What does one purchase after owning horns?

Atmasphere, I appreciate your response. And yes, the ears are what we use to determine the sound we like. I always found that inefficient speakers (I owned many and am familiar with many)required an amp with greater damping, and in my experience, this has led to ss. And I believe the point Mapman made about the efficiency of a horn being a benefit,is valid. However, some of your previous explanations is just beyond me, even though I am somewhat educated. As far as hearing rules, I have not paid much attention to what has been written. But I have always listened with peaks at around 100db, which is a reason I own horns. They show the difference between the "soft" in music and the "loud". All with a small amp. I am aware of the danger to exposing oneself to loud sounds. I am not concerned.

Just an add on. I have always placed dynamic range as the most important virtue of any system. However, prat is very very close in importance to me . I need to follow the "playing" of the musicians. There is tonal coherence and agility coherence. By improperly matching damping characteristics between amp and speaker, you can ruin prat.

Ralph, Can you elaborate on exactly WHY the Avantgarde speakers are "meant for" SS amps? And is there an SS amp-type which would work similarly to a tube amp (or at least in a way such that the speaker would think that it was looking at a tube amp)?

I ask because I recently tried SS amps (zero NFB, Class A) on my horns and found myself enjoying the combination. I have not spent enough time since the earthquake here listening critically to get a handle on them yet and my ultimate goal is to bi-amp, but so far so good.

Mapman wrote: "The primary benefit of horns is efficiency."

No doubt I'm in the minority here, but my primary reason for using horns (waveguides being a type of horn) is radiation pattern control.

radiation pattern control lack of distortion and efficiency