It isn't the dipole design, its the lobing that occurs on the vertical plane. All of that projected energy is interacting with itself, and it will produce a very complex comb-filtering pattern. The thing is, comb-filtering can be difficult to hear, so while the response might look like a mess, it may not sound like one. Indeed, I have heard maggies and other planars and electrostats that have this quality yet they always sounded fine.
Neither free-air or Klippel measuring systems would be able to disentable this problem. It's possible a far-field, multi-mic measurement might help though.
Exactly, and that is why Peter Walker developed those delay lines etched into the membrane of the Quad ESL 63.
They are so phase coherent they will neutralize a square wave in free air, with one speaker out of phase. Peter demonstrated that to me personally on a trip to Huntingdon. I can assure anyone this feat is NOT myth.
The Maggies do so sound fine over a restricted listening area. I regard them as an 'antisocial' speakers as there is really only one good listening position. Personally I find them somewhat akin to headphone listening.
I think you really do need to have good sound over all seats, otherwise they are antisocial speakers in my view. I personally believe that speakers with good sound over a wide area sound better and more natural anyway.
Lastly this is another thread about needing two systems for two and multichannel. That really is totally untrue and actually in audiophool territory. We keep getting these posts and they are very much akin to "funny wire" posts. But any decent multi channel AV system should be able to perform and compete with any stand alone two channel system. These systems make for complicated architecture and wiring more likely than not to cause error and overall reduction in SQ.
I think the AV systems have a big market for music and the visual arts. I have not listened to opera without a picture for years. I don't think there is any more demanding program for any audio or AV system than grand opera. For me it is just wonderful to be able to experience fine opera performances in AV with superb picture and sound.
