Horns: Why don't they image well?

When I read certain descriptions about speaker imaging, I’m reminded of Akira Kurosawa’s biopic.

Shooting on a live volcano, he had to add a lot more smoke. Think about that for a sec. He's on a real, actual live volcano in Japan but he had to add smoke for "realism."

The problem was the limitations of film. If you are standing on a volcano, you feel the heat through your body. You don’t need visual or audible clues to tell you that you are standing on top of one of nature’s furnaces.
Translating this to film though, Kurosawa had to add a lot of smoke effects in order to convey the sense of heat that was impossible to transmit through the silver screen.

I often think that there is such a thing as exaggerated imaging in speakers. For instance, listening to a live chorus, can you pick out each singer? I can’t, but with some speakers I feel like I can.

Is this a faithful rendition of the sound anymore? I’m not sure, but perhaps this makes up for the loss of visual perception?

And as you may know, there are some tricks to tweaking a FR like a dip around 2.4 kHz (conveniently often a good crossover point) which can accentuate this.

Horns/waveguides focus the sound more directly at the users making for a smaller sweet spot for imaging.  But Good ones set up well accordingly can image as well as anything.   I've heard it so I know it can happen.  

I very much liked the dynamics and crisp presentation of the Klipsch La Scala iii at Capital Audiofest. A wide soundstage was not part of that experience though.  I also love the asthetics of these and would love to own a pair just for fun. 

Mapman, is there a Klipsch Lascala series iii ( 3 ) ? I cannot find anything about it. Kosst, I suppose you brought this thread back from the dead. I am glad you got to hear a pair. Did the Lascalas you heard share the room with other speakers ? The best showrooms I have appreciated are those that demonstrate single pairs by themselves, particularly with larger speakers. Other speakers sharing a room will " play along " with the connected pair, and this effects the pair you are listening to. You should all know by now, I am an old, longtime Klipsch fan, specifically the 5 original Heritage model designs, by PWK himself ( including the newest iterations ). I never claimed perfection, but have always stated, that they do so many " musical " things correctly, that for the money ( with some mods, tweaks and careful room set up), imo, and with my experience, they are hard to beat, and, they are so easy to drive. Enjoy ! MrD.

Yeah... I was kinda wondering about the talk of the III thing too. I was guessing while listening that the bass dropped off around 50Hz so I looked to their website and the current model of LaScala is the II. And I was right, they get pretty weak below 50. 

There were a few bookshelves on the walls to the left and right, but I didn't seem to hear any sort of spurious noises or interactions. The room sounded sufficiently damped when I walked in so I don't think the room itself was a big issue. I can imagine getting a wider stage out of them under some better conditions, maybe more depth too. Nothing was going to fix that bass response issue though, and I don't think anybody would argue with that. Like I said, I'd have to do some very extended listening to form an opinion on whether that level of dynamic contrast is something I'd want to live with. It was a very exciting sound, but I could easily see it becoming trying over the course of a prog metal album like 10,000 Days. 

I was told that the new LaScala III will have a new tweeter and also have upgraded internal wiring (Audioquest?).  Price is 10K?  Can't confirm the accuracy of this, nothing is on the Klipsch website.