Horn speakers , high efficiency but not “shouty”

better fill of the sound throughout the listening room. The smaller horn may impress at first with its "lively" imprinting, but it really stands more in the way of the music and ultimately can't hold a candle next to their larger, well designed brethren.


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I am sure there is  so much more to my classical  music with a  big well designed, high quality horn system.
Completely blow away my speakers performance for sure. 
I'll keep this in mind for a  down the road project. 
Probably start researching now, see what each lab has to offer. 
For full symphony, its quite likely big horns are the best of the best,,
AS I am now done with the wide band project, at least in the high end designs. 
I plan to swap out my 4 inch wide band for  the bigger brother    6.5 wide band $400/pair. 
This will hold me over til I can snag a  good deal on a  used horn, down the road. 
Good  horns are not found often on the used market. 

I hear shouty just as atmasphere describes it. In stock form my circa mid-late 80's Klipschorns certainly had it, one major infraction was the K-401 mid horn. Exponential horn, metal, rang like a bell, bad throat design, etc. I could have never lived with those mids, timbre anomalies I would describe as shouty. My replacement Volti tractrix horns were one of the most important upgrades I made to Klipschorns, although further improvements were necessary to get natural timbre throughout frequency spectrum. Quite an experience how my Klipshcorns evolved with each modification, so many components amenable to upgrades! And yes, increased loudness shouldn't cause a single bit more stridency, hard to do with horns.

It seems many don't like horn speakers, I get it, but one bad experience doesn't make for an overarching conclusion. Proper horn loudspeaker design and execution, proper room treatments and sympathetic system matching can bring an illusion of live performers in room that's intoxicating. I've been through many types of speakers in over thirty years as audiophile, these Klipschorns have required the most involved system building and modifications yet, ocd has been required. My Klipschorns expose everything, such great efficiency, absolutely requires even a single watt of signal boost to be high quality, every link in audio chain must be optimized.

It seems many don't like horn speakers, I get it, but one bad experience doesn't make for an overarching conclusion. Proper horn loudspeaker design and execution, proper room treatments and sympathetic system matching can bring an illusion of live performers in room that's intoxicating

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I'm sold on horns as best speaker in full orchestra, 
No doubt, But some of us have limitations,
cash and room size. I'm limited in both areas.
Horns will have to wait  as a  distant project, ~~My last speaker~~
I'm convinced horns is the answer to high fidelity. 

Horns, good, better or best just have a different way of presenting music than direct radiating drivers or panel speakers. They all have their charms. I really connected with horn presentation the first time I heard Khorns.
I can surely understand those who feel differently, or those who value ruler flat measurements. The only invalid opinion is the opinion of someone who hasn't really given them a try and believes a negative opinion without self-verification.

2 weeks after I got my horns and tubes, they have burned in for over 300 hrs.
I have been working on room placement with help of Brian Charney the designer , and art noxon and jordon Goulette of asc . We have traded pics , done articulation and frequency sweeps in room and analysed them .
also have ordered better tubes than stock tubes from andy , of vintage tubes .
my experience to date .
the tubes and horn combination is “dirty “ hopefully the newer tubes will better it .
there is not much deep powerful bass. The vocals are little peaked.
this is in comparison to my ayre , magico Jl audio system tweaked to the nth with room treatment etc . Eg. Listened to Steve Earle at 85 db thru my tubes sounded loud and I had to turn it down . Now listening at 95db thru my ayre, magico and it’s so clean ,  I want to play it even louder lol .