@willgolf --
As the OP, how I started on this adventure was because I heard the Avantgarde Uno Fino. I had never heard any horn type speaker before. That prompted my question and the wonderful learning experience from reading everyone’s post. I am embarking on building a modern house. Consequently, a true horn will not fit our decor. That means Klipsch, JBL and any big box vintage looking speakers are out.
So if that means I would not be getting a true horn so be it. At the end of the day if i buy a hybrid horn and I love the sound then I will be totally happy.
It’s difficult to assess what you’re really going for here. What’s the restricting factor considering your future speakers - aesthetics more than size per se, re: "fit(ting) our decor"? And what sonic qualities in particular from named Avantgarde speakers was it that you liked and made you want to investigate further?
Even horn hybrids can take up space, but not too few of them thrive on being placed rather close to the back wall, thereby taking up limited floor area and "stealing" less into the listening/living room. Certainly this would open up the possibility for a range of speakers size-wise, even including a few all-horn options like the Klipsch La Scala’s (Jubilee’s, perhaps, but a stretch), Volti Audio Vittora’s and Simon Mears Audio Uccello’s, but for reasons not entirely clear you already ruled out Klipsch, so let’s forget about those options.
What about Volti Audio’s horn hybrid Rival’s? In this size class (almost) there’s the PBN 2!5’s as well. Classic Audio Loudspeakers have been mentioned, and I can only imagine they sound wonderful, but will they fit the budget at no more than $40k (question aimed at
@atmasphere )? They aren’t small either, but the beautiful cabinetry could make up for it and have them pass for furniture, which is so rarely seen with loudspeakers today (with wood that actually looks, feels and even smells like wood and isn’t lacquered to death, although this may be an undesirable physical trait in a more typical, modern home). Duke’s Audiokinesis speakers seem to fit both size and budget, and by all accounts sound very good. Or how about looking into some of Oswalds Mill Audio’s smaller models like the Mini’s and Monitor? They’re expensive, but sport beautiful, old school cabinet work, great pro drivers and supposedly excellent sound quality.
I understand the considerations in regards to interior decoration, but if you’re really into sound reproduction let your speakers be a main priority in the allotted space they’re given - with the adherence to form-follows-function as far as it goes, and not vice versa. As it often happens, to my eyes at least, the really interesting physical shape of speakers comes via an uninhibited accordance with their function as dictated by physics. Even a much smaller, typical slender square box speaker can be seen as an outright nuisance in a home setting because it’s just that: a tall, rectangular square box oftentimes finished in a rather sterile manner, and one that’s placed well into the room, at that.
