Magico - Wide vs. Narrow

I don’t believe anyone suggested the Magico cabinet is lossy.

it like many competitors is largely inert and typically exceeds the s/n of the room it resides in.

A rear firing tweeter hopefully with both an on/off switch is 100% distortion and can be found on some minimal baffle designs ( the Vandersteen 7 for example ) principally to compensate for “ overdamped rooms “… which i think, if i understand the OP point about music lovers vs audiophile are mostly the domain of the latter.

Enjoy the music

@tomic601 said, "A rear firing tweeter... is 100% distortion..."

I disagree.

Implemented correctly, one beneficial thing a rear-firing tweeter does is this: It corrects the spectral balance of the reflection field.

Duke

rear-firing tweeter advocate

While destroying the timing information that the ear brain is much more sensitive to. 

i should add that my decision references are unamplified acoustic instruments in reverberant spaces captured w simple microphones, so the temporal data is in the recording.

I understand the allure of the rear firing tweeter as i have them. It’s possible Vandersteen didn’t implement them correctly. They include both a level control, on off, zobel and i can verify step correction ( there is certainly step correction on the front facing drivers.

i do respect your work Duke.

Best in musical happiness 

What I think @tomic601 is missing is that the right kind of reflections are euphonic AND increase our sense of spacial perception.

The idea of an anechoic cave in which the speakers sit, one approach of which was called Live-End, Dead-End (mid 1980s?) , has long ago given way to a more nuanced understanding of the importance of diffuse early-ish reflections in improving the illusions of a sound field.