Horn speakers with Imaging?

@phusis - thanks, very informative, although I havent measured the 'radiation bubble' in front of my bipoles I can well imagine that it changes like you say.

But what do you mean by 'life sized' imaging? That images should not be too tall? Or too close up? Too bombastic? I find that this varies with the recording and production, and when the presentation is too forward and in my face, I push the listener chair back.

One oddity about Audiophile vs. "real people" listening is our penchant for single seat optimizing vs. wide listening locations.

Worth kind of keeping that in mind when we discuss imaging and our preferences.

I have not heard any system where one could say that ideal sound was available in an area that could accommodate more than a single listener.  The closest was a big room with omni-directional MBL speakers and a giant horn system in a room that was bigger than 25' by 40'.  In both cases, if two people sat really close to one another, the sound was pretty good for both.  In my own system, even a few inches of movement one way or the other des affect the sound, particularly the imaging.  My system does emloy a horn for the midrange compression driver.

I've heard many types of horns image well in various setups at shows, at dealers, at peoples homes. As stated above setup is key but that's the case for any speaker really.

A big plus with my bipole speakers is that they sound good from a larger listening zone, not just a small sweet spot. Especially when setup with radical toe-in, so the  sound crosses a bit in front of the listeners. Is this detrimental to imaging? Not to my ears. Or just a very small minus factor. Sidewall reflections are also reduced with radical toe in.