Good, Affordable Horns?

klipsch makes great horns...but honestly, your ohms are the benchmark loudspeakers. i think you're just bored at the moment.

Klipsch Heritage are great horn speakers at a price most could afford. Their magic is in the midrange which is not at all cabinet dependent (the horns, mid and tweet, do not use the cabinet for anything but physical support). There are many techniques to tweak those speakers, which do include cabinet bracing to address the bass cabinet (the only aspect of their performance that would be affected by the cabinet), as well as other simple and elaborate tweaks. I have owned five pairs of Klipsch horn speaker and none of them had a cabinet that "rings like a bell" - I'm not sure how wood could ever do that? If Krellm7 is referring to the metal horns ringing, that can be easily addressed with damping material. Before getting into any of the actual tweaks, which can be found elsewhere in the forum archives and at the Klipsch forums, I'd have to side with Jaybo. Given your current amplification I would never steer you towards Klipsch Heritage speakers. Though some like the combination, I've never liked them much with SS amps and they can sound quite harsh. PW Klipsch designed them for tubes. To my ears that is what they sound best with. If you are sticking with SS amplification, try something different if you want to try new speakers. If you really want to try Klipsch speakers in the price range you stated, and have the room for them, I'd pair a set of Klipschorns off with some great tube amps and save a bit of money for tweaking them (replace the tweet and Xover would be the first thing I'd do). LaScalas do not do the bass very well - they drop off severely at around 50hz. They do mids brilliantly. If you need bass, and don't have the corners for the Khorns, I'd look at Cornwalls. There is a Frankenstein version of those that Bob Crites came up with that he calls "Cornscalas" that might be a direction to pursue if you're a DIY guy too. Again, tubes are where its at with horns IMO.

Marco

For around 2k plus a few dollars you maybe able to could pick up a pair of Oris 150 horns, like I have here on the 'gon'. They give a very high end sound without the high end price, well I think they do anyway. Heard loads of speakers at hi-fi shows Including the expensive Campanile, and the extremely even more expensive Triolon Apacella's and I don't think they are any better than the Oris 150's,
They are IMHO (of course) the true hi-fi bargain for the money.

Well OK, if you are comparing the Klipsch cabinet quality with new Polks, Bose, KLH then yes they have good cabinet construction. If you compare them to B&W, NHT, Dynaudio ect..then they are built rather poorly. Klipsch most certainly needs tubes to tame them nasty, bright, colored mids and highs.

If you want a good horn speaker look at some single driver speakers with rear loaded horns. But to each his own. Like I said I have owned many Klipsch & I will never go back. The Klipschorn was designed back in 1945, we have come a long way since then. People still like them but I strongly feel there are much better speakers for the money. It's like a bright TV, it will catch your attention right away but give it an hour and your eyes/ears will hurt.
IMO

Thanks for the feedback so far.

Touche' on the bored comment. Sometimes I like to look at new options just because I can.....

I guess I'm just always looking to try (or hear) something different.

I still don't know if there is a single speaker that works best for all kinds of music.

I don't think I have anything currently that would resemble the sound of a good horn loaded design.

The tube/horn point is probably very well taken. I'm not looking to go to tubes in general.

My Carver c-6 does provide pre-amp outputs with a "tubelike" response (God bless Bob Carver...always looking to innovate and provide something different)as well as the solid state outs that I currently use and prefer given my current SS amplification and brothel of speakers.

I think currently, my Ohm Walsh's are still my favorites in general. If I had to keep just 1 pair of speakers, it would probably be the F-5's.