I’ve heard lots of expensive horn speakers at high-end shows, yet for the money imo there’s still no competition for rock. Klipsch: Either the big "corner horn" (which don’t have to be in the corner anymore), or La Scala (which imo look better). LaScala has the same full-length midrange horn as the Klipschorn (which is a big improvement over the Heresy’s & Cornwalls smaller mid horn), but LaScala has less low-end extension.. and less sensitive than Klipschorns, I believe.
I had Heresy’s in college and my friend had the Cornwalls.. and they were both loud and clean enough to dj parties with (but more refined than a dj speaker). La Scala and Klipshorn were a step up from Cornwall and Heresy, and today’s versions in the Heritage series are much improved over those.
Ocean Way Audio also makes great speakers for R&B, pop, and rock, but the big ones are quite expensive and not easy to find. The designer is a grammy winning recording engineer.
I’ll agree with previous comments.. speakers aren’t generally designed to be genre specific (although some are voiced using traditional instruments as benchmarks.. such as Gershman Acoustics), but for rock what you want is transient response, sensitivity, and bass extension to at least 40-50hz. Also, the voice coils should have ability to withstand a lot of current/heat.
One more thing I'll say about Klipsch (Heritage series, at least) is that they smell nice. I've never had better smelling speakers. Something about the wood.
