Horn speakers , high efficiency but not “shouty”

@jjss49 --

i have been looking for 30 years, haven't found em yet - let me know when you do ok?

Have you been trying to deliberately avoid horns these last 3 decades, or.. 

@asctim --

I think we need a technical description of "shouty." A lot of sounds in nature could be described as shouty and a lot of speakers can't produce them with the lifelike intensity that a horn speaker can. Maybe it's the inability to shout regardless of source material that some people really want. A softer, dimmer, more pastel presentation can be easier on the ear while still providing a highly detailed insight into the music.  

Exactly - well put. The vivid immediacy, dynamics and effortless presence of live music has been largely filtered out with non-horn loaded, typical audiophile speakers for a, in your words "softer, dimmer, more pastel presentation .." In other words the reference in home audio reproduction is less of a live event than one constituted by audiophilia itself.

Good horns, and there are quite a few of them, don't shout to my ears, but their characteristics as horns with a narrower, more controlled directivity pattern and thereby more of the sound being emitted towards the listener directly vs. reflected, as well as them using high efficiency compression drivers, may come across as more direct, dense and visceral. The perhaps most relaxed sounding horns I've heard are large JMLC iterations. 

@kevinhughes77 --

Not sure how sensitive you need but the JBL 4367 at 94db is not shouty at all to my ear. Just move from the Heresy IV which was also very easy to live with but the JBL takes it to another level. Maybe too revealing at times but I’ll take an honest speaker I can tune with amps and sources.

I wouldn't call the JBL 4367's shouty either, but I did find they had a rather evenly distributed, slightly mode-y character to their waveguide sound (my guess is waveguide material resonances more than the profile itself), which surprised me given the general praise here. I find they are praiseworthy speakers in many respects, but they balance slightly on the über vivid/agile/punchy side of neutral - to my ears/taste, at least - making them a bit too much of a "hot rod" over time. Classical music, strings in particular, felt less than natural to me. Excellent monitors, no doubt (and which they natively are, anyway), very insightful, and a highly entertaining and coherent speaker, except for some excessive warmth in the lower to central bass. 

From my personal experience I can only confirm that Lowthers are shouty.
Nevertheless, SET amp tames that down to acceptable levels. I used 15 Ohm Lowther DX2 in home-made Fidelio enclosures for quite some time before I wanted a change, and I still hesitate to let them go as they were very good at some things. Shouty, yes, even with 300B SET. They were basically useless with solid state, that includes Pass Aleph 4. My room is bigger (around 20’ by 23’ with large openings), with solid state amps there was no bass.

hORNS by Autotek out of Poland are outstanding as well, and not shouty in the least.  I have the Symphony model @ 95db efficiency- have run it with 211 SET/Aries-Cerat Incito S preamp; and Grandinote Shinai 37-watt pure class A solid state integrated with equal success.  The Beryllium compression horn driver is super smooth yet revealing, and as mentioned above, plays so well with a variety of good amplification- HIGHLY recommend you put this brand on your radar screen.

I have also been to Charney Audio in NJ a few years ago- the big Concerto speakers were quite good, however given the ultra-revealing nature, SET was mandatory to get the best out of it.  Brian had an amazing custom Audio Note type 300B setup; preamp; and dac- and he built everything.  His woodworking and metal shop in the basement are incredible as well- he is a true artisan and super nice guy as well.  He even built the battery power supply and modded my excellent 47 labs Flatfish cd transport.

Not sure how sensitive you need but the JBL 4367 at 94db is not shouty at all to my ear. Just move from the Heresy IV which was also very easy to live with but the JBL takes it to another level. Maybe too revealing at times but I’ll take an honest speaker I can tune with amps and sources.

A lot of the horn and other high efficiency systems I like that manage to tame excessive midrange peaks and nasal colorations are quite expensive (e.g., Goto horn systems, G.I.P. Laboratory drivers, Feastrix drivers).  The Charney, Volti and the Klipsch heritage systems are the exception (particularly something like the Klipsch Cornwall IV).  The Classic Audio field coil speakers are also not excessively colored or peaky, but, for my taste, they are a little too bright and a little to hard and brittle sounding (I still think they are certainly worth a serious audition).

While I thought the Charney speakers I heard played loudly enough, I did not hear them pushed really hard.  I would not expect a single 8" driver to be really capable of extremely high volume levels, but, on the plus side, I like horns and high efficiency systems because they sound very dynamic and lively without having to play at high volume levels.

I have enjoyed Classic Audio Loudspeakers T-3.3 field coil horn speakers for better than 4 years now and they mate quite well with my Atma-sphere Novacron  amps. OTL's seem to have a special dynamic with these speakers. They are very special. I previously could not stand a horn speaker

for sure volti, or volti mods for klipsch heritage products.  border patrol set amps.

The only thing i can say about both systems is that loud party music is not what they are for they are small diameter limited bass systems with lowther style drivers you will need a larger full range horn system for loud party music and the other thing i can tell you is systems like this are highly prone to the voice coil of the driver staying in alignment just like a lowther which can cause damage if you do not work through the kinks of the driver.

I am planing on visiting Charney audio to audition them. Volti seems to be an interesting option as I am reading that it can play loud unlike the Charney’s. Those with experience can please correct me in that.

Charney, Volti, and Klipsch Heritage.  I love all three.  

I would agree with Larry on the Charney's they are really lovely sounding speakers and not peaky or shouty at all. I would also recommend the Volti Rival's also a really composed sounding hornspeaker.

Klipsch Jubilee. 

comparing just a couple.
the auditorium 23 cinema hommage and the line magnetic 812 .
the line magnetic was shouty and loud , the auditorium sounded open , easy , natural not shouty .
I am trying to find a speaker with a similar balance to auditorium but a lesser price point ... 

I think we need a technical description of "shouty." A lot of sounds in nature could be described as shouty and a lot of speakers can't produce them with the lifelike intensity that a horn speaker can. Maybe it's the inability to shout regardless of source material that some people really want. A softer, dimmer, more pastel presentation can be easier on the ear while still providing a highly detailed insight into the music.  

Horn speakers , high efficiency but not “shouty”

i have been looking for 30 years, haven't found em yet - let me know when you do ok?

I've heard the Charney Companion speakers at two audio shows and I was extremely impressed both times.  This speaker system is a rarity--a single driver full-range system that does not have a rough, peaky response, has reasonably strong bass, and retains all of the positive attributes of single driver system (very lively and dynamic and very clear sound).  I also liked how rich and harmonically saturated the system sounded.  I've heard it with both the Voxativ and the AER driver option.  Both are good, but for me, spending a bit more for the AER driver option is well worth the money--the frequency response is a bit more extended, particularly on top.

With the exception of the Bhaava, I have not heard Rethm speakers in quite a long time.  The Bhaava that I did hear a couple of years ago was very good sounding for the money.  

Good luck on your search.