I'm a big fan of ESLs and ribbons, but the horns I have in my own system are faster and more revealing, and less colored. I have heard plenty of horns that honk and do weird things- the throat and mouth design is everything in a horn, any errors and the distortion skyrockets. But if it is correct there is nothing out there that can touch them. I don't have bass horns, my system is a bass reflex/horn hybrid, about 98 db 1 watt/1 meter. The diaphragms in the horns are beryllium domes with a kapton surround with no breakups in the audio pass band, and the magnet structures are custom-built field coils.
IMO/IME field coil is the only technology out there that can be as fast and as revealing as ESLs, although I am very impressed by the High Emotion Audio tweeter, which is an interesting (and patented) cross between a horn and a ribbon, very efficient and very fast (and nearly omni-directional) without coloration. It might be the only exception to the superiority of ESLs and field coils.
I don't blame anyone for not liking horns, but to those who doubt based on their listening experiences, I have this to say: you really need to hear the right one, set up properly. Many horn drivers are highly reactive and don't work right if the amplifier used has a low output impedance due to large amounts of feedback! Just because a horn is expensive, don't trust that it is also designed right too! There are quite a few bloopers out there IMO.