Horns: Why don't they image well?

I'm not sure what acoustic advantage a loft with 16 foot ceilings would provide, unless you got to keep some rugs, wall hangings, and soft furniture after the divorce.

@mrdecibel 
I think the nuance of a number of opinion I hold isn't clear to you. I did think the LaScala sounded very good. I also said that I could easily imagine material which would be hard to listen to through them. I'm specifically thinking of the last two Tool albums, but especially 10,000 Days with the layered, forward, in-your-face sound Joe Barresi likes to get out of Adam's guitars. The last time I saw Tool live the house delay system was gigantic JBL horns. I didn't like it. The dynamics were punishing. I'd heard them play a massive Meyer rig in 2012. The mix and sound system sounded much better. I'm looking for the kind of live sound I heard at Tool 2012, The Dead in 2009, and DMB and 311 in 2008. 
I played bass and sax. I wasn't real good. My brother and dad played trumpet. I HATED that thing. My daughter goes to a private school with a huge music department for it's size. I hear them play every year. I'll hear them again in 10 days. I may bring ear protection. My grandparents were always taking my brother and I to big band events in the local park. I've always liked live outdoors music. It always sounds better. 
All I'm saying is about those speakers is they sounded very good, but they fell short on imaging and bass, and the bite of the dynamics could easily become punishing with some material. That may be a major asset with material having less dramatic dynamics, but Tool recording are among the most dynamic out there in a particularly aggressive way. 

@kosst_amojan --

I can imagine a Meyer Setup sounding better than a JBL ditto. At live (amplified) concerts the acoustics and mixing has a huge influence on the perceived sound, but there’s still an imprinting that falls back on the specific gear used - speakers in particular, and also how they’re arranged (never been fond of the large PA-arrays that is typically used nowadays, but there are exceptions of satisfying implementations here). A local cinema uses Meyer Sound (EXP) speakers, and they’re fuller and more relaxed sounding compared to other cinemas in the area that use QSC or JBL.

Re: Klipsch La Scala II: great that you found the opportunity and not least took the initiative to audition them. I haven’t heard them myself, in any iteration, but my own speakers are based on the Klipsch Belle - a "belle," close sibling to the La Scala - that is, in the case of my speakers: the bass horn is more or less the same, and the rest is different and, dare I say, of better quality; be that the cabinet construction, crossovers, drivers, etc. I find they image beautifully (and are very coherent), the only real mild downside here being a restricted image height, but once you place yourself low enough in the seating position in front of them I find it to be a non-issue. The two other areas of either coloration or deficiency is a resonant character in the upper bass and lower midrange and, as you pointed to with your impressions of the La Scala’s, that they roll off quickly below some 55-60Hz. I use a sub with my speakers, so lack of extension isn’t an issue any longer (in fact I’ll replace my current sub with a pair of tapped horn subs in about a month time - should be interesting). And the upper bass/lower mids coloration (depending on the material can give the impression of a slightly hollow and resonant character that obscures details) might be alleviated once a high quality DSP will be implemented within shortly. The outlook for a true all-horn speaker setup (from 20Hz on up), which is quite rare, has me excited.

It seems to me there are inherent traits if you will with horn speakers - like that of (macro-) dynamics and perhaps their sonic presence - that won’t appeal to you in whatever form these will be (and that you find objectionable at live gigs as well), and that’s totally cool. I do believe however that you have even better sonic experiences of horn speakers to look forward to, or certainly be presented with in the future. That the La Scala’s brought you closer to this realization, not least in light of your formerly expressed hatred almost of horn sound, I find very promising. Please let us know of any future horn-speaker expositions, should they occur. Not least be aware of whether these are all-horns or hybrids..

"...as the sound and the visual gives me the complete experience, this is why I opt for big ESL's. "

I have both Martin Logans and Vandersteen 2's in two different rooms in the house and the ESLs don't even come close to the image accuracy I get from the Vandersteens at "normal" listening distances. They do image better if I walk back to the end of the room, roughly 30' away. Otherwise every instrument even the singer is exaggerated in size. Same experience  when I briefly owned Magnepans. My back-horn loaded single drivers upstairs have better image specificity than both but at the expense of lesser bass and only in a smaller room and at lower listening levels.

This has become one of the most active and fun to read threads I've ever seen.

Thank you to everyone who has been contributing. :)

Best,
OT (original troll)
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