Thank you! Glad we could be of service. We’re here for you.
Side firing = once again space for more woofers like original plans.
You can’t have a thick base for front-firing woofer and a skinnier cabinet up top for mid/high?
Wouldn’t a thicker base be more stable?
I hafta sorta weigh in on the side-vs-front woofer deal by suggesting that when it is mounted in a tower speaker, where you can’t relocate the woofers, turning it 90 degrees is not a huge deal. (This is of course leaving out the optional 12” stackable cube subs).
It is half the phase difference of the typical sub’s 180-degree switch, and most good subs have subtler phase adjustment controls.
Having the woofer pointed at you in a tower is perhaps more of a mental/visual/aesthetic thing than an acoustic thing, IMO. It could in fact be that having it servo-controlled mitigates a lot of these issues, but the proof will be in the pudding.
I immediately think of wave-front/phase alignment with issues with side-firing woofers. But, as Paul noted, truly low bass is omni-directional and when sufficiently energized/timed my bet is our ears do not care.
Will the new speakers be voiced so they sound great both on / off axis? This is useful for those of us with asymmetry, toe in can be our friend.
So this is the thing, my feeling is that you can’t build a speaker that doesn’t look stupid (bottom projects forward ludicrously far) where a 12” or greater woofer is actually time aligned with the other drivers.
Think about the other time-aligned three-way speakers you are familiar with. The woofer is usually lined up with the mid. The tweeter is tipped back an inch or two from the mid. How far should a 12” woofer be moved forward with respect to the mid?
Meet the legendary 1977 Dahlquist DQ-10 designed by Jon Dahlquist. A phased array five-driver loudspeaker. A ten inch woofer, but an extra two inches would not be hard to accommodate. Phase accurate, wonderfully neutral.
Hmm, does that imply there should be a left speaker and a right speaker? Would you want them to fire toward the center of the room or toward the outer walls? Can it be changed in the field if the store only has two ‘left’ models in stock?
I have seen side-firing speakers set up with them firing toward each other and to the utside. As with all things audio, you listen and decide.
That begs the question: Can the user change the configuration to maximize performance in their room? It does make the units more costly to add that capability. But some may like it better center firing, some outboard firing, one may want right firing outside, left inside, and vice versa.
MartinLogan actually has a front-firing and down-firing in their higher-end models; (but would two smaller speakers be as effective as moving air as one larger one at low frequencies? My ML Depthi does this with three smaller speakers and works fine, so . . . maybe?)
So, Elk - not sure if you were inspired to send this to me due to my post the other day, but my brother’s DQ 10’s and associated stereo were my first for real introduction to audiophile sound. I had Small Advents at the time, I think.
The Dahlquists were sort of humorous in today’s terms in that they had (as I recall) the 10” woofer on the bottom shelf, and then two shelves with the other four drivers perched above.
They were originally all oriented the same way - that is, if you bought a pair, the speakers did not have L/R mirror image arrangement of the drivers, but you could get it done after the fact, and my brother did.
The center image was in my memory like a “catcher’s mitt”. But a really nice, well-oiled and broken-in mitt.
I think a 12” would require at least 2x the forward protrusion (I’m sure someone here can do the math), which I haven’t seen before. But most folks don’t give a crap about actually time aligning a sub-ish driver with the rest of the speaker, since it is outside their interest and/or experience, and is not elegant.
How would I know?
Hey, you’re the forum leader and reader of Paul’s mind, it’s your business to know!! 
If low bass is truly omni directional the position should theoretically not matter much, especially given the long length of bass waves.
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That’s certainly our goal though they will be designed to point straight ahead and with very little toe in. The mark of a really good speaker, IMHO, is one that can image and be enjoyed almost anywhere in the room.
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To be honest I never heard a speaker before that didn’t strongly benefit from toeing in (except maybe some Linn, Naim etc speakers that were meant for playing close the wall).
There was always the meaning in not toeing in, that there’s a wider sweet spot … and treble level also was impacted if sound was too bright within the system for whatever reason. But in my experience hardly seeing the speaker inwards side was maybe too narrow for listening with more than one person, but that or a bit more open was mostly the best for one alone with most speakers.
How can a speaker be designed to not sound better this way?
By focusing on the off-axis response and designing it correctly. Arnie Nudell’s speakers are almost never toed in and if they are it’s only by a few degrees.
Paul, I assume your looking to have these ready for sale no sooner than Spring 2019?
Thanks, but I didn’t understand fully yet.
It seems strange to me that even dome tweeters with close to 180 degree radiation due to the dome design have quite good off axis response and still benefit from toeing in … and that a ribbon with (exaggerated) close to 0 degree radiation due to its flat surface design can be designed to have extreme off axis response.
This aside of my so far assumption, that good or bad off axis response is not the major reason for more or less toe in benefit (but I was aware it is for the tonality effect). Toeing in also always gives more depth (and less width). Usually a good compromise is not near to no toe in…but that’s just my experience.
Furthermore usually the more narrow radiation of ribbons helps with room acoustics and imaging. When you design the ribbons to have wider off axis response, does this mean they are also causing more reflections just as dome designs?