real horns or horn loaded what's the diff?

Your talking front and back loaded horn.A lowther or fostex in proper cabinet can make for a wonderfuly musical loudspeaker. They can be a bit weak at frequincy extremes but the vintage front horns you listed klipsch altec etc all sufer from this. 2 watts might not be enofe for a vintage front horn. If you have DIY skills maybe a lowther fostex would work for you. Keep in mind hi-eff just not fullranges and front horns, hi-eff ribbon loudspeakers are availible as are medium eff dynamics like audio note.

though i'm not recommending you should ditch the ML's, keep in mind that the variety, and quality of sound you'll find (in just the two catagories you've mentioned) can vary wildly. some horns and horn loaded designs still sound better with beefier amps too. its a different world, and though some love it, it can be costly, colored, and fatiging. i would recommend experimenting before ditching your existing gear. ML's are not slouch, and some of the flea watt amps are ultimately just pretty to look at. you may also want to compare your ML's to good dynamic driver designs, if those low notes are of importance.

I think you will enjoy your system more with the small amp and a hi-eff loudspeaker. I owned most ML. My friends a dealer so I get to mess about with all the new ML designs.To me ML are far more colored than a proper hi-eff design.I can always hear this plastic resonance on most all panals. Plus integration between dynamic woofer and panal always is off.Best ML to me still is CLS 2Z. I did enjoy much of what they did or I wouldnt of kept buying stats for so long but to my ears a good hi-eff system is far better than a ML based.But with all things YMMV.

Although some may disagree I believe both Altecs and Klipschs both liike more than a little bit of power. Their crossover designs are not the easiest of loads.