What are the best speakers for 80's hard rock?

Atmasphere........I am with you......all the way !     

Horns are designed to project out to listeners (or simply add efficiency if close listening is preferred), and older ones didn't have phase plugs for dispersion and beaming avoidance issues. My old Altec A7s sounded best when given some distance (That horn was a mid/high thing). In an average size room your ears will distort before most well designed speakers do, and in a large room (like the 360 seat venue where I often mix shows) I have mega watt clean P.A. gear to get any musical point across (18" powered pro woofers). If I’m listening to heavy classical or anything I feel needs to be dynamic in my normal room and just crank it, my subs (8" and 10" RELs) might need to be turned down a little to keep from overwhelming the room with bass, and all else is plentiful…my room is medium-large I think…wallop…great term…wallop...

Call Peter at PBN speakers he could hook you up

To clarify,

In my example contrasting MBL vs Soundlab, it was not my intention to suggest that Soundlab would fo a poor job with Van Halen.   It WAS my intention to suggest that the big MBLs would do a better job (at least to my taste).  The delta is probably more significant on the flip side - The MBL wouldn't be my first choice for chamber music, while the Soundllab might well be.  Both speakers sound good with a variety of source material, but the MBL (in particular) shines with loud rock music IMO.

BDP used his car analogy, and I think there's some merit there, tho I might go with a different variation on that.   Some performance cars are designer around higher output motors and live with higher weight.  Others prioritize low weight and might trade away horsepower to keep the whole thing light.  The design starting point influences the end point.

I do think the designers of the Soundlab and MBL started in very different places.  'Stats and omnis inherently offer different potential and I believe that the respective designers look to optimize the basics that they're working with.  In any event, they do sound very different from one another.  I prefer the MBLs to the Sounlabs (and probably anything else) on electric rock at high volume.  For a real-world variety of source material, I'd probably choose Soundlab.

That statement is based on my auditioning both speakers, not the observations re: design.

Klipsch would be an obvious choice if not for the horn. 

I'm a Klipschaholic so my opinion is biased -- but I think you could do a lot worse than Klipsch for a rock-friendly setup.  I find that McIntosh and Marantz both have a very warm sound which helps cut the horn brightness. My main system is a pair of Klipsch Forte Is with Crites crossovers and titanium tweeter and midrange diaphragms powered by a McIntosh MA6200 and I find it most satisfactory for my musical tastes: I was also quite impressed with a Marantz 2220 I keep around as a spare. (I should also note that my tastes in rock are more 70s Prog and blues rock -- think King Crimson and Robin Trower -- than arena rock and *ugh* hair metal).  

My Forte Is (which were cosmetically battered but sonically fine when I purchased them) cost $300 and I spent another $500 in updates.  A new set of Forte IIIs, which have just been released, will set you back $3600-4400 depending on the finish.  You might also be interested in the Forte's big brother, the Chorus: they typically go for $950-1250 on the market.  I've seen used Cornwalls going for $850+ ($4400/pr new) and LaScalas anywhere from $1k up ($8k a pair new).   And if you have the corners and the room for two refrigerator-sized speakers, used Klipschorns can be had for anywhere from $1500 to $5500 a pair -- a new set will run you $11k or so.