Klipsch La Scala or Altec 838 speakers

I own several vintage Altec speakers. They are much better balanced tonally than Klipsch. Efficiency is high enough to work well with low-power tube amps.

Don't like the K401 horn, believe they used that horn in 1990's. Type A crossover with tractrix horns, now you have a nice speaker.

the Altec is furniture. If a mid-century icon is a great addition to your decoration, it's a no brainer.

I have Bolero's, Santana 1's, Segovia's and Stonehenge 1's. I wouldn't trade any of them for Klipsch.

My daily drivers were various incantations of VOTs for maybe 30 years. Towards the end of that time, I started trying numerous "mid fi" speakers. None had the LF smoothness, many had lower frequency extension, but -- most noticably -- many were less strident. The upshot is that I didn't like the metal horns; perhaps they were somehow ringing, although I did use some with dampening material applied.

I heard Heresy and sometimes La Scala models here and there, and thought they had a salient signature. They have a unique "shoutyness" -- the midrange seems clipped or compressed, or somehow distorted. I can't put my finger on the technical problem I hear, but something audible is definitely going on.

Maybe it's the try-something-new bug in me, but I'd recommend you give the La Scalas a try.