How much of High End Audio is Horn Speakers?


An audio friend of mine had been discussing my future speaker purchase. We discussed, Harbeth, Devore, Spendor, Audio Note and other more traditional speaker brands. A week or two later he called an asked me what speakers I had purchased. When I told him Klipsch, there was a little silence on the other end of the line. Our call probably ended a little sooner then usual. I could tell he was disappointed in my purchase. Is it the Klipsch name that illicits this type of response or is it Horn speakers in general? After thinking about some of the other Audiophiles in town, a good deal of them are on the low power high efficiency speaker route and more than a few I know are using Horns. Does anyone know how the high end market share is divided? Is there a stigma associated with certain lower cost Horn speakers? Or is this just Klipsch? I now own a pair of Klipsch Cornwalls and am enjoying the journey associated with tweaking the sound to my taste. Is there an unwritten rule that friends don’t let friends buy Klipsch?

128x128coachpoconnor

As of right now I've been really interested in the JBL S3900, but always wondered about the horn/anti horn discussion.

I'm a big fan of my JBL L100 75's, and the S3900 would be my jump speaker if I was gonna make the horn leap.

I visually am not into the La Scala as much for some reason.

I love my Belle Klipsch enough that I am building my system around them. So far no regrets. Upgrades, isolation, clean power. What they give in return is depth, detail and an “I’m at the show” feel. 

Thanks everyone…I didn’t come at this change blind… I had some Epos speakers that were very bright and I sure didn’t want that again. When I worked as a Audio Salesmen in the 70’s I sold JBL speakers and I hated them. To be fair our showroom was horrible, so they probably didnt get a fair shake. So I did have some anxiety about Horns. I just finished Room treatment reorganization. The added/ rearranged absorption has helped the Bass response. Change some cables back to Zu Event.., and that has been good. I also purchased a Coincident Statement Linestage to hopefully go along with some future Frankenstein 300b monoblocks. So far I’m impressed how well they sound with the Pass XA25. Thanks for everyone’s comments.