In my opinion the best type of speaker for use as home theater surrounds would be a line array or some variation on that theme. Here's why:
You want the relative loudness of the left and right side surround speakers to be as uniform as possible for viewers who are well off to one side. SPL changes much more slowly over distance for a line source than for a point source, so there will be less loudness discrepancy for the viewer who is way off to one side. Of course the design still has to be executed well, but if I was tasked with designing a high-end home theater surround speaker, that's where I'd start.
Offhand I don't know of anyone making a line array speaker as a dedicated surround speaker, but Magnepan makes a wall-mounted surround speaker that is a pretty good first approximation.
Duke
dealer/manufacturer
You want the relative loudness of the left and right side surround speakers to be as uniform as possible for viewers who are well off to one side. SPL changes much more slowly over distance for a line source than for a point source, so there will be less loudness discrepancy for the viewer who is way off to one side. Of course the design still has to be executed well, but if I was tasked with designing a high-end home theater surround speaker, that's where I'd start.
Offhand I don't know of anyone making a line array speaker as a dedicated surround speaker, but Magnepan makes a wall-mounted surround speaker that is a pretty good first approximation.
Duke
dealer/manufacturer