Altec Mantaray vs. 2360 series JBL B-Radial horns

**RacerXX** · August 29th, 2007, 07:55 AM

Anyone ever have a chance to make a direct comparison between them ? I know what I've read and some of the comments made about them over the years, but never heard from someone who owned both.

**Todd W. White** · August 29th, 2007, 08:29 PM

I did extensive listening tests years ago between the Altec MANTARAY and the JBL Bi-Radials. Others have done extensive acoustic measurements.

Sonically, there's a lot of difference. The main difference is caused, of course, by the superior Altec driver. In addition to that, there's the lack of induced distortion from the horn in the MANTARAY, as the JBL has problems associated with the throat design.

From a pattern-control standpoint, the MANTARAY wins hands down. It's a TRUE Constant-Directivity horn, while the bi-radial's are not. The MANTARAY's have the ability to uniformly distribute the sound in the horizontal AND vertical planes, something the BR's can't do - they have virtually no vertical control. This is due to the fact that the MANTARAY does it's vertical expansion first, then goes horizontal.

Proof of this is the fact that JBL used to tell their contractors to aim their horns at the back row in a given seating area, while Altec taught us to aim the MANTARAY's in such a way so as the top edge of the main horizontal horn flare was to be aimed just above the heads of those standing in the back row.

I don't know if that's what you're looking for, but those are my offhand recollections...