I’ve heard the Khorn AK6’s. Overall I find they’re sonically rewarding and engaging speakers that only all-horns can really sound like. They’re quite a few horn hybrid speakers out there with midrange and tweeter horns/waveguides in conjunction with direct radiating woofer/mids, but it’s rare to see the important "power region" (~lower midrange and down) horn-loaded as well, and this in particular is the distinctive sonic feature of the Khorns. The bass is wonderfully layered, smooth, enveloping and effortless - quite unlike direct radiating bass, really, in a positive sense - and has great impact, scale and dynamics, especially when placed in corners. There’s some "character" in the upper bass/lower mids sections (the upper range of the bass horn), but it mostly amounts to a bit of added warmth. The central to upper mids is open, direct/present, very clean and informative. No honking in its true meaning, but ever so slightly "beamy" or intense that may have to do with the midrange horn being no larger than it is. The lower highs on up, in the setup I heard them, is where I find the Khorn AK6’s to be the least capable in that this region is a bit too tipped up and coarse sounding as well. I heard them via quality solid state amps and a digital source - perhaps a tube amp pairing might have provided for a more "forgiving" imprinting in the upper octaves, but I suspect it wouldn’t be enough to completely ameliorate named tendency here.
Every speaker, regardless of price, has its shortcomings. What is "coloration"? Audiophilia seems to have monopolized in a sense the distinction of coloration, glaringly overlooking the importance of vital aspects such as dynamics, presence, ease and scale that, if negated, would seem to them a relief almost as something that more readily accommodates a "cultivation" in sound that has come to encapsulate "hi-fi" as it is typically known, as has for some time now. That is to say: a duller, less lively sound that’s not least bred from a desire to kill resonances at large from a physical package severely compromised in size. The Khorns are more or less the antithesis to this type of sound, and it makes them all the more acoustically interesting and compelling in presentation, to my ears; more emotionally real and (a)live.
To reiterate: a fundamental quality of the Khorns has to do with the horn-loading of the lower midrange and down, which also - in some areas, at least - makes them a more coherent and of-the-same-cloth sounding speaker. Indeed, to more accurately get a bearing on horn qua all-horn sound, the Khorns are definitely a viable way to experience it.
