Horns: Why don't they image well?

I’ll try to make this short.
Lusted after Klipschorns since I was in college (70’s), bought a pair used years ago , struggled w loving the sound, turning up the the volume, finding the sound harsh, turning the volume down, found the Volti website, bought the full upgrade, spent a couple of weekends doing the upgrade, spent more on the upgrades than the speakers, thought I must be crazy, did 1 at a time- the difference was huge- played w adjusting the crossovers- realizing I must have some high frequency loss, got input from my kids ( who were very insightful in their comments), still have them- love them- without the upgrades, probably would have sold them & moved on- some of you will say I shoulda, maybe I’m crazy, but I’m happy crazy.

Mostly a speaker that has a narrower highs and upper mids "hot spot" (beaming) is the better at imaging eg: quads (especially 57’s), ML’s, Acoustat most esl’s, ribbons tweeters and Maggie longer full length ribbon ones.

Horns tend to give a wall of sound, but rarely can image pinpoint in the horizontal and vertical and depth like the above ones mentioned can.

Image masters were the Acoustat 1+1 and the 1’s also 57 Quads, because of their narrow trebble/mid panel, which were all a one man speaker for the hot spot, and your head had to be in a vice.

Acoustat 1+1 https://img.ukaudiomart.com/uploads/large/260124-accoustat_11_with_medalion_interface_mk_121c.jpg

Acoustat 1 http://img.usaudiomart.com/uploads/large/1496795-acoustat-1-1-electrostatic-speaker-pair-plus-medall...

Cheers George

As I have said many times on various A'gon threads, Klipsch were always designed with a particular price point in mind. My favorites, the original Heritage models, designed by PWK, were always, imo, and ime, great designs, but unless they were " fixed ", of their shortcomings, they might not have won you over. To respond to Eric : set up correctly, they can " disappear " as well as any other design. However, imaging and soundstaging are not the attributes that I enjoy most about them ( although, it is definitely icing on the cake ). I will not go into them here, as I have spoken about it so many times before. Just my 2 cents. Enjoy ! MrD.

"Horns: Why don't they image well?
Anyone have a theory?"

because they image spectacularly?  at least mine do...  in fact, i have several types of speakers that image spectacularly.

i have a better question:
"speakers that don't image well: why don't they image well?
anyone have a theory?"  ;~)

doug s.

My experience is that 'imaging' is not the sole factor of the speakers.

Everything in the chain will contribute.

For example...monoblocks will give a better image than a dual channel amplifier...all things being equal.