To horn or not to horn

I have not responded to this thread, but a brief comment ( I hope it brief, for everyone ). I grew up around, and involved, with live, unamplified music. I was also introduced, and owned, Klipsch Heritage speakers, well over 50 years ago. With so many different brands and models of speakers, being owned, auditioned, and set up by me ( I was in the audio business ), I feel, horns in general, imo and ime, captures the most true, and honest representation, of that, of what I grew up to. Perfection in speakers, or any piece of audio gear, will never exist, as this, in part, is due to the inherent limitations of the recordings we listen to ( why so many listeners I know, only listen to the better recording labels out there, as we all know who these labels are ). Whatever problems horns have ( shell resonance and vibration ) can easily be tamed, if not, completed be eliminated, and with proper set up, and listener distance, they can be the closest, to what one hears, live. I say, " can " be closest. My buddy, playing guitar, and us singing, with a mic and guitar mixer, sounds wonderful through our Lascalas ( we both own them ). Most dynamic speakers, and panels ( those I have heard ), cannot handle this playback, as this becomes torturous, and the sound simply compresses, distorts, breaks up, etc. I know this might be extreme, but in the end, it all becomes subjective, and personal. ymmv. I hope everyone well, during this time of the pandemic. Always, MrD.

Did not mean to ruin and end the thread

Tomic.....All good my friend, and you enjoy as well !   

Jet88, enjoy the CW IVs. If you are interested, some simple modifications that I have been doing for years on Klipsch Heritage models, can be seen on YouTube, by " The Boston Audiophile ". He shows you, on his CW IVs. Enjoy !

" Throw ". Some listeners do not get it, unfortunately. Most of the larger horn speakers ( google Klipsch Pro; a grand scale example : Klipsch KPT-CINEMA GRANDEUR ), would require an extremely large room, and ime, for sure, a great distance, between them, and the listener. A few folks I know of ( many here on the Gon ) would have no problem, listening to them, from 8 - 12 ft away. As much as I would happily own a pair, along with the associated gear to run them, they would not work in my current room, a room, that my Lascalas, work, very well. Lascalas, can fill a stage, albeit, on a smaller scale. YMMV

@johnk, 1st, I am a novice, with horns, compared to you. Now, with that out of the way..........As much as I enjoy large horns ( as my Klipsch Pro example above ), I need to disagree on the fact, that many of them, for me, do not work in a smaller room, and this, is why I have always stated, we are all different, as our listening tastes are concerned. The truth is, I do not want to be " inside " a piano ( using this instrument as an example ), and this, I find, is exactly what the presentation of a very large horn, in a small room, replicates. The other part of this, is coherence. I am very critical of hearing the transition of 1 driver, to the other ( the Altec 19, being an example of something, you and I have disagreed on ). BTW, it is all good. My listening experiences of this ( with much time spent with Avantgarde Acoustics Trios ), owned by a good and close friend, could not get them to work, in a 9 X 12 room, no matter what we did. Truthfully, my buddy liked it more than I, as this was his 1st foray into horns, where, I grew up with horns. I simply, like some distance between me, and them. This is no different with other types of loudspeakers, I might point out. You can always accommodate a smaller speaker into a too large of a room, simply by changing the listener position, but, and again, ime, not the other way around. If a speaker cannot work into a proper sized room ( again, for me ), I might as well be listening through a headset. YMMV. Be well, and enjoy.

@isochronism, I always had my own listening room, so the acceptance factor of a wife / live in gf, was never an issue. @tomic601 , you must think I have lost my hearing. I have always been careful ( might seem contradictory ), and although, my listening peaks exceed 100 db, on many occasions, and have for years, my hearing, does check well ( maybe surprising ). @shkong78. I have followed that horn thread on the WBF, as I am a member. Interesting to me, was the early trolling going on, by a few individuals. Never ceases to amaze me. And yes, some awesome, large and quite elaborate horn systems and designs.