Horns

audition__audio. --  Every speaker has a unique sound.  I have had Wilson, B&W, and Sonus Faber speakers.  All were different.   I now have horn speakers and I love them.  As far as unique sound to the horn....hmmmm, I don't agree.  I do think that live recordings on a horn are like being at a concert hall.  

+1  @willgolf 

Well I believe that the type of transducer has a huge impact on the sound of the speaker. So the difference in sound when comparing dynamic speakers is not as significant as comparing dynamic speakers with horns or panels. I have never heard a horn speaker that sounded like a dynamic speaker nor an electrostat. I think the sonic differences are very fundamental and very easy to recognize. 

@jasbirnandra , the James Romeyu Bohemian (Audiokinesis) speaker is a wonderful Horn speaker for those with tube amps. For top performance they still require subwoofer but there are painfully few that do not. However, since those big 15" drivers cover the meaty part of the midrange (crossover 700 Hz) the improvement in clarity should be profound. If used without subwoofers I would roll them off at 40 Hz.

@audition__audio , I think the big difference is between point source and line source speakers. Bad horns are painfully obvious but really good ones sound very much like regular dynamic speakers but cleaner, more efficient with less room interaction because their dispersion is restricted. Tall Panels are in a totally different world, some like them others do not. I am a big fan of tall panels as most people here know. I prefer the larger sound stage and the dipole, line source radiation pattern almost entirely eliminates the need for room treatments. The room essentially disappears. But, if I did not have the situation required for big panels the Bohemian is certainly a speaker I could buy. 

Don’t listen to the audiophiles who assume all horns have a sound that is mostly negative. Much of the audiophile music that’s so cherished today was mastered on horn systems. Yet audiophiles will say you need to play back the way the artists intended then they proceed to play that wonderful Jazz or blues mastered on Altec TAD and RCA horns on a small chinless dynamic bookshelf or slim tower. Many of them have never owned horns or had any real experience with the many types of horn systems available. They have been told that horns are problematic. An old tail made up by 1950-60s audio salesmen to get mono speaker owners to dump the wonderful JBL Hartsfield for a crappy pair of AR. The old sales lines have been passed down by the audio press as facts. Just like they did with tube amplifiers and turn tables. Later they were proven very wrong it’s the same with horn designs.