My apologies this post is way to long but you asked.
This question fits me to a tee. Assumptions I've held for over forty years have been upended, stomped on and proven wrong.
I was a died in the wool sealed 3 way speaker guy using only a soft dome tweeter. ADS L1290II. using a DSP to Bi_Amp them I was pushing over thee hundred watts of class AB power per side.
Then on my second system I Bi-Amped using two Dynaco ST-70s powering Dahlquist DQ12 speakers. They were open and spacious with a very good presentation. I preferred the spaciousness provided by moving the midrange out of the box. The ADS had a much better frequency response but they didn't sound realistic compared to the Dahlquist.
My listening area currently is huge and a very unique space. Basically the room is an open L shape with a staircase bisecting the bottom of the L and the listening area provides minimal parallel walls. From the corner to the half wall for the staircase is about 18ft and my sitting location is approximately 10ft from the front wall but the long part of the L is almost thirty feet.
I purchased a SET amp and it sat in the box unopened for over a year. Because of the Dahlquist I was planning on building some open baffles for it but wasn't sure If they could fill the space with only two watts. I went and listened to the MOABS and while they sounded great they were just to big. What I realized was that while corner horns are big they don't really intrude into the living space. I found a used pair of Speaker Lab SK corner horns planning on using them as bass boxes for my open baffle speakers until I hooked them up.
Holy crap. I had finally after forty years moved from midf-i to HI-FI. The sound first reminded me of the movie theaters of my youth. It was huge, detailed and deep. The most amazing part is that they sounded great anywhere in the space. I added a 12 inch sealed subwoofer for no other reason in that I had one and now the bass goes really deep. With 2 watts I can pressurize the whole space and it's so clean and clear that I don't realize how loud it's playing until I pause it and then come back to it
I've listened to some pretty good stereos and nothing has impacted me the way these corner horns have in this space. The limiting factor now is my source, cables and crossovers. It just doesn't compare to the sound of a $15,000 turntable with thousands of dollars of cables but saying that it is totally satisfying. I have less invested in my current system than some of you have in a single power cord. There is no reason that it should sound this good... but it does.
I would recommend horns now something a year ago I would never consider. Live and learn.
Don't even ask me about power cables.
