How about Rega’s side firing bass driver? This seems to be a great implementation in a floor stander allowing flexibility and tuning to the room.
Is the ideal multi-way a 3-way with limited bass?
Hear me out here.
3 way speakers with the traditional large woofer benefit from high bass output, and improved midrange clarity due to the lack of Doppler distortion affecting the mids, but with a lot of modest listening areas the big woofer can also be detrimental. They produce too much bass, which together with room gain and room modes causes flabby and exaggerated bass.
So, lacking ARC or EQ capabilities perhaps the best compromise for the purist is to have a big woofer 3-way but with a limited -3 dB point, say 45 Hz or so.
3 way speakers with the traditional large woofer benefit from high bass output, and improved midrange clarity due to the lack of Doppler distortion affecting the mids, but with a lot of modest listening areas the big woofer can also be detrimental. They produce too much bass, which together with room gain and room modes causes flabby and exaggerated bass.
So, lacking ARC or EQ capabilities perhaps the best compromise for the purist is to have a big woofer 3-way but with a limited -3 dB point, say 45 Hz or so.