Change to Horns or stay Dynamic

There is a pair of KCS Oris horn's for sale here on Audiogon.
I almost bought them, but they are blue and could not convince 'her highness' that they go with an antique red looking sofa!
I bet they sound Incredible. For what you are getting for the price you are getting them, they could be such a bargain. I seriously doubt you could buy a better pair of speakers for the money.These sort of speakers are hard to shift secondhand. Don't know why personally. Maybe a bit big and ungainly, but surely for sound quality alone they are worth their weight and size, not mention the very reasonable price.IMHO

Dgad,
You mentioned that you recently heard the Cessaro "Beta" horns.
Can you tell me a little about their strengths and weaknesses?
I thought that the Betas were only available in Germany and Asia. Did you hear them here in North America?
I'm told that they are great speakers but that the TAD drivers can sound a little "hi-fi-ish."

Exlibris,

I heard the Cessaro Betas in Germany in a home system. They were slightly modified from standard using a Field Coil Midrange and TAD drivers for tweeter & super tweeter. Also folded horn TAD woofers. I think 4 drivers for the bass. There were limitations to the sound. Primarily the room was small so bass couldn't generate 100%.

The system uses an adjustable crossover on top. I felt the treble could be turned down a touch. So in that regard, they could be taken as slightly high fi ish. But...I am wondering how a Fostex Supertweeter would compare and has me curious.

There was a certain magic in these speakers that defies all electronics etc. Hard to explain, but resolution and a lack of distortion was present at any volume setting. If you closed your eyes, you could not find the speakers (within the sweet spot) and the speakers being fairly tall gave a very realistic image size. The body on male vocals was spooky to say the least. With acoustic guitar the strings came to life. You didn't strain to hear any detail. It was there. Not unrealistic just there. It makes you question where to put your money. Speakers vs. electronics. This was run with I think 1 watt.

I will give you a little of my listening biases as they have matured. I have been looking for a speaker that can play well at both low & high volumes. I have found speakers that sound OK loud but then very poor at low volumes. And speakers that excel at low volumes only to distort at high volumes. Actually, I want to crank it up once in a while at close to 100 db. Yes, crazy, but here in Aruba there aren't many concerts to go to. I am extremely sensative to distortion of any form and work endlessly to eliminate it. To date no dynamic speaker I have heard aside from some truly Giant multi driver arrays have been able to handle such a task. My Maxx IIs have thier limits. Also they don't have the detail of the Cessaros at any level. They have been older designs. And the crossovers have been audible. Another huge sensitivity for me. Most speakers get very congested at loud volumes. They lose detail and smear. I would say this is room related to some extent, but after hearing the Cessaros this was no longer the case. You can listen at 100db and not even know you are listening so loud. No distortion etc. And everything remains stable in space with a transparency that is hard to believe. There is no horn coloration at all. The crossovers are seemless, all 1st order. Many horn people love the speed a horn can give. I like the speed but find more important is the lack of distortion.
Thus I am now progressing to setting up a 2nd system w. horns in the future. I am trying to learn as much as possible to get a sense of direction and find setting up a horn system quite a daunting task. Too many options and I need to learn the benefits. I won't mention many of the popular horns I have heard that many love. Suffice it to say, they all have been colored (horn sounding) and the crossover has been detectable.

Very nice description Dgad. Thanks for taking the time.

Dave

Dgad,

It's uncanny; you and I are looking for exactly the same thing at this point in the hobby. I too am extremely sensitive to distortion.

The -only- reservation I have about my MBL 101Es is that they too get congested at loud volumes during complex passages. They lose detail and smear and the soundstage becomes confused. This is true with any of the many amplifiers I have used with them, though my current amps tend to compound the problem (no amps have sounded less distorted or as wonderful under 93db, however).

I would like a speaker that, as you say, "You can listen at 100db and not even know you are listening so loud. No distortion etc. And everything remains stable in space with a transparency that is hard to believe."

I'm also looking for speakers that I can run with my 300B SET amps.
These two factors have led me to search for horn speakers using compression drivers. I ruled out the following a few years back (no offence to current owners intended):
Avantgarde
Acapella [great tweeter however]
Drivers such as Lowthers and Fostex
Back-loaded designs

The shortlist of speakers/drivers I would like to hear, in no particular order, are:

1. Sunny Cable H3W18 Majestic:
I think they use a GOTO driver in the midrange horn
2. GOTO
3. ALE
4. Cogent
5. Danley (pro-sound but interesting designs)
6. I'm open to suggestions as long as they don't involve asking me to revisit things that I have already ruled out or products that will be grossly inferior to the MBL 101Es in most other areas of sound reproduction.

Since I have no DIY talent or experience with horn or crossover design, I'm not going to buy separate drivers and horns and try to cobble something together. I'm also not going to hire someone to put something together that I haven't already heard. I, therefore, would have to hear a complete speaker system that sounds incredible in order to convince me to give up my beloved MBLs.