

80. Klipsch RB5

81. Klipsch RF_7

82. Klipsch RF_83

83. Klipschorn

84. Klipschorn 60th Anniversary

85. Large Advent Loudspeaker

86. Legacy Whisper

87. Living Voice Airscout

88. Loth_X Audio Amaze

89. Loth_z Amaze

90. M&K S150 satellite

91. Maggies (model 20?)

92. Magnaplanar 20.1

93. Magnepan MG20.1

94. Magnepan MGLR1

95. Martin Logan Summit

96. Martin Logan Vantage

97. Martin Logans (aerius)

98. mbl 101D Radialstrahler

99. McIntosh_XRT2K_3

100. Meridian DSP8000

101. Midi_Grand_Ceramique GRCe_M_0,

102. Nearfield Pipedreams

103. NHT

104. NOLA Grand Reference IV

105. Oheocha D2 Saturn

106. Opera Audio Consonance M12 Barque

107. Paradigm S8

108. Quad "57" electrostatics (I finally have acquired a pair of these)

109. Quintessence Acoustics Stealth

110. R312's Cerwin Vega

111. Reference R909

112. Revel Salon2's

113. Rockport Technologies Hyperion

114. Royal Device Audio

115. Sonus Faber Amati Homage anniversario

116. Sound Fusion Hyperion

117. Stradivari Homage

118. Summit

119. SuperCustom19k

120. Tannoy Westminister

121. The Infinite Wisdom Grande

122. The Meridian DSP8000

123. Thiel CS3.7

124. Thiel CS7Bowers

125. Totem

126. Totem Arro

127. Triangle

128. Triangle Magellan

129. Veritas V2.4i

130. VOTT

131. Wharfedale

132. Wharfedale W_70

133. Wilkins 800 Signature

134. Wisdom Alexandria X2

135. Wisdom Audio Sophia

136. Wisdom Grand SLAMM X1's

137. Wisdom WITT

138. Zephyr

139. Zingali Butterfly .3

140. Zu Definition

Those Duevel speakers remind me of the first "stereo" system I ever heard in 1967.  It was a Zenith "Circle of Sound" system that was mostly plastic with each speaker consisting of a small (4"-5"?) "full range" driver firing topward a cone to disperse the reflected sound 360 degrees. 

The fidelity of the system was no match for my father's DIY Heathkit tube and bass-reflex mono system, but the fact that they were 2-channel made them impressive.  By today's standards, most clock radios would sound better.

The Avantgarde Solo is a horn loaded speaker system, merely 18 inches in diameter by 17 inches deep. And within this volume the Solo also contains a 250 watt power amp to drive the whole speaker system.  You can put it anywhere in a room and it will do fine (in a corner, against a wall, facing down from the ceiling, free standing, etc.).  But beware this little guy weighs in at 84 pounds...

The 805 S is the only 'bookshelf' model in the 800 series but just as in the dearer speakers, build and sound quality is 1st rate. This is a remarkably good sounding small speaker and one that has suprising dynamics and bottom end response for its size...

Check out this Signature version.  Yum...