Horn based loudspeakers why the controversy?


As just another way to build a loudspeaker system why such disputes in forums when horns are mentioned?    They can solve many issues that plague standard designs but with all things have there own.  So why such hate?  As a loudspeaker designer I work with and can appreciate all transducer and loudspeaker types and I understand that we all have different needs budgets experiences tastes biases.  But if you dare suggest horns so many have a problem with that suggestion..why?
128x128johnk
@inna 

' Shouting contest thickens ', no doubt. He is not against live music or its approximation, he is against bad 'live music' shouting at him.
Phusis, I suggest you leave the man alone, let him 'play sax' any way he wants to and just listen without commenting. I would also say that you yourself do not tolerate the same things.

I was actually being much in earnest with my comment to poster kosst_amojan, but perhaps that's the issue. Apology extended to kosst for crossing the line.  

Anyway, who would want these ’big vaginas’ that are almost , if ever, impossible to make sound coherent, more or less uncolored and not spitting out sounds in your face ? Sax and trumpet played live in front of you sound really terrible. Even Miles’s trumpet, I suppose.

That's where I can't relate to your findings, and am tempted to refer to my earlier post to kosst on at least some of my reasons why.  But, we've been there already, I guess, and will simply have to agree to disagree. 
{ the interest in horn material damping somehow appears MIA}  Maybe a few costly german horns are not addressing it but most all others do. GOTO goes all out in doing so and many other horns do not need much due to material choices. You also see a good num going with massive wood bells to reduce coloration.  Those not addressing are doing so for mostly cosmetic reasons or they feel that it somehow kills the magic.
@james1969 - no, i have not used the ML2s on the Quads (yet). I had my old Quad II amps restored, and installed NOS GEC KT 66s, NIB GEC EF86 and a NOS Mullard rectifier. They are fab sounding- better than when I first started using them in 1973.
I did use super tweets (Deccas; Sequerra Ribbons) and a woofer back in the day; the tweeters were fine, getting the bass seamless was very difficult, perhaps owing to what was available commercially in the late ’70s and early ’80s. I then switched to the Crosby Quad for a long while and shelved the original ESLs until recently restored.
The woofer matching with the horns is very similar to the experience I had with the Quads. Right now, I’m using the Quads without any additional speaker(s).
With the Avantgarde, I found that if you cranked up the woofer gain to make it punch, it sounded obviously discontinuous with the mid-horn; back the woofer off to blend with the mid-horn made the bass reticent; thus, I supplement with those add-on 15" servo subwoofers. I matched the sound of subs to blend into the Avantgarde woofers as seamlessly as possible through adjustments to crossovers, gain and on the subs, phase. I also added a small DSP unit to the subs. You really don’t notice them, except they give a deeper, bigger stage and when there is real deep bass on a record, it is now presented with more authority.
I’d love to do a semi-vintage horn system; just a question of dollars at this point. I’m a retired pensioner living on my investments. :)
Are you using your Lamms with the Klipsch you linked to?
@whart 

Yes, the Cornwall IIIs are driven by the ML2s.  I just love the low end bass.  This is my first near-full-range speaker.  I've had monitors in the past.
@james1969 - I sent you a PM via Audiogon so we don't have to burden this thread with our Quad discussion. 
regards,
bill