I have used both types and agree that they do work quite well as a point source, since with a conventional "tall" floor stander you can hear the the music being split vertically across the drivers, especially if you are sitting too close. In later years KEF were able to use better tweeter magnets and put them right in the centre front of the bass unit without the need for the horn.Over the years slight variations have included Tannoy Tulip and KEF tangerine Wave-guides. As you may know the Tannoy uses a tweeter mounted some way back behind the bass driver, and uses a horn to get the sound through the magnet of the bass driver. There are some differences between the Tannoy and KEF method. However, can someone tell me why Tannoy seem unable to make drive units that equal or better the old Golds ? and ya pays yer money and takes your choice. So we have manufacturers who make great bass and mid units (Volt springs to mind) and others making great tweeters (and other drive units) like SEAS and we have the dual concentrics from KEF and Tannoy. Perhaps the other speaker designers had finally got it all together to make a speaker where all the units actually felt like it was just one unit delivering the goods. Then I got older and worked part time in hifi shop and whilst I loved the Tannoys it was apparent that they were coloured in competition with other speakers (still great fun though). and that sounded bloody fantastic too (to my youthful ears). Also at the same time a guy used to run a disco for underground music as it was called then and he built a speaker rig with bass bins and horns and drove them with quads. When I was a lad and first heard the Tannoy 15 inch monitor golds in a recording studio in 1971 and they blew my socks off. In addition tweeter design is then down to the company making the dual concentric unit.
In theory it all seems like a great idea but in practice the horn loading of the tweeter (in effect) creates its own difficulties. Note, we are speaking here of true point source designs, not simple concentric arrays. KEF with it's Uni-Q range) have successfully followed suit. Curiously, Tannoy have been promoting the virtues of a true point source design, as offered by the dual concentric drivers, for well over 40 years and yet it is only comparatively recently that other manufacturers (e.g. The Tannoy range, even today, features many designs, but it is the dual concentrics which attract the most interest. I am sure some of you have seen this article but good to revisit it.
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