'Short' horns

Erik,

  Thanks again. Yes, no doubt there is a mountain of horn designs as well as many others. I have been fascinated by speakers for decades going back to my early youth. The first speakers that I ever built in '76 were a knock off of the K horns. I built them in high school shop. The bass is still unforgettable to me, but the midrange is where things didn't add up as well. The tweeter used was the K77? Sounded fine. Anyway, it has just gone from there and has been a great experience.

Mr. D,/ Erik,

Yes, it is true that design must be involved for the proper flare for a given driver, and because of that, I am stabbing in the dark at best.
What eluded to this thought was in reading part of the ’Getting Better Sound’ by Jim Smith. I do not agree with every thought that Jim has, yet, there is inspiration here and there. In this case, he mentions the directivity of some driver designs (horns, I bet) that encourage less reflections from side walls and other room boundaries. I had an old set of such horns lying around that I have experimented with years ago. Even though there isn’t perfection to be had, the application has one desirable effect. The dispersion of the drivers is more spot on, and maybe even to some degree matches better the sound of the drivers rear loaded horn design to begin with. When the novelty wears off, I may well have other things to conclude.
 Erik, likely I will be encouraged to look into kits as well in the future. These short horns are maybe 2 1/2" deep with a fast flare after the first 1 1/2". They are the diameter of the cone area which is 5 1/2". I will try to seal around the edges since I am sure it would have a different effect.

 I was born with 'what if' in my head. That can be good or bad, but the side of curiosity led to can this be done better? Often times the answer ended up being just more experience under my belt. Then there are those times that something really shouldn't work, or at least work as well as it does. 
 The target relies on a bullseye to make shift the rifle. The eye tells us the score, and that is enough for that approach. Perhaps I am attempting to shoot over the shoulder while using a mirror. More than that, I am not even aiming at the same target as most others. Could be that after I fire, a theory falls.

 Man, I just checked out the Viking website. This is very impressive woodworking! Not manufactured, but handcrafted. Simply beautiful. I was no master at the lathe, but this does give inspiration to the idea. Thanks for the reference.

'R',
  The midrange shout of many single driver designs is especially harsh for me to listen to. I absolutely agree with the danger of this being the outcome should the wrong taper, driver choice, or other mistake is made. 
 I also agree that the presentation from some kind of lucky selection of each component can yield no less than amazing results. More than anything it seems to come from the dispersion and volume in balance with one another. Get it to your ears before any trouble starts, HA!