CD versus non-CD horns is often down to personal preference. Most audiophiles prefer non-CD these days, such as the tractrix or JMLC horns, which have a collapsing directivity with frequency. CD is preferred for PA use where you need to broadcast sound more or less evenly to the crowd in a club, but if you sit in a specific spot for listening, CD is not necessarily a good thing; all that power broadcast in other directions simply creates more reflected sound. CD horns in particular usually use a diffraction slot in some form, which can affect the sound by creating an internal reflection. That leads to ripples in the frequency response, which can be EQed out, but the reflections within the horn will emerge later than the direct sound causing time smearing. Still, it's a matter of taste, and some people are OK with that, and think it's a good trade-off for the better dispersion. Of course, if you want CD without using a diffraction slot, a waveguide is a good answer, since they don't have the constraints of a true horn.
I should add that I have 511s and am happy with them. I run them toed-in to a spot about a foot in front of my listening position, which helps the imaging. Used that way the limited dispersion over 10kHz isn't a big issue.
Originally Posted by fpitas
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