Are Horn Speakers good or bad or simply a complete joke?

Not at all. Horns, like cone speakers, come in a variety of performance capabilities. IOW, some work very well, are highly revealing and others pretty much suck at the same task- just like cone or for that matter planar speakers. It would be throwing out the baby with the bath to assume that just because one horn speaker sounds terrible, that they all do!

Luke,
I have found the violon highs indeed a joy, wonderfully musical & a sight to behold. I am about to get the esoteric p-01/d-01/g-0s system with them in a few weeks - the plasma tweeter is aparently even more of a revelation with excellent SCAD playback. Do an audition, life is short & the pleasure you'll get from these speakers is in the same league as great sex.
Dr Jonathan Spratt

The RINGING of metal horns cause SEVERE MIGRAINE headaches. The concentrated sound can SHATTER SKULL BONES. I would not get within one quarter mile of a working metal horn, these are called DRIVERS because they drive you NUTS. Horns are only good on tug boats and firetrucks. JBL originally designed the 375 as a tug boat horn for foggy days. It was later used in the KOREAN WAR on the end of a four foot tube as a weapon to shatter skull bones. I suggest that anyone using a compression driver get an MRI of the skull on a weekly basis to check for fractures of the skull. The high intensity acoustic waves can easily penitrate the skull and burn holes in the brain, thus more inmates can be added to the asylum. These drivers cause standing waves on the skull surface, the intense migranes last for hours to days. Ask any horn "user" if he has frequent headaches. Do you really want to be a "Horn Man"? Are you horny for headach pain? Horns should have been phased out with the Victrola horns. Comments...

Good for your caledonian soul and when you really want the music in your face which is a good thing. Subtlties be damned.

The only joke is on the folks who say that modern horns perform badly, this is a bunch of BS.They image great ,have huge dynamics, large sound stage, can produce massive SPL without strain and can run on the smallest of amps.Most folks dont own horns because of WAF, price, size and there wrongly given bad reputation.Theres more SUV owners out there than Sports car owners does this mean a SUV has higher on road performance? Just because most folks own conventional loudspeakers doesnt make them better than horns.Thats why so many guys I know that have tried most everything system wise end up Hi eff and tube.Seems the folks who only hear horns briefly a shows or demos seem to be the ones with the - opinions, horn owners who have tried the rest in there system love there horns.