Why not horns?

" If at some point in the future I feel the need to put two refrigerator sized objects in my listening room, horns would definitely be on my list."

The size of most good full range horn designs is perhaps the biggest reason they are not more popular as I understand it. Most people do not have room for or even want these gigantic beasts in their rooms.

I asked a large Manhattan dealer rep why they carry no horn speakers among the myriad high end equipment on display in their shop and this was the reason related. Of course in big cities like NY, room is generally tighter for most.

My bass cabinets are 24 inches wide and 33 inches tall. The horn mouths are 18 inches outside diameter. Total height is 52 inches. You could hide my whole speaker behind a Magnapan 3.6.
Go measure your speakers. Certainly mine are not compact but neither are they outlandishly huge. Some people have space for them and some don't. I'm aware that horns do not have universal appeal. If they are a realistic possibility, I would urge you to investigate. If your wife won't allow it or you can't sit back far enough or your religion clearly states "Thou shall not horn", then you shouldn't tamper with your staus quo. If you have a curiosity, as I inexplicably did, then scratch yer damn itch. Take a flyer and see if you like the horn presentation the way a lot of others say they do.

Actually I have a decent size house yet parted with my Maggies due to lack of room to set them up correctly without being intrusive, so Maggies are not really a good example of a room friendly speaker design.

The OHMs with the Walsh drivers solved the problem. Big speaker sound in a fairly small footprint that is reasonably room friendly.

I would like to try horns someday, but practically I doubt I would ever get any more serious than dabbling with some smaller designs with a SET amp or something along those lines.

Proud owner of Klipschorns since 1988 and wouldn't consider any other speaker at this time. No "honky" sounds as described by some others here. My wife keeps bugging me to rip out the carpeting and put in wood floors- now this could be a problem for the Khorns.

I think the old Klipsch are a great starting point...easy to upgrade, easy to find cheap, easy to sell, and not bad sound at all.

I started with Kg4's ($165)....bought upgraded Forte next (($550), and now I'm thinking bigger Klipsch...or maybe Altec 19's.

My Klipsch don't honk, very nice for the price.

Dave