Why not horns?

YEs, Magnepan has a dealer network while OHM/Walsh went factory direct only back in the 90s. I owned Maggies and older OHMs concurrently from 1985-2007. Then I realized that OHM was still around and providing upgrades for their old speakers. I decided to try this and ended up dumping the Maggies and a pair of nice B&Ws as a result.

The Walsh driver is more a different way of looking at how traditional drivers produce and propogate sound and the theory required to deliver optimal results using drivers in this different manner. I've read where in Lincoln Walsh's theory all pistonic drivers operate as Walsh drivers as well, just not very well. There are really only 3 flavors of marketable Walsh driver around today, those used by OHM in their CLS driver configuration, the German Physiks DDD driver, and "TLS" designs produced by a gentleman named Dale Harder which are modeled after the originals produced by OHM years ago, which were reknowned for their SOTA sound quality when working and their fagility which resulted in the original designs not being a viable long term consumer product, despite the stellar results under normal conditions.

BTW Dale Harder's TLS Walsh speakers can be seen in his posted system here which is also an audiogon "featured" system.

Anyway, back to the real world (and away from theory)...

There is a pair of Klipsch Heresy HBR speakers up for sale on Ebay by a seller in the next town from me that I might be able to pick up and try for not much. I would try these in my wifes sunroom where the Dynaudio monitors are pictured currently in my system listing.

Questions:

- How much are a pair in good working order and condition worth?

- If I do it, what kind of sound should I expect in comparison to a pair of good Dynaudio monitors? BTW the Dyns are rear ported and bass heavy in that room. Speakers in that room have to stay close to the wall. The Heresys seem like a reasonable design to try there in that they are reputably not bass heavy.

Go Altec pass up Klipsch. Why pay more for cheaper build poor design and lower performing transducers. To me Klipschs are responsible for much of the negatives tossed about by non horn owners. When folks not in the know think horn Klipsch is whats on there mind. When the uninformed think speaker Bose is on there mind. Sure a K horns far better than bose but the analogy holds true.

If you are thinking of Klipsch, it seems the older they are the better they are. But if the price is right, what the heck. They work OK next to the wall. I think I would go for Altecs first as well.

A few years ago I found a set of Electro Voice Regency 3s for cheap. They needed new wiring and new crossover controls. They are designed to use the corner of the room, that is, you put them all the way into the corner. If you don't do that they will not play bass as the cabinet and corner form a sort of horn. Anyway, I just set them up by the Snell Bs I had at the time. They were immediately more spacious, more dynamic. I expected the greater impact, but the increased resolution and depth of the soundstage floored me. Instruments hung in the air, expressed with great timbrel accuracy, delicacy where it was needed and power where needed as well. In short, played every aspect you wanted out of a speaker better than the Snells, except for the bass.

Since I was never able to put them in the corners, I never found out if that was still true when they were properly set up, but this experience let me know in spades that horns had something to offer.