Horn Speaker Recommendations

If I were going to go down the horn road again, and had the room, I would seriously  consider a pair of Gary Fischer's totally restored, upgraded and modernised Altec VOTT A7-500-8. Driven by either tube or quad balanced transistor McIntosh amplifiers, the sound quality to my ears is beyond phenomenal. I had a friend who has these exact speakers in his home system. Set up properly in a room with decent acoustics, I never saw any need for subwoofers to reinforce bottom end performance. A  pair of MC-75's with a C2500 preamp take care of  pre and power amplification duties. The front end sources are dominated by a VPI turntable and modified ATR-100 series open reel. As a strictly analog system, I cannot imagine anything that sounds better nor have I heard anything better. I don't have room to properly house a pair of A7's., so in my system I settled' for a pair of line array XRT-30. A poster above noted that proper line array systems image far better than point source and are IMO as close to a horn experience as you will get. Soundstage is large, wide and tall. Detail and dynamics are near as good but not QUITE as smooth as horns. When I say settle I don't mean it as a bad thing, these speakers sound as close as any non horn system  I've heard.

Other horn speakers I've experienced extensively are from JBL and Klipsch. Modified K-horns sounded decent enough, but not in the same league as the VOTT A7 500's. Here's the link to Gary Fischer's website if you are interested:

https://www.garyfischerspeakers.com/custom-speakers/

willgolf,

Since you like the looks of the Avantgarde speakers (I do too), I am wondering what you think of the AER Pnoe.  This is a backloaded horn speaker that is very much like the Charney, in terms of design.  I found out about this speaker when I started looking at AER drivers after hearing the Charney speaker with this particular driver.  I have not heard the Pnoe, but, it should be similar to the Charney, albeit many times the price.  I have not heard it myself, and I would not be that interested given how much more it costs than the Charney speakers I heard.  It is way out of your price range, but, I thought it is at least interesting and I wondered if you liked the looks.

https://aer-loudspeakers.com/aer-pnoe/

Larry - the whole AER website is pretty cool.  The PNOE on You Tube was really great sounding albeit You tube.  LOL.  The price is way above my league, but I did like the look.  It seems they are either $65 - $ 90k or under $20k.....nothing in between.  Have you actually compared Charney to Avantgarde?  

Can anyone comment on the Diesis horns who have them?  

Horning Aristoteles or Horning Eufrodite, amazing speakers. Back loaded horn for bass and midrange, and small waveguide for tweeter.
Looks like a "normal" speaker.
I hade Eufrodite in my old room, but now in my new room i have Aristoteles. 

Only thing, they are not easy to match with Amp, but when you find The wright amp, it will be magic.
Supermusical speakers. 

Best regards // Stefan 

@willgolf Been away but monitoring the discussion.
4hcp is very good got mine to a 9 years ago playing to a 12 now. Life seems to get in the way of golf far too much these days.
The Charney Concerto is the horn to use in your 19 x 30 room. The AER BD 3B version might be a better choice of driver. AER lower's the efficiency from 106db to 98db but the there is a significant increase in low bass output. The first time I heard the Concerto with AER drivers was in Charney's 14x19x9 room. The rep sent him the BD 3B which had far too much bass output in that space. He had to pull the Concerto deeper into the room to adjust for this. I was gobsmacked by what I was hearing. He played a disc that had various opera cuts. I'm not a big fan of opera but sat through the whole disc absolutely engaged in the music! I wanted to hear more but we moved onto some vinyl and that was it! There were cuts from the Montreaux Jazz Festival followed by Pink Floyd's "The Wall". The AER Concerto is like a big aural vacuum that sucks you in and engages more than just your sense of hearing.
You mentioned your wife didn't like the look of the Concerto. Each speaker is made to order and can be painted or veneered to the color or wood of choice. Contact Charney and he will work with you to come up with an ascetically pleasing solution. If you make to his place bring her with you. Charney Horns look a lot better in person than what the pics on the website can convey.
FWIW I have been working in the interior design field for 30+ years and know great when I see it. My father is a retired auctioneer with well over 40 years chanting bids. He has seen every kind of wood out there and sold many fine works of art. When he walked into my home office (my daughters converted bedroom) he stopped at the door with a "Whoa! what do we have here?"  He was very impressed with the design, fit and finish, and even more with performance. This coming for a guy who very rarely throws compliments around.
Hope you find what your looking for.
R