Good, Affordable Horns?

Hey Mapman,Just because its a horn doesnt mean they only crank.I have a giant horn system in my office it uses 8-15in woofers in front horns with comp mid and tweeter horns. I can sit as close as 6ft from it, loudspeaker can play at a very low level or crazy loud whatever you want. Also have run them on amps from 200watts class a SS to 10 watt SET tube. If its too loud just turn your volume control down like you would do with any loudspeakers. So dont be afraid of horns they dont bite.

Mapman - Boa2 had his Khorns in a relatively small room and they sounded great there. I'd say the really difficult aspect of using the room you describe is the square ratio which is one of the worst proportions for a good listening room. You may have to address that with room treatment no matter what speakers you put in there (assuming you have not already). You can search the archives as I think this has come up before in various threads.

I think you need to consider some of the other excellent offerings from Klipsch that use woofers for the lows.

All the ones mentioned here do use woofers for the lows. I think what you meant was forward firing woofers, as opposed to woofers used within a folded horn. In the Klipsch Heritage line the forward firing options are limited to the Cornwall and Heresy. The latter is not a bad little speaker either, but you wouldn't be getting a full dose of horn magic IMO, and the bass response is quite limited as well. The Forte and Chorus also have forward firing woofers (as well as a passive rear-firing woofer in the back). Again, nice speakers (more for rockin' IMO), and there you would get all the bass you'll need, but if you want a full heaping helping of Klipsch horn magic, my recommendation would be the larger horns in the Heritage line (Khorn, LaScala, Belle).

Marco

Lots of talk about Klipsch, but you should also consider Altec 604 duplex. These are nearfield monitors and work very well in a small room. Good electronics are a must. 40hz is there. Just thought you REALLY should give these some consideration. Some of the best midrange available IMO.

Good luck and I hope you find what suits you.

wwwrecords, the near-field monitor idea has always had appeal for me in this room. I'll look into it.

Jax2, I'm definitely looking for some "horn magic" in order to replace what I have. The SET/horn combo would seem to be the place to land eventually from what I've read and heard.

I've done Ok in the 12X12 rooms with both my Dynaudio monitors and the smaller Ohm Walshes. The only thing I don't like is that I have to place them several feet out from the walls in an already small room to get the results I am used to. I would seriously consider a local pair of used khorns maybe if I felt confident about how to handle the room acoustics but I guess I'm not quite there yet.

My horns were in a room 11' x 12' driven by a Musical Fidelity 250w power amp with a DNM 3c pre amp which has the most gain on the left/right volume pots that I have ever had the pleasure of twiddling. Denis Moorecroft (DNM) designed the pre amps to operate that way. The volume pots went from 0-12 (from my memory) numerically but pot set on #1 was loud enough that you didn't need to go any louder, I just used to literally touch the volume pot to fill the room nicely with sound.
If you can do check out a pair of Oris 150's they are seriously good for the $$$$$ they do not need a sub, IMO.