Why not horns?

I don't own horn speakers but I do like them quite a lot when they're properly implemented. At CES last month I heard a multitude of rooms with very expensive and highly raved about speakers. One of the very best sounding rooms I heard in terms of realistic and natural sound was the Cessaro horn driven by the Electra Fidelity 300b SET. Very alive and involving presentation. Many rooms even with high power amplifiers driving relatively inefficient speakers had a duller, less vibrant and flat 2 dimensional sound in comparison. The difference was pretty striking in some cases. A good quality horn can sound excellent.

Charles,

Kiddman,
You use live acoustic instruments as your template and I happily do the same and this approach has served me very effectively in choosing audio components. You do need to be familiar with real instrument sound in order to determine how and to what degree components deviate from this standard. HP did recognize and strongly advocate this concept and I'll give him cconsiderable credit for making this an important criteria. I enjoyed TAS quite a bit during my introduction in the late 1980s and this continued for about a 10 year period. I admired his efforts but didn't view him or anyone else as an all knowing infallible guru. I also believed that HP truly loves and respects music just as I do.
Charles,

Hi Kiddman,
We've shared forum topics before and I've come to respect your insightful input and feel the same regarding Frogman as well. I do feel a sense of gratitude towards HP and G. Holt for their publications in my early years in this most enjoyable pastime. Of course as you gain personal experience/knowledge the influence of others naturally tends to diminish. They did jump start my exposure to the world of subjective audio review and observation. In those days Stereo Review and Audio magazine in contrast did virtually nothing for me.
Charles,

Peter Aczel's "all amplifiers sound the same" attitude is why I'd referenced Stereo Review earlier. Even as a young greenhorn back in the late 1980s I knew that mindset was patently false. This is an obvious area where the subjectivity crowd got it right, component's most definitely sound distinct with their individual character. Julian Hirsch was very different from the compelling HP and JGH in those days.
Charles,

Rok2kid,
Hello my fellow jazz lover/admirer, we'll have to cheerfully disagree on the "all amps sound the same" issue. It has been covered redundantly and there's nothing new to add and to each their own. By the way I'm listening to Milt Jackson and Wes Montgomery "Bags Meets Wes!".
Take care,
Charles,

Seikosha,
Nicely put! I don't intend to overstate the influence of HP and JGH but they did bring subjective opinion/reviewing to a wide audience of readers. They weren't "all knowing gurus" but I'll give them their due credit.
Charles,