Full-range/horn loaded on a budget?

Sakahara - congrats, and do keep us posted! Will you be pairing them with those 300B monoblocks? If so, that's the only thing that gives me pause, given the recent experience of a friend I related in my above post - he ended up selling his Mastersound 300B Reference to keep his TL-D1s. But there are a lot of amps that will really make them sing!

Cfluxa,
Keep in mind they`re many 300b amps on the market that vary considerably in performance. Numerous varibles matter, output and driver tube, circuits, power supply size and quaility, built quality etc. Sakahara`s Tron 300b amps are of first tier level and should be fine with the Tonians.

Correct. The TL-D1 will be mated with TRON Cantata SET 300B monoblocks*. If unsuccessful, I will not be selling my amps. But lets hold off on conjecture until the speakers, and system, has settled in.

Funny thing, the person who bought my Horning speakers has Tonian (PHY-HP version). His initial impression was the Horning mid/highs were not as good, but bass was better. His thought is that it's his amps; OTL and PP designs. The PHY-HP drivers prefer those amps whereas the Horning might be better suited with SET. This is only an initial impression based on very little listen time and quick set up. He mentioned trying an SET soon to hear for himself. Personally, I was surprised to hear his comment, especially about the Horning mids/highs. That is the Golden Ticket as reviewers have also noted. But as he said, it may be his amps are just not as well suited for this speaker as they are with the Tonian. Different full-range drivers, different and custom designs, mainly with Horning - hybrid.

What this comes down to though is does the sound satisfy my senses? If so, that's all that matters. There's always a level or so of compromise when changing gear and speakers. I've been fortunate enough over the years not to have had any major mismatches and always happy with those changes made. Being able to audition at home is key to that, but also pure luck. I do the research as best I can and make informative choices, which have resulted in an improvement each time. I also tend to keep with my choices for 3-5 years, sometimes longer. I'm not one to constantly change/upgrade my system. I do this for the music. The gear is just the means to that end. I can't be content if the sound is constantly being altered. Then you're consumed by that, it becomes obsessive. It's good to hear recordings in a different way, but it gets to a point of where does it end. I want to relax, enjoy the music, not play endless musical chairs with the gear.

*All internal silver, Sophia 300B Carbon Plate, NOS '42 Sylvania CHS-274B, and NOS '56 WE 417a.

Sakahara.
I`d be very interested in an update on the Tron 300b and Tonian Lab speaker.
Whats `s different compared to the Horning Agathon? Personally I`m very curious to hear the Tonian Classic 12.1 the uses that legendary PHY 12 inch wide band driver.

Update: I'm still trying to sort out the music server...

also had some noise issues (tubes). I want to say I like what I hear based on a brief time with the SqueezeBox Touch, but I can't be certain until I have the system dialed in. It's close. I gave the latest USB converters (WaveLink HS and hiFace Evo) a try after the SBT, but was not satisfied at all with the sound from one and couldn't get the latter one to work. I'm done with them [USB], again, four years later. They sound terrible, even USB DAC's I tried in the past. Back to the Wadia iTransport, but this time the new 171i.
I'm also sorting out a power cord for use between wall outlet and PC. Once I've worked out these details I can begin to do some critical listening. I hope the TL-D1, or the Artemis Labs LA-1, is not a mismatch with my system. These two pieces are the only real change in the system.

I also tweaked/upgraded the TL-D1 already with PHY-HP binding posts and edenSound TSCones w/ Bras LES (Large Economy Spikes).