If “Dio è Amore” (God is Love), I argue also the contrary to be true, as well… which I much more feel as intimately my own.
So…
Love is God.
Everybody.
❤️
WHY I CHOOSE A HORN SOUND SYSTEM
Horn speakers represent one of the most fascinating and enduring technologies in electroacoustics and still play a prominent role in high fidelity and professional amplification systems.
Their success is based on their ability to overcome the main limitation of traditional speakers: the poor efficiency in transferring the diaphragm's mechanical energy to the surrounding air. The main advantages of using full-horn systems are, in summary, the following:
1) Maximum electroacoustic efficiency
Traditional direct-radiation speakers are inefficient. They convert only 1-2% of the incoming electrical energy into sound, dissipating the rest as heat. Ideal coupling: The horn adapts the high acoustic impedance of the driver to the low impedance of the air.
2) High efficiency
Efficiency increases to 20-30%.
3) Sound pressure
For the same input power, a horn generates significantly higher sound pressure.
4) Reduced distortion and greater dynamics
Thanks to its high efficiency, the driver must make millimetric movements to generate high volumes. Minimal excursion: The diaphragm moves very little, remaining in the zone of maximum magnetic linearity.
5) No thermal compression
The voice coil does not overheat, avoiding efficiency losses during musical peaks. Realistic dynamics: The system responds instantly to transients, reproducing the dynamic contrasts of live music.
6) Controlled directivity and room acoustics
In a common room, sound reflected from the walls, floor, and ceiling distorts the original stereo image. Controlled dispersion: The horn's geometry (especially with modern profiles) channels the sound toward the listener.
7) Reduction of reflections
By reducing the energy sent toward the walls, the negative impact of the room's acoustics is mitigated. Sound Detail: The sound reaches the ear predominantly directly, improving clarity and spatial positioning of the instruments.
8) Very Low Amplification Requirements
The high efficiency of horn systems radically changes the relationship with the amplifier. Few watts, high volumes. To achieve realistic volumes, 5-10 watt amplifiers are often sufficient. They pair perfectly with single-ended mono triode tube amplifiers, known for their purity of sound but limited power.
The above is by no means exhaustive; the scientific documentation on this type of load is extensive. These are some of the objective strengths that the horn offers the listener.
Strengths that, in my opinion, take any direct radiation system far from realistic reproduction of the sonic event.
Thanks to Angelo Fragalà for his cool insight into his (and my own) world.
🙌
Why is the ORCHESTRA seated exactly this way? At first glance, it might seem like a simple matter of order. In reality, the arrangement of the instruments on stage is the result of a balance between acoustics, history, and interpretation. The strings occupy the front of the orchestra because they are the largest group and constitute the heart of the orchestral sound. Behind them are the woodwinds, whose timbre continually interacts with the strings.
Further back are the brass instruments, capable of great sonic power, while timpani and percussion bring up the rear: a position that allows their sound to spread without overwhelming the other sections.
And the violins, why are they ALMOST always to the conductor's left? This, too, is not a hard and fast rule. For much of the 19th century, it was common for the first violins to be on the left and the second violins on the right, an arrangement that highlighted the dialogue between the two sections. In the 20th century, a different configuration with the first and second violins side by side on the left gradually gained ground, and is now the most common.
There is no "right" arrangement, however. Many conductors still choose to modify the orchestra's setup based on the repertoire, the hall's acoustics, or their own interpretation. Mozart, Beethoven, Wagner, Mahler, Strauss (R.), and Shostakovich may require different solutions. Therefore, by observing an orchestra before it even begins to play, one can already sense something of the interpretation one is about to hear. Because even silence in the orchestra has its own geometry.
Fresh from the printers today, this is the new book about Sandy Denny, compiled by her daughter Georgia Rose Lucas.
💫🍀💫
THE OTHER GIANT HORN OF THE 1950s: THE KINGHORN
The KingHorn is a fascinating Klipsch-adjacent artifact—and it's not a Klipsch product.
The KingHorn was an enormous experimental horn loudspeaker designed by John H. King Jr. His work was documented in an extensive paper submitted to the Newark College of Engineering in 1955. The actual KingHorn survived, and King's son Russell eventually donated it to the Klipsch Museum of Audio History. The museum says transporting the artifact involved a roughly 400-pound shipment.
What makes it especially interesting is the era. This was right in the formative period of serious domestic horn-loudspeaker experimentation, when PWK's Klipschorn was already demonstrating what a properly engineered folded horn could accomplish. The KingHorn represents another engineer tackling the same fundamental challenge: obtaining very high efficiency and low-frequency horn loading without requiring a straight horn the size of a room.
The original KingHorn itself is now part of the Klipsch Museum collection in Hope, Arkansas. That's significant because we're not merely talking about a drawing or an old academic paper—the physical experimental loudspeaker survived.
