Why not horns?

Atmashere ,

You leave out one critical part of your thesis, planers radiate sound from both sides , this ability helps to create the required space and time of a recording far more accurately than any monopole transducer.

Horns will always sound like hi-fi, never real , they project sound in a manner where all instruments and voices have the same projection and size. The best you can say is that they sound just like an amplified concert 40 ft away. Unfortunately we listen to recordings of live music and not live music itself , as such Horns do not convey this as accurately IMO.

A good planer setup will do everything for power as a good horn setup will and sound more like real instruments to boot.

Anyone who says a good planer sounds like a horn or vis a vie has never heard a good planer setup ...

Regards,

World's greatest catch-all argument for your favorite thing.....whatever it may be.
"You just haven't heard one properly set up!"

Ah!! But of course!! How unlucky for the rest of the world that there are so FEW amazing systems out there. Please tell me, where do I go to buy one this instant and who can I get to "properly" set it up?!

Indeed, for this particular thread, Weseixas makes THE most compelling argument. Though you could almost miss it. If your live reference (assuming you have "live" as a reference) is amplified music then it's no wonder horns are so appealing. And, sadly, these day's that's pretty much everything. Kinda hard to find live amplified music that doesn't have multiple horns in it.

I am responding to a few of you. My system sounds wonderful on all music. I compare what I hear to live unamplified music, as stated previously. I particularly mentioned this recording because many systems I have listened to (I bring this with me) fall apart in one or more ways. I will tell you I have heard horns and horn based systems I did not like. I have heard planar and box type speakers I have liked. I have owned many of these types. I have not said I love horns. I have said I love "my" horns. The Klipsch Lascala. The fact that they found their way very quickly into peoples homes for music listening is what got me interested in them many years ago. My 1st Klipsch Heritage speaker experience(a long long time ago) was Khorns with Marantz 9s/7C in a room properly dimensioned. Sources at the time were vinyl and 15ips master tapes. Loved the musicality and the voicing. The full range bass horn was more melodic than anything I had heard before( in a 20x26 ) room. It is an experience I will not forget. My box speakers(B&WDM6,AR3A as examples) sounded constricted and ill defined. My DQ10s imaged better than the Khorns, but everything else seemed lifeless. These Khorns were owned by a college professor of mine, and we spent a lot of time swapping equipment around at his place. I never had good corners for Khorns. As an audiophile, I have to say I did not like any speaker in or near a corner. Then Paul Klipsch designed, at least for me, his best design. So I am saying again, I love MY horns. I will be happy to continue any further discussion or debate but I must go... cheers.

Mr Decibel , Fair enuff and thanks for responding, it works for you, that's a fact no one can dispute and the lascala has been around long enuff for most to hear, my self included and are relativity easy to acquire...

http://www.6moons.com/audioreviews/trends/ta10_3.html

From 6 moons:
The La Scalas have their own way of conjuring up the magic of music. They are so un-hifi that you won't bother to look for the pin-point imaging or high resolution layering - and yet nothing is missing from the total sonic tableau. You are listening with your heart rather than with your ears.

Ahhh, I do have 2 friends with the same Klipsh speakers and while i do not mind the sound , i have no heart, pure ears! . -)

PS: The Klipsch are from a by gone era , i do like the nostalgic value of it , along with old altecs and JBL's , i did have an Altec in the 70's , before discovering panel speakers...

Weseixas, I find problems with the stock Lascala, mostly box resonance of the doghouse(a Klipsch forum term for woofer housing). I have completely eliminated this problem, which I can tell you is present in your friends units. The new Lascala II uses a beefier cabinet to get rid of this coloration. I talk about it in an earlier post. Tubes are from a by gone era, but look at the popularity and, resurgence, of the topology. The Heritage series was ahead of its time, and many designs have not caught up. Let me also say I have owned MLogans and have much experience with ESL63s. Nice sound. But they are congested in their dynamics, "at least to me ". Now what will they do at 100db and above? Once again, this is all based on my ears, then my heart...Thanks....