3 way vs. 2 way

I don't think 2-way is better than 3-way, or vice versa. I do think that if you sit six feet from the speakers 3-way won't work - not enough distance for the drivers to focus at the sitting position. Without the proper driver integration, you will loose a balanced, seamless transition across the frequency spectrum. 3-ways certaintly have their place, many, but not in this situation, IMHO.

Yeah, your right. Utter nonsense.

My bias is that less is more in many ways. But in your room and listening distance, a two-way seems like the way you must go; I think you would have a difficult time getting three drivers to integrate with a coherent sound at that distance. What price range are you looking at? I do love the Totems when I have heard them at shows, but I'm under the impression they need quite a bit of power and preferably solid state (I'm not a Totem expert). You might also want to consider the Merlin TSMs, they would work well in you environment, or two-way Harbeths, Spendors, ProAcs, are also good choices. I don't think you would be able to take advantage of large three-way bass in you room. My 2cents.

Ryder gets the point exactly, this is not a theoretical debate (althought that is interesting in its own right) but a specific application in a given room. As a practical solution, I think that 2-ways are the best way to go IMHO.

I think that absent the lowest octave, my Merlin VSM-MXe provide the coherency of two-ways, with the bass extension, dynamics, and loudness (105db peaks) of most three-ways, down 3db at 33Hz. Of course this is done with bass EQ (BAM), but from 40 Hz up this is my favourite speaker, and the bass is satisfying for 95% of the music I would ever listen to. A different approach to dealing with the tradeoff and compromises required when choosing to go 2-way or 3-way.

Soda14a6v, I agree with you that not only in theory, but in practice, you can't have 20Hz response from from a good sounding two-way. But I think we start to accept serious compromises and complexities and power requirements when we seek 20Hz response. I think for most applications, and most rooms, good response down to 40Hz or so provides the best set of compromises (and possible with 2-ways), especially when value is taken into consideration - in most cases the low,low bass (16-30Hz) comes at a serious sonic cost to the rest of the spectrum IMHO, and is not suitable for most domestic rooms.