How do Klipschorns compare with modern designs?

Let me start by saying, GREAT POST! This one will be sure to open up a can of worms worth reading. In my own humble opinion, I would state that there are really no modern designs. Just better applications (in some cases) of what's been out there for years. Klipsch is America's oldest speaker manufacturer, and it is rich in it's supporters and detractors. It is also rich in it's history.
When I first got into this hobby, I was most impressed when a much older brother in-law/ audio enthusiast was able to run his in-laws (My Family) out of the room with a HeathKit 10 watt per channel amplifier and AR's first turntable (What, no anti-skating?), and the HORNS! I was the only one who stayed, and it was love at first site! You can't imagine being 10 years old in 1974, and hearing "Highway Star" that loudly! For God's sake, I was listening to the Beach Boys on a Sanyo all-in-one job with the old 8 track tape player at the time, so I'm sure anyone who reads this post and is somewhat familiar with rock and roll can understand my epiphany. A stereo could do that? Quickly, I became familiar with the Who, The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix et al.
So I have romantic memories of these speakers, as I'm sure you have gathered. They are greatly responsible for me being the incurable audio nut I am today. Still, in all honesty and frankness, I feel that when properly set up, these speakers image quite well, offer better dynamics than most and are built to last. Low frequencies are robust, and hard to control! Set up, like any speaker is job #1. My Bro in Law still plays his regularly, and he bought them a year before I had heard them, so you do the math. They are rugged and good looking in a manly way. You will never hear a woman say, "I love what these speakers do for this room". Unless of course she is blind and likes the sound of horns.
Transparency? That's a subjective term, and should be used with skeptisism, but these horns are revealing of their upwind electronics. Be assured, tubes are the cure for what ails them. And vinyl sounds better than CD. Sure, the dynamics are astounding with digital, but with the efficiency of these speakers, you easily have baby bears porridge with vinyl.
However,I must also tell you that I use high powered solid state class A amps feeding a pair of Talon Peregrines. My tastes have changed, and the K-Horns are no longer my first choice, but I have a great deal of respect for horn technology and the way other manufacturers have implemented it. The Tannoy Churchill's and the Avant Garde line to name but two.

I own a '70s pair of Mac ML2s modified with tweeter towers containing 16 tweeters in each. They sound awesome! I also have Sonus Faber Grand Pianos, which sound beautiful as well. These cabinets are powered and run by a complete McIntosh system. Well, my freind has a pair of Klipschorns powered by a Mac 150wpc amp, running through an old Mac C26 pre-amp. They sound AWESOMELY BEAUTIFUL. He's had them for about 30 years and I've heard them for many of those years.It's just unbelievable how they stand up to todays speakers.Listening to equipment the way I have for the last 5 years or so, I hear things in components that I didn't before,and I'm blown away by the performance of the Klipshorns.

For dynamic music that uses a lot of percussion, they are very hard to beat, even in stock form. On vocal work, especially female, they do not hold up that well. Mind you, there is a LOT of room for improvement in this very easy to work on design, so keep that in mind. Like anything else, these were built and designed when "parts is parts" and all the parts were about as good as you could get. That was AGES ago... Sean
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I have had Dynaco 25's, AR 9's, Mission, Morel, JBL Horns, Altec A-7's, Maggies and so many others. That said, Please don't take away my Klipschhorn's driven by my sweet tubes.

They are like the Grand Canyon, beyond description. Words fail me.

Opinions are like ...... everybody has one. BUT some opinions may carry more weight than others. Mine is based on 35 yrs as an audiophile and 30 yrs experience in retail, wholesale, design and manufacturing of speaker systems. I have been familiar with the Klipschorns since 1968 when I
sold them at The Hi Fi House in SoCal.
They were and still are very impressive when certain aspects of their performance are considered. The ability to play loud and clean with very little power input goes without saying. I still remember literally becoming nauseas
due to the incredible amount of bass power in the room when demoing them at about 110 db. Macro-dynamics are outstanding-the jump factor is high. The horns have a presence and liveness that appeal to many.
Having said the above, I must now state that in many important ways the Klipschorns do not compare well with good designs of then and especially now. First we must address the fact that horns have an intrinsic coloration
which imprints itself on all music. It effects some things more negatively than others but it is always there.It simply lends an unnatural cast to the reproduction of music.
Then there is the natural aggressiveness of the horns in this design. They can and do cause listener fatigue. More rapidly for some than others. Also, in spite of their clarity and dynamics they gloss over most of the inner detail, the micro-dynamics that give that bloom and glow, the inner beauty of real music.
The Khorns are capable of moving lots of air at the bottom but do not have a lot of output below 30hz. If memory serves me the woofer is crossed to the mid at around 200hz which means that all that crucial lower midrange has to travel those many feet through the folded horn before it gets into the room. This is audible as a slightly hollow or
echoey sound in this area.
If you have ever seen a frequency response graph of the Khorns you will have noticed its resemblance to a picture of the rocky mountains. About + or - 10db. One of the most important aspects of speaker designs that sound musical is a uniform in room rsponse curve, in the + or - 3db or better range.
As to the questions of imaging and transparancy, when set up properly they can give a semblance of an image but nothing much compared to the best in class. They don't pinpoint all that well and don't give cushions of air or soundstage volume of air very well. Many people mistake the presence and clarity of the Khorns for transparency but the fact is they are really not transparent at all.
Well there is plenty more but this is turning into a trestise. So, in my not at all humble opinion, the khorns do some things very well indeed but in most ways simply don't compare with more modern and much more musically refined designs. In fact, I will go so far as to say that virtually any current well engineered speaker is a more musically accurate, if perhaps less visceral, reproducer of sound.