Horn based loudspeakers why the controversy?

No one here ever heard of or heard any modern JBL Horn/Reflex speakers? Try Everest DD66000, K2 S7500, S3100, K2 S9900, M2.. etc. I think you might be shocked by what you hear.. and NOT at a show! I run my 20 yr old S3100 with a 180 watt vintage Perraux Mosfet amp to great effect.. I have never tired of them. A friend of mine says they remind him of his Martin Logan stats .. transparent with great imaging to boot. Of course, there are many ways to skin a cat!

Also, I should add that I have also run my 96db S3100 with 3,10 and 30 watts - Jadis defy DA30 for years and years -  to varying effect.. all good, so the sensitivity does come into play with matching. I have found that even though they are quite sensitive they sound best, to me, with more rather than less wattage. I use a tube pre-amp; AN M2 Phono.

Well, I may have an age edge here worth commenting.  My dad was one of the early pioneers of retail high end audio, and we had a JBL C31 corner horn in our living room (two 15" horn-loaded woofers, an "Acoustic Lens" midrange-treble horn for the remainder of the audio spectrum.  To this day I've heard no speakers (and I've owned many) that come even close to the sound of that old mono speaker, driven by an (at that time) huge 24wpc Williamson tube power amp and preamp made by Newcomb.

To me, conceptually, it is fairly simple: moving air.  Musicians move a lot of air; speakers other than horns and planars do not. Not only are they more efficient, but driven by tubes they have the advantage of low power/low distortion at any reasonable listening volume.  The rest is a matter of design .... JBL's were incredibly well designed ... horns and crossovers.  That is why they outshown the Jensens, the Utahs, and the ElectroVoices of their day.  But even some of those sounded good ... I built a corner horn and installed a 15" Jensen Triax in it to use in college, driven by an Eico HF-20 tube amplifier, and was often unable to get dressed for dinner because of the party going on in our room.  That speaker introduced me to Monk, to Ahmad Jamal, to Coleman Hawkins, etc.  I could walk a few blcks to a club for live performances by these same musicians while in graduate school in Chicago.  To this day, for me that is the acid test.  When I close my eyes at the clubs (I usually do) and do the same at home, does the music transport me?  I learned at an early age that horns are perfectly capable of doing that for hours on end.

Tried many set-ups, over the last 15 yrs, but what I have been enjoying very very much the last 2 yrs is my upgraded Klipsch La Scalas, driven by an upgraded Dynaco Tube  amp.

I have three systems and five pairs of speakers. I bought the Klipsch KLF-20's brand new back in the day of their last year and never regretted it. They are my only horn speaker and are currently hooked up in one of my systems and I will never ever sell them as they are that good. I have been thinking of getting new speakers but every time I audition the new speakers I end up liking mine the best.