Horns

Well I believe that the type of transducer has a huge impact on the sound of the speaker. So the difference in sound when comparing dynamic speakers is not as significant as comparing dynamic speakers with horns or panels. I have never heard a horn speaker that sounded like a dynamic speaker nor an electrostat. I think the sonic differences are very fundamental and very easy to recognize. 

@jasbirnandra , the James Romeyu Bohemian (Audiokinesis) speaker is a wonderful Horn speaker for those with tube amps. For top performance they still require subwoofer but there are painfully few that do not. However, since those big 15" drivers cover the meaty part of the midrange (crossover 700 Hz) the improvement in clarity should be profound. If used without subwoofers I would roll them off at 40 Hz.

@audition__audio , I think the big difference is between point source and line source speakers. Bad horns are painfully obvious but really good ones sound very much like regular dynamic speakers but cleaner, more efficient with less room interaction because their dispersion is restricted. Tall Panels are in a totally different world, some like them others do not. I am a big fan of tall panels as most people here know. I prefer the larger sound stage and the dipole, line source radiation pattern almost entirely eliminates the need for room treatments. The room essentially disappears. But, if I did not have the situation required for big panels the Bohemian is certainly a speaker I could buy. 

Don’t listen to the audiophiles who assume all horns have a sound that is mostly negative. Much of the audiophile music that’s so cherished today was mastered on horn systems. Yet audiophiles will say you need to play back the way the artists intended then they proceed to play that wonderful Jazz or blues mastered on Altec TAD and RCA horns on a small chinless dynamic bookshelf or slim tower. Many of them have never owned horns or had any real experience with the many types of horn systems available. They have been told that horns are problematic. An old tail made up by 1950-60s audio salesmen to get mono speaker owners to dump the wonderful JBL Hartsfield for a crappy pair of AR. The old sales lines have been passed down by the audio press as facts. Just like they did with tube amplifiers and turn tables. Later they were proven very wrong it’s the same with horn designs.

Well what type of speaker used for mastering has no bearing on the quality of reproduction in your home system. For example those awful JBL speakers used in so many mastering studios for decades should be proof enough. The goal with speakers is to reproduce, as accurately as possible, the source material. Each speaker design contributes positively in different ways to this material. But the same thing always emerges from the horn crowd and it is dynamics and lack of dynamic compression. Legitimate points. You have to laugh when people claim to have heard a recording being made but are listening in the booth with whatever monitor the studio was using at the time. Instead of considering what the monitors used in the studio got correct, it is equally legitimate to consider what was missed by these same speakers.  

Oh and by the way, who is your source for the information about the 50s and 60s tactics to sell AR speakers? Perhaps you should say you dont like the old ARs and prefer horns. To assume that many of the negative opinions regarding horns arent based on listening is a bit of a stretch dont you think?