Quote Originally Posted by Mr. Widget View Post
Actually you are making my point exactly... one that I must not have made clearly.

Take any 43xx 3-way, 4-way... they can be multi-amped and precisely time aligned and it will not significantly change their imaging. This is because like most speakers of the last 50 years, the polar response across their entire spectrum is a raging nightmare. Mirror imaging doesn't fix this, time alignment doesn't fix this, realistically there is nothing to be done with these designs if imaging is the goal.

To get a very consistent and controlled polar response from ~500Hz up is very difficult without waveguides and a fair amount of design and care. As it turns out coaxial designs like the modern KEF LS50, the Genelec Monitors, and the vintage UREIs have inherently better directivity control (wide frequency response range polar response) than traditional speakers... AR3a, L100s, and >90% of everything else out there. Many of the better designed 2-way mini-monitors image well because the small woofer and dome tweeter on a compact and narrow baffle can exhibit very good directivity, but even following this model is no guaranty.
Odd that this discussion comes up now. My wife made her way to the basement workshop last night and sat in the listening chair while I was playing the Kind Of Blue Deluxe 50th Anniversary Collector's Edition and the first thing she asked was if all four pairs were playing, when in fact the only ones playing were the 250ti on the ends. Then she commented on how distinct each individual instrument was and how everything was placed so well across the room. She doesn't know the term "soundstage" but she certainly gets it. Not sure why it would take a 2-way with a wave-guide to improve this but I'm pretty pleased with the way the massive 4-way pyramid does it—without a modern wave-guide. At one point I toyed with getting a 1400 Array. Maybe that needs to be my next acquisition just to see what it can do. At the time I got sidetracked by the 4345 for the same money.