From Rich Brown:
Just trying to find the link between EMILAR and GOTO bass horns and drivers. Supposedly, Kevin Brooks sold a pair of EC-600s’ to GOTO about 20-25 years ago and they developed their larger compression driver based on the EC600 (6” Ø diaphragm). Wondering if you could help out with the history on this.
Unfortunately, I cannot help Rich with more info on the matter… sure it’s an amazing scoop about the development of much beloved and sought-after Goto SG-146LD bass-driver, 146 mm Ø diaphragm (~ 6 inches).
What the Japanese people did was - nonetheless - awesome, as they augmented the magnetic flux to an incredibly high 2,5 Tesla, greatly improving over the model.
… at a cost 😉
💫
These ugly rags protecting (trying to, at least…) gears from the dust are so… UGLY!
Enjoying some early Sunday morning music before the heatwave.
💫
Your fundamental error lies in underestimating the importance of human eyes. You see, the tongue can hide the truth, but the eyes never can.
(Mikhail Bulgakov)
|
|
A man of integrity who I had the privilege to know and appreciate in person.
Thanking him and his music (and in parallel, on different shores thanks to Claudio Rocchi, another deeply missed gentle giant and such an inspiration of mine), when in my early teens, I picked up a guitar, a love for life.
I’ll be always grateful to him for this and other reasons.
~~~~
“ When my last day comes after my last look at the world
I don't want a stone on this body of mine, because it will feel heavy
Look for a young and strong tree, that will be my place
I want to return even after death under that sky they call God's
And so, together, we will live forever here on earth, the tree and I.”
Francesco Guccini
~~~~
Condolences to his family and close friends.
💔
Tucked away in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, around 70 miles east of Pittsburgh, is a place that every record collector should know about. George’s Song Shop has been selling records since 1932, making it the oldest continuously operating record shop in the United States.
The story starts during the Great Depression, when brothers Eugene and Bernie George decided to open a record shop inside Glosser Brothers Department Store. It was a bold move at a time when jobs were scarce, but their gamble paid off. As big band records flew off the shelves, the shop quickly found its audience.
Like the city itself, George’s has had to overcome more than its fair share of setbacks. It survived the devastating Johnstown floods of 1936 and 1977, multiple relocations, and even a fire that badly damaged the shop. Every time, it reopened and carried on.
In 1941, Bernie left to pursue a career as a musician in New York, leaving Eugene to run the business. After Eugene’s death in 1962, his 19 year old son John George took over. More than sixty years later, John is still part of the shop, making it one of the longest family-run record stores anywhere in the country.
What really sets George’s apart is the sheer scale of the place. There are over a million 45s, more than 75,000 LPs, around 20,000 CDs, plus countless cassettes and 8-tracks. It’s the kind of shop where you can spend hours digging and still feel like you’ve barely scratched the surface.
Unlike stores that focus on one scene or genre, George’s has always catered to everyone. Jazz, soul, blues, country, rock, classical, pop, if it was released on vinyl, there’s a good chance it’s sitting somewhere on those shelves waiting to be discovered.
Their slogan says it all: “If We Don’t Have It, Nobody Does.” After more than 90 years in business, it’s hard to argue with that.
Yes, chewing them!
It is genuinely alarming as AI companies are buying thousands upon thousands of books from secondhand and even antique shops. Booksellers who until recently sold 20 copies a week now claim to be receiving online or phone orders from the US and China for hundreds or thousands of copies. They're buying them in bulk, for one specific purpose: to destroy them. Artificial intelligence needs training, and to do so, it must acquire as many texts as possible.
Preferably published before 2023, because that way, it can be sure they were written entirely by humans. To get AI to read a sufficient number of texts, however, it's impossible to scan them in the normal way, page after page: it's too slow. "Destructive Scanning" is needed, a method that involves cutting off the book's cover and spine, reducing it to loose pages that can be scanned at enormous speed, and then thrown away. The machine learns.
Books are destroyed, digested, lost. Thousands, millions of them. It's essential nourishment for AI, but it comes at the price of destroying even rare and irretrievable texts.
A sacrifice. In honor of what?
… or Cicksucker or Cücksocker… or…
I truly, sincerely hate the level of bigotry and falsehood on the part of social media, politicians, the church, and ordinary people, where wars, massacres, and a general barbarization of civilization are permitted and tolerated… but: woe betide anyone who mentions anything sexually relevant or related!
I feel disgusted and ashamed by this short circuit!
🤯
That’s a result of politicallly correct: the purge of a classic cover-artwork in the name of… pure bigotry, since no sane person would find any Lolita-ish perversion in this splendid album and its cover!
The truth is in the eye of the beholder.
(At least here above, the censored cover is justified by the limited edition CD layout, always like this also with other titles)
While here, a straight censored strip was used…
💫
.jpg)
.jpg)
