Horn Taste Test Results!

IHS 2008 Denver

Hornists: John Cox & Orlando Pandolfi

Here’s how the Test was conducted:

3 horns were chosen and listed for all to see.

Attendees were asked to rate them before and after hearing them according to Tone Color, Intonation, and overall preference.

2 professional players played 3 excerpts behind a screen on each horn.

A 4^th “mystery” horn was also played and rated.

The horns chosen were (in the order they were played)

1. Kruspe Pre-Horner Model ~ 1925
2. Hoyer 802A-L 2008 (the actual horn used in the test has been sold – this is the same model)
3. Reynolds Pottag Model (I think this was the previous winner of a similar test) ~ 1965

The 4^th “mystery” horn was the 3^rd horn (the Reynolds) again!

So… a few words before I give the results. This was not a test to determine horn is ‘The Best’ – because that is not an answerable question. The point of this test was to show listeners their preconceptions about different makes, wraps, and materials. It was also intended to show that what is best will be different for each player! Over 100 sheets were passed back in – many of them were partial, and many were hard to read. I had to sometimes assume a listener’s intention when viewing some of the ‘hanging chads’….. Many of the totals for each section total less than 100 but that is because I only included numbers if the entire section was filled out. (In other words,,, if a listener only ranked 2 horns, and left 3 and 4 blank, I did not include those ratings).

That being said, when I tallied the results – I broke into laughter.

Here’s why:

The Winning Horn after hearing them was: (click here).

The Losing Horn after hearing them was: (click here)

Here are the numbers! TRUE LISTENING RESULTS

Horn	Rated 1^st	Rated 2^nd	Rated 3^rd	Rated 4^th	Totals
Kruspe	25	24	23	15	87
Hoyer	21	18	25	23	87
Reynolds	13	23	24	27	87
Mystery (Reynolds)	30	23	15	19	87

How you THOUGHT they would be ranked (PreConceptions)

Horn	Rated 1^st	Rated 2^nd	Rated 3^rd	Totals
Kruspe	37	21	24	82
Hoyer	26	37	19	82
Reynolds	19	23	40	82

As you can see, in the True results – the same horn both won & lost!

Here are the data as to what people thought the Mystery Horn was.

Horn	Conn 8D	Holton	No Idea	Yamaha	Schmid	Alexander	Lawson	Paxman	Wilson	Geyer
Votes	34	16	12	7	4	3	2	2	1	1

Now, this question was a bit of a popularity question as the most well known horn in the U.S. is the 8D….but I thought I would ask it to see if there was any correspondence to timbre and which horn people thought they were listening to.

Preconceptions on Timbre and Intonation. (how people ranked each horn before they heard them)

Horn	Kruspe	Hoyer	Reynolds
TIMBRE
Bright	8	39	21
Medium	21	42	47
Dark	65	13	26
Other
INTONATION
Good	35	62	47
Passable	46	27	33
Audible Problems	10	2	11

How They Actually Heard Them

Horn	Kruspe	Hoyer	Reynolds	Mystery (Reynolds)
TIMBRE
Bright	10	7	27	13
Medium	33	40	45	41
Dark	46	44	17	37
Other	2		2
INTONATION
Good	52	38	37	50
Passable	34	38	33	32
Audible Problems	5	15	21	9

What was surprising here was how people heard the Hoyer as being such a dark horn. On stage it seemed very bright! It was only 2 votes behind the MUCH larger Kruspe!

Another surprising fact was the differences in how people heard the Reynolds from the Mystery Horn(also the Reynolds) only seconds later!