Beyond that, I think the sound difference is due to the characteristic response of the VOTTs. That particular family of loudspeakers was made to be used in theaters with a large number of people, and the most important thing was good coverage over the majority of the audio range, roughly from 100Hz to 10kHz.

What I'm saying is that I don't think it's a vintage verses modern thing here. I think the difference is due to configuration. Take a couple of Edgar's horns, make a two-way loudspeaker for theaters and compare it with the VOTTs. Or take a 511 or Manta Ray, a 100Hz Altec midhorn and a subwoofer below it, setup for balanced response and compare that with one of Bruce's three-way systems. I think that's a more valid comparison.