Soundstage and explosive dynamics?

I'd admit I'm wrong if I'd never heard horns in my life. I'd be quite open to your ideas, in fact. But I have heard horns. I know what they are, what they do, how they work, and why they sound like they do. I don't like them. Plenty of other people don't either. Implementing a horn requires a variety of design compromises on ideal goals just like anything else audio. All a horn is is a transformer, pure and simple. There is no such thing as a completely 100% transparent transformer. Just like with OTL tube and DC coupled SS amps, a lot of people prefer not to have them there because of how they sound. On the other hand, a lot of people absolutely LOVE the sounds of particular transformers in their amps. Likewise, some LOVE their transducers to be coupled to the air with big transformers, with some even being big fans of certain varieties of horns. 
My theory on why hybrid speakers struggle to mesh is because the horns make small dynamic drivers sound like massive, and unnatural, radiating surfaces. There are benefits and liabilities to this approach. Some think it's a great idea because of the virtues. Others find the virtues of something simulating a point-source more appealing. It's all compromise. I personally don't think horns are ideal in near to mid field listening because the entire point of a horn is to transform the impedance of the driver by controlling the dispersion. That makes for an efficient and linear speaker that's especially well suited to very accurate low power amps, typically with torpid damping. At the same time, simple dynamic drivers powered by more muscular hardware exhibiting more robust damping can come pretty close to what a horn does without the cost of focused dispersion. The polar opposite of horns is open baffle design and there's plenty of people who swear by those. So horns are dandy if you like them. I don't. My opinion might be very different if my listening room was 1000 sq/ft but it's not. I think most of us are like me dealing with something in the ballpark of 15x20. I think that space precludes a full horn set up and the best way to avoid the incoherency of a hybrid is not to use horns at all. It's just one guy's opinion. Please deal with it. 

This has been a fascinating thread to read, and I have to give thanks to Kosst for his/her insistence and multiples of repetition which has allowed for an exceptional discussion with educational and informative (at least for me) posts by many who obviously know and understand horn speakers so well. So Thank You K for being so minded on the subject...it has allowed for a very open discussion, in response.

I did a lengthy in-home demo of the Volti Audio Rivals, a speaker that has been recommended to the OP. This was my first time living with a horn-hybrid speaker. The 15 inch paper cone woofer operates below 400HZ (I believe, but I’m not 100% on this). It is an excellent speaker and offers the OP a check on all four of his attributes.

My 2ch audio room is very ’normal in size (read not large).

The Volti’s had very good imaging, and actually imaged slightly better than my current speakers.They also disappeared in the room and were not ’honky’ or ’shouty.’ Size-wise they also felt normal in my room. They are also very flexible with respect to room placement and with easy tuning via the external crossover network by resistors and the capacitor. The internals are easily accessible and very well laid out.

Early in the thread there was a mention of the Tekton Design Double Impacts as a recommendation. These are my current speakers (with the basic upgrade). I can also recommend these for all four attributes as well.

I enjoyed the Rivals so much that I am open to one of Greg Roberts’ full horn designs, which require some time as I need to save up for it.

Both the Rivals and the Double Impacts are great speakers, but are different.

Again a massive word of thanks to so many who have posted such valuable information and for your experience and wisdom on the topic.

Kosst you say "at the cost of focussed dispersion".    I find it odd that you regard that as a negative. I myself and plenty of others that I know regard that as one of the positives of a horn. That way you get less unwanted room interactions.   Definitely not good for entertaining though as the sweet spot is small. Anyhow I understand  that you're saying you don't like horn's and I'm completely fine with that, to each their own. It's just when you're saying things that are blatantly false that I feel the need to set the record straight. 

@analogluvr
A lot of listeners and designers consider confined dispersion a characteristic to be overcome. I site modern Maggie’s, Quads, and the Magico S3 as examples of excellent imaging and broads dispersion. It’s also a characteristic of my Focals which image very nicely.
@david_ten
I wouldn’t be at all surprised to find a carefully designed horn exhibiting better dispersion than Tektons. Those giant tweeter arrays Eric likes are directional according to the size of the array, not the individual drivers. It’s very easy to make a useful horn much smaller than that.

For explosive dynamics you need a large speaker with the following specs:
1-dual 15" woofers, at the minimum.
2-at least a 2" compression driver for the highs
3-high efficiency ion less than 96 dB
4-all the above plus bi-amplification, with a bi-amplifie large system you have a good chance of reaching your goal of explosive dynamics.
I have one such system, it is JBL 4350, a four way bi-amplified monster.
I mainly listen to classical, these JBL's can do justice to uncompressed orchestral recording like no other speaker with a very transparent full range sound.