How much of High End Audio is Horn Speakers?

There is a lot of anti-horn sentiment out there. I had no interest in horns prior to 1980's era Klipschorns falling into my lap. Prior to that I had used a series of open baffle and box speakers, very much liked sound staging of open baffles, box speakers not as much. But then coherence and timbre were extremely important to me as well. Last speaker prior to Klipschorns were extreme modded Merlin VSM-MM, I was not unhappy with Merlins (still own), but intention for any replacement was another open baffle speaker.

This is when Klipschorns came into my possession, certainly curious how they'd sound but with with very little expectation I'd like, thought I'd flip them if not enjoyed. So, first listening, totally original including crossovers, this sense of live performers in room struck me, I'd never heard this characteristic to such an extent prior. I had issues with timbre, coherence, tonality, but this uncanny sense of live performers in room made me keep them, with intention of modding to fit my needs. And so, here we are a few years down the road, my modded Klipschorns will stay in my possession til I die!

I'm no Klipsch Heritage expert, I've never even heard other Klipsch, but I assume this uncanny sense of live performers in room is initial fascination with the line. Even in stock form, highly resolving and transparent, and I see continuing evolution in attaining more natural tonality, timbre.

Add to this ability to run horns with various low powered SET, each with special characteristics, one can really voice or flavor system to heart''s delight.

And, as some of you may know, a lot of horns conducive to modding, many sources for attaining your sound preferences. Volti mid horns part of my mods, so, yes Volti another horn to pay attention to. I did try damping my original mid horns, not to my liking, band aid approach, Volti tractrix fit the bill.

Sound staging, imaging was concern of mine coming from Merlins, speakers designed from scratch for maximal ss and imaging. My Klipschorns don't really give up much to Merlins here, even in stock form not bad at all, always strong dimensional phantom center image. With mods, strong aspect of overall performance, and I'm a sound stage, image freak.

My take on horns is timbre purists assume you can't get natural timbre out of horns, not true. Horns come in many flavors, well designed, engineered horns made with natural materials critical in attaining top flight performance here.

Speaking of field coils, couple years ago visited Classic Audio Loudspeakers Brighton Michigan, specializes in field coils. Didn't get a chance to listen as he was leaving for show that particular day. Had lots of JBL cabinets at time I visited, been meaning to return.

@coachpoconnor You're on right track with Coincident Statement and future Frankenstein. I use Statement MkII and custom built 300B monoblocks or Coincident 845SET with the Klipschorns. All are wonderful match for horns, different flavors with amps, but both great. When you get the Frankensteins be sure to use top line power tubes, as for Statement I've found Linlai Elite solid plate best, followed by Psvane WE, then Linlai Elite mesh plate, any of the cheaper variety will sound bleached in comparison.

Plenty of people enjoy their horns stock, others enjoy modded. Now, what exactly is wrong with horns, seems like all these people are satisfied. Unless we're all masochist and only fooling ourselves.

Perhaps the ease with which horns are amenable to diy or off the shelf mods is part of the appeal.

By the way, I've modded box speakers, open baffle and horns, I like my speakers to fit my exact needs. Nothing inherently wrong with any of these designs.