Do you use the horn in your 2x10 cab?

[Dave W]

Horn?  Heck no - it's a bass cab.

+1

[Psycho Bass Guy]

Horn?  Hell no - it's a bass cab.

....fixed it for you. 

[drbassman]

I have horns in both my 1x15 cabs and they are turned off.  I don't like the sound with them on.

[uwe]

I don't like the sound of them either, but they can help you (and your bandmates) hear and locate yourself/you better in less than ideal stage acoustics scenarios. That is where I find them handy if you can dial them in. Drummers especially appreciate them with all the cymbals blocking out the high end around them.  Stage sound is always a compromise and what you personally would like to hear may not always be the best sound for the others or the man at the mixer.

[Basvarken]

I do think the horn has a function for a bass cab.
The standalone sound is horrible of course, but that is not what they are for.

In my point of view the overtones give a bass power. One of the reasons that I don't like old dull strings is the lack of those overtones.
I prefer fresh strings for that reason.
The horn helps project these harmonics and make the bass sound complete and powerful.
It has nothing to do with playing high up the neck on the G string. You need those overtones on the low end too.
That's how I see it.

On my Eden cabs I have them dialed neutral at twelve o clock. If you dial in too much, the sound becomes too harsh.

[uwe]

Of course it's the overtones, the presence, it has nothing to do with whether you play an empty E string or a G string up high, in fact you need it more for the empty E string and even more for a low B.

I have horns in my MarkBass rig, not in my Orange and Ampeg rigs. Under optimal sound conditions I prefer either the Orange Little Terror or the SVT giant rig, but you can't beat the versatilty of the MarkBass rig and its ability to cut through with those horns as well. The Ampeg is more pleasant and natural in sound, relaxed confidence comes from power and moving a lot of air (300 watts all tube: 8x10" and 1x18"), the Orange is just hilarious in its allout RRRAAAWWWKKK! British nastiness (500 watts, pre-amp tube: 4x12"), but the MarkBass (500 watts, transistor: 1x15" plus horn as well as 2x10" monitor wedge plus horn) will make the duffest bass with the deadest strings still confidently audible, its signal is a bit like an over-eager pupil snapping his fingers when raising his hand to get noticed by the teacher. It's not a bad thing to rely upon if you have a gig coming up where you know neither how much room you will have (and where you can place your rig) nor the volume you will be allowed nor the acoustics of the venue. It's fool-proof though both the Ampeg and the Orange rig will attract more accolades from musos. Playing a MarkBass rig is relatively uncool in Europe unless you think that Jeff Berlin is somehow cool.

[Granny Gremlin]

Except that the overtones (harmonics, or partials) on open E are much lower than those on a high G.  There is absolutely no sound that you can produce from open E (barring popping, maybe) that can't be reproduced by just about any 10" drive unit.  You'd need a bass capable of output  above the 60th harmonic (which would be approx 2.5k and easily reproducible by a 10).  Doesn't happen.  If you don't believe me DI your bass into a DAW and run it through a spectrum/frequency  analyser. If you want to be triple sure, compress the snot out of it to see there's really nothing there. 

Now if you like the zing of new strings or you slap, then yeah, there might be some use for a high-fill drive unit (especially if your main driver is a 15 or a modern, aka subby, 12 or 10), but I would argue that this is still better served with a smaller cone based driver or a dome midrange/tweeter vs a cheap piezo horn (which sound harsh, period, you just don't notice when it's dialed down a bit... note also, if it wasn't for the fact that you're running a bass guitar through it, they can also be really bad for hearing damage  - never play high gain lead guitar through one).  Compression tweeters are also good because they generally can be safely used a bit lower down into the midrange, but they are also the most expensive option, which is why no cab maker I am aware of uses them (mostly used in higher quality PA systems). 

[slinkp]

Compression tweeters ... are also the most expensive option, which is why no cab maker I am aware of uses them (mostly used in higher quality PA systems).

... Except for Euphonic Audio, who have to do everything the hard way
My old CXL-112L has what I believe is a 1" Eminence compression driver screwed on to the rear of the coaxial 12".
Their current 210 cab is advertised as also using a 1" compression driver, albeit in a more conventional mounting.

They're a darn sight better than the usual piezo "bullet" tweeters - EA's full-range cabs make quite decent PA cabs in a pinch - but they're expensive, and I still turn down the level on the tweeter most of the time