Horn based loudspeakers why the controversy?

Does the "cold hard evidence of measurement" actually have anything to do with personal taste in musical tone? Measurements and personal comprehension anomalies aren't completely mutually exclusive, but aren't matching either. If horn loaded speakers are made well, the phase plugs and throat shape, etc., will provide efficiency and projection and that's about it as far as generalizations go since they're not otherwise the same thing (different designs simply sound different)…many modern speakers have moderate "horn loading" recessions around tweeters to make them more efficient, and although generally aren't considered horns per se, certainly do the same thing. Once them pesky high frequencies get released who knows where they go? As long as they get to my earballs somehow I'm fine.

I'm not saying measurements have much to do with personal taste. Some folks love the sound of horns, others huge baffle deals like DeVores and the big BBC clones. Some neither. These Focals I'm listening to at the moment have tweeters mounted in big lenses to manipulate their baffle interaction. The tweeters are called 1 inch inverted domes, but the actual diaphragm is much bigger than that and the main inverted dome is surrounded by smaller inverted domes. The mid-range driver is unusually large for the crossover point used and that leads to them being more directional at the crossover region. Line array theory would suggest that the 3 little woofers couple in their pass band and operate like a single 21" driver in the vertical plane. There seem to be all kinds of ways of manipulating the behavior of a speaker to mitigate or accentuate certain characteristics. I think a lot of modern speakers have improved a lot because more exotic ways of controlling driver behavior have been developed and better understood. I agree that a lot of speakers steal some horn theory and behavior. I also think they do it without the drawbacks and challenges of an actual horn. Is the KEF UniQ driver a horn? I've never heard it called one. I've never heard anybody say it sounds like one. But it does have a compression element and a waveguide. It's probably more of a horn that the tweeter arrangement Zu uses and lots of people call those horns. 

I suppose " he is " repeating himself............if I liked him, I would invite him over to listen, and, to finally, shut him up......... 

Like I said, if somebody has a great pair of horns for me to hear, let me know. I'll listen. I like a tight, physical kind of sound. That's why I like my Focals. It's what I've liked about horns. I don't like that in-your-face way so many project sound. I've never heard a horn not sound like that to some degree. Either that's just what horns sound like, or they're exceptionally difficult to design correctly. I'm leaning towards the latter. I don't blame people if they like that kind of sound. Some people value tone beyond imaging or any other consideration. We all have our quirks. I value exceptional imaging, smooth response, and decent but not ear-popping dynamics. Horns aren't for me.

OK- Classic Audio Loudspeakers. They image extremely well and dance circles around any Focal I've heard. They have gotten 'Best Sound at Show' a number of times (THE Show, RMAF, Axpona, CAF).

The bottom line is that until I hear a horn that sounds like a point-source I'm not going to like them.

The Classic Audio does that; the speakers vanish and do not call attention to themselves. Slight nuances in any recording are instantly audible as they are very fast and revealing (the first breakup occurs at 35KHz); IOW if you want "exceptional imaging, smooth response, and decent but not ear-popping dynamics" then horns may well be for you.

I'm scouring the interwebz over here. I can't find ANY hifi shops that deal in horns. Either I'm missing it, or nobody in the midwest likes horns.