# New to Horns



## fcarpio (Apr 29, 2008)

This time around I am considering horns as a possible setup for my Mustang. I briefly heard them on a friend's friend car and they sounded very nice. But the thing is, I know nothing about them. It worries me a little they usually sit too low, is the soundstage going to be low as well? Also, are there good sounding horns that don't take too much space? The ones I have seen seem huge and obstrusive. I am afraid they are going to look out of place in my car. Are there any good sounding horns that are not too big? I googled horns and I came up with all sorts of nonsense unrelated to this. A few links to read about them vs regular speakers would be nice. The more I learn about them the more questions I will have, this is a start.


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## lsm (Mar 11, 2009)

fcarpio said:


> This time around I am considering horns as a possible setup for my Mustang. I briefly heard them on a friend's friend car and they sounded very nice. But the thing is, I know nothing about them. It worries me a little they usually sit too low, is the soundstage going to be low as well? Also, are there good sounding horns that don't take too much space? The ones I have seen seem huge and obstrusive. I am afraid they are going to look out of place in my car. Are there any good sounding horns that are not too big? I googled horns and I came up with all sorts of nonsense unrelated to this. A few links to read about them vs regular speakers would be nice. The more I learn about them the more questions I will have, this is a start.


Check out Eric Stevens Mini-body horns. They are compact and sound fantastic! The soundstage won't be low because the driver is mounted low. The design of a horn is that the image "flows" up the dash and into the windshield to create a high and wide stage. Nothing is better than horns for a realistic soundstage in my opinion. This forum is an excellent place to start your research. Good Luck!


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## thehatedguy (May 4, 2007)

Ask away with the questions!


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## fcarpio (Apr 29, 2008)

Do you have a link for the horns in question?


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## Eric Stevens (Dec 29, 2007)

For now if you need the horns just contact me directly. You can ask contac t me with any questions also but on the forums here you will get een more responses and it will be there for others to learn from as well.


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## Eric Stevens (Dec 29, 2007)

fcarpio said:


> This time around I am considering horns as a possible setup for my Mustang. I briefly heard them on a friend's friend car and they sounded very nice. But the thing is, I know nothing about them. It worries me a little they usually sit too low, is the soundstage going to be low as well? Also, are there good sounding horns that don't take too much space? The ones I have seen seem huge and obstrusive. I am afraid they are going to look out of place in my car. Are there any good sounding horns that are not too big? I googled horns and I came up with all sorts of nonsense unrelated to this. A few links to read about them vs regular speakers would be nice. The more I learn about them the more questions I will have, this is a start.


The sound stage will only be low if it isnt set up correctly and creating a proper sound stage. My Stevens Audio horns when used in a car, are like a home system that is imaging well, the sound does not localize to the speakers and the sound appears to come from the space inbetween the speakers. When you no longer localize to the speakers the sound will appear to come from eye level due to physo-acoustics and how we process sound.

Unfortunately horns are controlled by the laws of physics and small is not one of their attributes. The horns when installed tend to blend in much better than you are thinking though, especially in newer cars that have more depth under the dash, often times you cannot even see them from a seated position.


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## T3mpest (Dec 25, 2005)

My current car has tweets up in the a pillars and a center channel ON my dash and I can confidently say my old car with horns, despite no driver being above knee height, staged just as high, or within an inch for sure. Mids were even down on the floor in kickpanels, in my car with regular tweets they are low in the door. Both cars stage well above the dash, right about where I look out when I'm driving.

The mini horns can also provide a very strong center. Other than some midbass pulling to the right, the car without a center channel using mini horns actually had a stronger center.


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## fcarpio (Apr 29, 2008)

Eric Stevens said:


> For now if you need the horns just contact me directly. You can ask contac t me with any questions also but on the forums here you will get een more responses and it will be there for others to learn from as well.


PM sent.


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## LumbermanSVO (Nov 11, 2009)

The HLCD forum is fairly small. About once a year I go back to the last page and look for threads on interest and read them. I'd highly recommend you do too. There is a LOT of great info in this fairly small corner of the forum.


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## chevbowtie22 (Nov 23, 2008)

The first thing I will tell you is once you get used to the "sound" of horns in your car it will be very hard to consider anything else in the future. I have a set in my c5 corvette and I absolutely love them. I now have an 01 Audi allroad as my daily and I'm fighting the urge to cram a set in there as well. 

I can attest to what others are saying about stage height. With good tuning and a smooth transition from the horn mouth to the underside of the dash you can achieve very good stage height. Even something as simple as a strip of duct tape bridging the gap can make a world of difference.


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## subwoofery (Nov 9, 2008)

chevbowtie22 said:


> The first thing I will tell you is once you get used to the "sound" of horns in your car it will be very hard to consider anything else in the future. I have a set in my c5 corvette and I absolutely love them. I now have an 01 Audi allroad as my daily and I'm fighting the urge to cram a set in there as well.
> 
> I can attest to what others are saying about stage height. With good tuning and a smooth transition from the horn mouth to the underside of the dash you can achieve very good stage height. Even something as simple as a strip of duct tape bridging the gap can make a world of difference.


Very good advice here... Install them well and they'll reward you with a smile in no time

Kelvin


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