The only speakers you can really listen up close to are full range ESLs as everything is coming from one driver. Sonically you never get close to the speaker. As you move towards two and three way speakers it becomes obvious at some point that you are listening to a loudspeaker as the frequency range separates into different drivers. The sound changes. As you walk up to an ESL the sound seems to remain in the distance, unchanged. Horns are no different than any other two or three way speaker.