Horn based loudspeakers why the controversy?

I sold a good num of very large front and back loaded sub bass systems for home audio and also for simulator use. The costs get crazy high very fast. Audiophiles also want veneer or other deluxe finish this adds greatly to costs when things get crazy large, it also adds greatly to packing costs and shipping since you have to pack to keep a 800lb full veneered horn from even the slightest damage a imposible task. With home installs many times you have to hire someone to help tote and someone who knows set up (I had to hire 6 men to move my subbass horn to new audioroom). And most audiorooms can not house or even if they could horn wouldnt fit up stairs through door arround corner etc. I did put alot of design effort into more portable giant designs and ones that easily come apart to fit such but markets limited and the above is problematic. Today I turn customers away and just build the large ones for my own use. Its far easier and cheaper to just slap ported cab to cover mid and bass thus why most are such.

@larryi - thank you, you've certainly heard many horn systems!
Not heard of the Italian  make you have  Strumenti Acustici de Precisione, as I have an Italy backgroung , I will make sure I try and find a dealer in italy close to me to have a listen when I visit. I also would like to hear a pair of Ocello's from the UK. I have heard some big horns at various Hi-Fi shows, 'Classic Audio Loudspeakers' Horns springs to mind from memory. My Oris 150's were made by johnK, I've had them since 2007, and I must say that I would not swap them for any of the Horns that I have heard so far. They are streets ahead of my stock Klipschorns sound wise.

Except music with a 5 string bass at 31hz for the low B, percussion overtones, pianos, the ambient sound around live orchestras, life...etc....

Well. life is not music, but yes, there are a fair number of sources for below 40Hz bass. Still, a lot of popular music is excluded. Being that reviewers often listen to classical, pipe organ, and such as references, it's perplexing as to why so many confuse the 2nd octave for the first. I realize speakers often get some reinforcement in way of room placement, but still, many "budget" floorstanders don't produce anything useful below 35Hz. I'd rather have a speaker that sacrifices everything below 40Hz in exchange for tactile and defined bass above that - which is what you get with Klispch Heritage.

Gawdbless,

Strumenti Acustici de Precisione no longer exists, but the owner/designer, Vincenzo Fratello,  has a new company called DolceVita Audio.  It is even harder to find references to that company.  A dealer in my Northern Virginia area, Deja Vu Audio, heard the new lineup of speakers in Italy and plans to bring it into his shop when production commences.  I don't think there are any horn designs in the new lineup, but, the speakers are probably worth hearing; this particular dealer makes custom horn speakers from vintage and new parts and is very much in tune to the sound of horn-based systems.  

The Oris horn, using full-range drivers as mid to upper frequency drivers is a very promising approach.  Used that way, many such drivers sound much smoother and natural than as truly full range drivers.  I have heard Lowther, AER and Feastrix and cheap Tang Band drivers used this way and the systems sounded quite good. 

The only time I heard a full-range driver sound great without any other drivers is the Charney Audio back-loaded horn--a quite amazing system give that it sounds good, looks presentable, does not take up much room and is very reasonably priced.   I've heard the Charney with a Voxativ driver and an AER driver (I like the AER more because it sounded smoothly extended in its top range).  The Voxativ full range systems (of course using their drivers) sound good too, but I'll still take the Charneys.

I completely agree that speakers like the Heresy IIIs I have been enjoying are perhaps the most coherent I've heard to their 58hz or so limits (there is bass below that point of course, but not in the same tonal or dynamic ballpark)...very clean, accurate, and impactful bass in that range, utterly enhanced by 2 carefully adjusted subs. I just looked up the aforementioned Charney speakers and man...beautiful craftsmanship and nice ideas...Maybe I'll hear 'em at a show sometime.