Wide baffle speakers are better than narrow

all else being equal the more narrow the front baffle (and the shorter for that matter) the better the speaker will image, have less cabinet resonance, less diffraction and phase issues, better dispersion and be less demanding to position.  
the goal is to minimize the surface area of the front baffle and by doing so minimize the amount of frequencies that is reflected back to the listener.  mixing direct and reflected sound causes phase distortion, frequency imbalances and requires more complicated crossovers to manage.  

...yeah, I used to headhunt @ headshops, in those heady daze..at the head of the list wuz Hedley's, a place to hang one's head and head out back, where the head honcho, Edmond Heddmen used to ....

...and I'm still baffled by the basics of baffles....wide bafs, narrow bafs, bafs on my belfry, bafs 'bout the back barn backyard...

nothing new, this is very famous issue 
https://sound-au.com/bafflestep.htm
http://www.salksound.com/wp/?p=42
https://diyaudioprojects.com/Technical/Baffle-Step-Correction-Circuit-Calculator/
 The choosing right crossover point 500-700  hz the speakers designers 
easily bypass this problem and can make good result with  9-10 " wide

If it were only a matter of baffle shape and size it would be so simple.
Loudspeaker building and design are a black art that takes years to
master and even the best do lifelong modifications and calculations.
This hobby of ours is a lot of fun and costs an awful lot of time and money, but even with all of the aggravations and failures and phantom solutions it is still a lot fun and fairly safe.  Some of us hunt, some of us golf, some of us have outrageously expensive boats and cars but in the end it’s we boys and our toys so enjoy. There are quite a few ladies that are audiophiles and just plain music lovers and in my experience they seem not to get so obsessed as we do and I think  it’s just a gender difference.