OJAS 529B Horn

During my visit to the OJAS listening room late last year, Devon asked me to evaluate a pair of horns OJAS developed in collaboration with Lycan R&R. The OJAS 529B is a 500 Hz horn rescaled from the large format Altec 329A for use with 1" format Altec/GPA compression drivers.

  This horn was designed with a throat inspired by the Western Electric 32 horn to avoid the harshness and distortion I (as well as others 😉) associate with the Altec 811 and 511 horns, 

For more details about this horn's evolution and construction, please click here.

My first impression upon setting the 529Bs + 802s on top of my Altec 414As in recycled Madrid 872A bass reflex bins was that these horns sound quite different from the Altec 32A/B/C and Lycan WP12024. While the 32 and WP12024 wrap the listener with warmth and air at a near-field listening position, the 529B rewards with crisp and articulate detail with no trace of 811/511 nastiness, just pure clean sound! Being a straight horn, the sound is reminiscent of a bigger and improved Emilar EH500 or EH800.

It outshines the Altec 32 and WP12024 in playing 80s New Wave, Bryan Ferry/Roxy Music, Kraftwerk, Daft Punk, Jamiroquai, electronic and synth-pop type music. Tish (my editor-in-chief) got her workout steps in by dancing to Bananarama and Michael Jackson LPs.😊 We kept listening to 80s club music for extended periods at relatively high SPLs, yet our ears weren’t fatigued. Very nice!👍

I believe that the ultimate performance of the OJAS 529B wasn't fully realized in my moderate sized 12'W x 14'L x 7'H listening space because I heard significant improvement in upper midrange to high frequency dispersion as I moved farther away from my typical listening position. In spite of that, the OJAS 529B/Altec 802 horn/driver combo + 414A in Madrid bass bins driven by 3500 mWpc of SE2A3 power easily filled up the man cave with great sound!

Ideally though, the longer throw, greater horizontal and vertical coverage of the 529B horn should be partnered with a larger bass bin loaded with either a 15" Altec or GPA 416 or 515 woofer.

 The OJAS 529B is a modern sounding horn design that's well worth hearing! 

For more info, DM ojas.support@instagram