As implied above, any "beaming" by Apogees is relative to your room size, listening distance and setup. The larger Apos have few problems with standing vs. sitting anomalies (not truly a 'venetian blind' effect, which is associated with electrostatic flat panels like the Acoustats) because they are taller speakers. However, the bigger Apogees definitely have sweet spots.
With any speaker, it's difficult to maximize sweet spot width, soundstage size and imaging within the soundstage - you're always going to sacrifice something to gain somewhere else. I own Apogees, Soundlabs and Martin-Logan's - all have their advantages and disadvantages with respect to positioning and sweet spot size. I'd refer you to the Apogee Users Website and the respective manufacturers' web pages. Most have white paper/design philosophy sections that talk about these issues as they relate to their designs.
With any speaker, it's difficult to maximize sweet spot width, soundstage size and imaging within the soundstage - you're always going to sacrifice something to gain somewhere else. I own Apogees, Soundlabs and Martin-Logan's - all have their advantages and disadvantages with respect to positioning and sweet spot size. I'd refer you to the Apogee Users Website and the respective manufacturers' web pages. Most have white paper/design philosophy sections that talk about these issues as they relate to their designs.