@kosst --
Going by your experience and the venues in which you’ve predominantly(?) heard "horn" speakers (again, most of them have likely been hybrids; not that this is necessarily a bad thing sonically, but it waters down the model of definition here), and being that this is mostly the pro-arena (i.e.: cinema speakers which uses mostly horn hybrids are usually not the worst representatives of "horn" sound, I find, but bear in mind they’re sometimes driven upwards of their limits), I’d say you may be in for a pleasant surprise with a pair of well-implemented, quality all-horn or horn hybrid speakers in a domestic environment. "honky, distorted sound" is nothing at all like what a pair of quality horn speakers will bring to the day, certainly not least when played at more moderate levels in a home, but if a sound that deviates from many if not most direct radiating smaller speakers by virtue of simply offering up a larger, more effortless, present and enveloping presentation, and that these traits are for some reason not to your liking, then I guess our case here must finally come to rest. However, I’m thinking you may be mixing up sonically detrimental artifacts from your overall pro-arena horn sound experience - where many aspects "come into play" to negatively affect the sound quality - with what are truly assets in quality horn sound reproduction in carefully implemented home setups. As for JBL, I’ve come to find their current 44-range, K2’s and Everest iterations to be overpriced, and I can tell you there are indeed much better (all-)horn speakers out there, and for less money - certainly going by my inkling for good sound.
I’m hoping you’ll some day be treated with a good demo of horn speakers in a home setting (let us know if an audition at poster @mrdecibel will eventually be arranged, and what you’ll come to find of it). I’d be glad to demo my own setup for you, but I reside in Europe (Scandinavia) and may not be the most obvious candidate.
