I haven't heard the Vista, so I cannot comment on them, but, I had the opportunity to talk to Mr. Sanders, the head honcho of ML at the time, and he had some very interesting things to say about the size/design of his speakers. At the time, he was demonstrating the Prodigy at a local Washington, D.C. store. I asked him if the smaller size of the stat panel on the speaker provided any sonic advantage over the larger panels employed on the Quest/ReQuest. He frankly answered "no" and that the Prodigy would have been even better with a bigger panel, but for marketing reasons they went with a smaller panel. He said that improvements in panel technology allowed them to go with a smaller panel and still improve the sound, but the smaller size was a marketing compromise.
I also asked Mr. Sanders about why the panel actually extended below the top of the box containing the woofer. He admitted that that could result in undesirable early reflections from the back of the panel and a cavity resonance, but, that said they found the bad effects turned out to be minimal, and that this design also allowed them to reduce the size of the speaker.
Great answers by a manufacturer instead of BS.
I also asked Mr. Sanders about why the panel actually extended below the top of the box containing the woofer. He admitted that that could result in undesirable early reflections from the back of the panel and a cavity resonance, but, that said they found the bad effects turned out to be minimal, and that this design also allowed them to reduce the size of the speaker.
Great answers by a manufacturer instead of BS.