To horn or not to horn

Not  much love here either.

At various times my main speakers were Bose 901s, Series 1. Magnepan IIAs, Acoustat 2+2s and three way d'Appolito Dynaudio towers.  When it  comes to the realistic portrayal of music of all scales and types none of those systems could hold a candle to my present fully horn loaded, DSP controlled, tri-amplified DIY speakers.  Properly executed horns can be splendid.

I heard the big JBL’s once, they went for almost 50K for the pair.  If I could afford them and had the room to support them, I would have bought them in a heartbeat.  Nothing beats the dynamics of good horn speakers, but the good ones are very expensive.  

I have had some Ref 3A de Capos in my main system for 10 years. stand mount 2 way speakers no crossover. Love the sound.
A few years ago we bought a cabin in the mountains and i needed to put a second system together. I had just bought a 2/6 watt tube amp so needed some hi eff speakers. Had a choice of some wonderful Cornscalas (99db) or some Klipsch Quartets (97.5db). Both horns. heard them on Quicksilver minis and both were great and the Quartets were $400 in the box with crites upgraded crossover and Ti tweeters and about $600 less. Very different sound than I was use to, much more shouty. I like to think of the difference with my setup as the de Capos give a more recorded sound and the Quartets a more live sound. They both work just different. Now I wish I had bought those Cornscalas.....

Let’s assume you find two pairs of speakers you like enough to buy, one pair horns.

Horn’s high efficiency sets you up for SUCCESSFUL lower power needs. That saves money, and the amp size/weight goes down, thus location flexibility increases.

High efficiency, horns or not, are always my recommendation to allow an easier entry into tubes, when lower power size truly saves money, size, weight, heat output.

Generally, if horns, the midrange horn size usually leads to a bigger woofer, thus less need for a subwoofer. That protects bass imaging, so, that could be considered a related advantage of horns. Of course, larger enclosures only work in certain spaces, and want to be out away from rear and side walls. I go for heavy enclosure on 3 wheels (3 wheels always wobble free and more pounds per wheel), push back for more circulation space, pull out for dedicated listening.