"Paul Dormer" wrote in message
...
"Robert Morein" emitted :

[snip]

Without specifying a model the term floorstander seems a bit
misleading in the context of this discussion - many are of course
bookshelfs with an extended cabinet encapsulating a separate enclosure
for the woofer - hardly a radical departure. Having A/B'd some
counterpoint examples like this it's rarely the case that the
floorstander whooops the equivalent bookshelf's ass wrt clarity. (On
the contrary.) The floorstanders you use presumably do not fall into
this category and have better drivers, cabinets or whatever to begin
with to make such a big difference..

It seems to me you are complaining about the laws of physics and the
cost of addressing the laws of physics

That's a good way of putting it.

However, it's not simply a matter of driver quality.
A 5" midbass driver for a two-way bookshelf is usually mass loaded and
designed for high excursion. A driver of the same diameter incorporated into
a "floorstander", which, perhaps confusingly, I equate with a 3-way system,
has a light cone and is not designed for high excursion. Nor is the unitary
motion of the cone stressed by large impulses.

The audibility of Doppler distortion has been debated, but physically, at
least, the effect is tonal smearing of midrange frequencies generated by a
cone moving at bass frequencies.

Some of these issues can be addressed by driver construction, and others
cannot. Besides, I'm not relying on theory to predict what I will hear.