Horns: Why don't they image well?

Going back to the late 70s, early 80s, I took every opportunity to audition as many audio components and speakers as possible. What struck me about the big horns like the Klipsch K Horns and the big Altec Lansing horns, was heir large full sound. The imaging didn’t seem as deep or well placed as the stats and ribbons, like the Quads, Acoustats and Magnapans or some of the dynamic speakers like the Vandersteens or Thiels, but their sound was BIG. Even though I fell in love with the Quads and happily lived with them for many years, my favorite speakers was and still is, the large full range Apogees - the Divas, Scintillas and Duettas. Not only is their sound large and full, like the big horns, but their imaging, detail and realism of instruments and vocals, is incredible.
The down side, particularly with the Divas and Scintillas, is - they require a large room and (unlike the big horns) they require allot of good power. Have been giving a lot of thought lately, to the more easily managed, smaller sibling - a nicely refurbished pair of Duetta Sigs.....Jim

+1 Jim , exactly what I found, even with today's horn loaded speakers, like Avantguard range ect, a wall of sound I call it without much pinpoint image placement and depth perception, like all the esl's, planers and ribbons you mentioned can do. Still enjoyable, just not my cup of tee to live with.

Cheers George  

I have Audiokinesis Dream Makers and some months ago I changed the four compression drivers from Celestion CDX1-1445 to PRV Audio D290Py-B. This lifted a veil, and improved imaging too. Not beryllium standard (I guess) but very good for a reasonable cost. I actually changed the four compression drivers in the LCS speakers too, so now all four speakers run the same PRV drivers, giving the sound more coherence.

I hear the exact same characteristics in horns that George describes which is exactly what I don't like at all about them in my home. I don't understand what some people can hear that clear as day while others can't. I'm constantly blown away by people who point to K-horns as magically imaging speakers, but..... Paul Klipsch didn't think so and created the center channel known as the Heresy. 

And PLEASE don't tell me about the dynamic. Conventional dynamic drivers get pretty damn close to the same thing, at least mine seem to. 

I don't find that the older horns imaged as well. As horn designs improved with the advent of CAD, so did the imaging.

But a lot has to do with what you hook up to them- and those older horn systems were designed for amps with higher output impedances. If you hook up an amp with lower output impedances, the crossovers often don't work right. I've no doubt that would affect their performance!