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

I think they're just different. I have a friend who has some pretty old Klipsch horns, and they sound very nice. I haven't heard them in a few months (they're 290 miles away). They're clearly different from my electrostatics in some subtle ways.

I auditioned the AvantGarde Duos a few weeks ago, specifically because they're considered good horns. It wasn't an exhaustive session, but it was very clear that they are doing something different. Some folks like the AvantGardes because they are so immediate. They are indeed very up-front - I thought that "in your face" might be more accurate. Some folks like that, although I personally prefer a more laid-back presentation.

horns are ceratinly an "in-your-face" presentation: transient immediacy, detailed & very revealing are their hallmarks & some don't like that, although myself I'm hooked on their speed. They are in fact SO revealing that they will unmercifully show you any upline equipment flaws, so a clean setup is absolutely critical, which can of course be quite difficult & expensive to achieve. This characteristic may be considered desirable, or not, depending upon one's goals & perspective.

I have owned speaker like the martin logan prodigy ,with descent, heard at lenght my good friends avalon edilons and thiel 7.2,owned avantgarde duo, newer model ,and quite a few more speaker systems ,have gone from big $ solid state and tube gear, to low power afordable tube gear ,And I can say with confidence that the newer horn designs are not anything like the old horns ,my dual oris horn systen is phase correct and time alined, unlike avantgarde or other horn systems ,the new tactrix horns are far superior to all speakers systems I have heard and owned ,They are far from in your face of tiny honky sounding ,funny how most of the traits that people say horns sound like I have never heard [maybe they never did too].Anyway throw out your big solid state rigs and those terible monkey cofins or electrostatic air cleaners that need new diaframs every few years ,[that most people call speakers ],and discover what its like to have fun with your system ,I can play all types of music on my horns ,they just sound like music .Isnt that what we all want .

Many years ago I tried out a cheap University (brand) HORN midrange/tweeter with my Warfdale 12 inch woofer (which had a wool flanel surround, would you believe!). At the time I played a lot of Dixieland jazz, and the horn tweeter gave the most fantastic rendition of trumpets and trombones that I have ever heard. Of course, violins also sounded like trumpets.

The message here is that different speakers do different things well. How about a selector switch to cut in a Horn when appropriate.

The bottom line is that each and every speaker design will benefit from specific strengths, suffer from specific weaknesses AND contribute their own sonic signature to whatever is being fed into them. There is not a speaker made that can be distanced from the above generalization. Until we do have speakers that can make that claim, the selection of speakers will remain a VERY personal and subjective decision. Let's just hope that people are happy with whatever it is that they decide to buy / use and can enjoy their favorite musical selections with their speakers of choice, regardless of the various trade-offs involved. Sean
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