Spent the afternoon at my good friend Jeff's place and heard his now broken-in PBN horns - lots of fun! The front end is still awesome, but it was easy to notice the more real and dynamic sound since my last visit. The speakers have great dynamic snap to them and excellent presence - i noticed this particularly on Mozart strings he played for me. As a hybrid horn, they project more forward than the dynamic driver speakers I have been auditioning recently. The speakers breathed more life into the sound than the first time, for sure.
The PBN speakers scale big as they appear. Bass quality was natural and articulate, even on difficult electro stuff like the Tron soundtrack I brought. I also didn't notice bass coming from a particular driver, a pet peeve of mine (I credit the WTW design, but who knows). Jeff's been considering a pair of 18" subs to go in his new dedicated room to get the last 10-15hz, but I feel this would likely be tough to integrate and could cause more issues than its worth. Since Jeff's musical interests are largely jazz and classical, these speakers 100% fit the bill and his sonic criteria. Jeff has some room difficulties (an open space to the right, just like mine) but that will be alleviated in his new, deeper and symmetrical room. He does have treatment on the ceiling which I found before in my condo a huge, huge deal.
Jeff has built quite the system at a relative modest cost. I am glad I got to hear them before the Tune Audios and am even more curious how an all horn, 3-way speaker will fit with my listening priorities and now have an additional point of reference.