I spent this weekend listening to bookshelf speakers ($180-1400). Of
course, there were variations among the speakers. However, one speaker
that sounded significantly better was a JM (or was it JL) /Focal floor
standing model. OK, never mind that it retails for $1900. It had a lot
of detail without being "sibilant". One test I was using was whether
you could hear the horns specifically while the rest of the orchestra
was playing loudly, and this speaker did the best on that.

I figure that if you can hear lots of details while the speaker is
otherwise playing loudly, then the speaker must be pretty linear. I
wonder if it is because this speaker has 3 drivers, so that the audio
load is more spread out among the drivers. Thus the drivers have less
excursion and don't distort as much. I don't know how many problems you
take on by having another crossover, though (phase and frequency
response mismatch).

I guess my question is that all other factors being equal (e.g. within a
speaker model line from one company), will the 3 driver model sound
better/more detailed/can play orchestral music better than the 2 driver
version? Or maybe a better question is whether the jump in sound
quality is bigger between the 3 driver and 2 driver model, vs a 2 driver
model and a slightly smaller 2 driver model.
In particular, I'm thinking of Paradigm speakers, in the Monitor line.
They have a mini-monitor (small bookshelf), Monitor 3 (medium bookshelf
with 2 drivers) and monitor 5 (3 drivers). Will the difference in
"goodness" between the Monitor 5 vs 3 be bigger than the difference btw
the 3 and Mini? I have a subwoofer, so I don't care that much about how
low the bass goes.

I also wonder if it is often the case that a cheaper 3 driver speaker
can beat a more expensive 2 driver. (e.g. paradigm monitor 5 vs Studio 20)