Are Horn Speakers good or bad or simply a complete joke?


What are your impressions on these "acient outdated monster horn speakers" from the past? Are they any good, really bad or simply a joke? Have anybody have the chance to listen to some very well set-up horn speakers system power by single ended triode amps? Please share your experiences.
edle
Good for your caledonian soul and when you really want the music in your face which is a good thing. Subtlties be damned.
The only joke is on the folks who say that modern horns perform badly, this is a bunch of BS.They image great ,have huge dynamics, large sound stage, can produce massive SPL without strain and can run on the smallest of amps.Most folks dont own horns because of WAF, price, size and there wrongly given bad reputation.Theres more SUV owners out there than Sports car owners does this mean a SUV has higher on road performance? Just because most folks own conventional loudspeakers doesnt make them better than horns.Thats why so many guys I know that have tried most everything system wise end up Hi eff and tube.Seems the folks who only hear horns briefly a shows or demos seem to be the ones with the - opinions, horn owners who have tried the rest in there system love there horns.
High efficiency horns + tube amps & tube preamp = heaven.

If they are old horns rebuild the crossover. If the horns are metal and you think they are too harsh dampen them with dynamat or switch to a composite material horn.

HORNS ROCK!
Early on in my audio quest, I had Klipschorns, but I had a hole in the center. I bought Infnity ServoStatics which only gave me two windows to the recording studio. After trying every form of drivers, I heard the movie, the Last of the Mohicans on Altec VOTs. The amps were tube PP amps, but I was once again hooked by the horns' ability to have the pace and impact of sound, not just music.

Like others I think horns in general have two problems: needing many drivers to cover the full range, resulting in poorly integrated sound and honky or ringing horns. When I bought the Beauhorns, I got neither. The single driver was well integrated over the range that it could cover, and the box was deliberately resonant. The only problem was the bass was deficient as was the top end. The top end was easily dealt with using the Muratas, but there are no decent subwoofers to mate with horn drivers. Also the Lowthers are not compression drivers, which I find to be quicker.

I now have the Acapella LaCampanellas which are well integrated and almost as quick as the Beauhorns. They lack the plasma tweeter, but it always has stood out for me as better than the rest of the system. I once considered buying a full blown Goto compression driver system with 5 horns, but not only the expense but the question of integrating 5 horns deterred me.

In short I have a compromise speaker system and think I have no alternative.