"The coaxial driver looks great and caters to audiophile intuition of "point source being good.""
Is this intuition incorrect?
"One of the benefits of a coaxial driver is..."
What are some of the inherent performance disadvantages? (IE: Not price, having to design it right, etc.)
A few potential disadvantages I've heard of:
1. Genelec Emails: On massive models, a coaxial driver cannot handle the SPLs their main monitors can. Have not found evidence to the contrary, as I don't see a coaxial model that can go to 120dB or more.
2. Kii & Buchardt Emails: Coaxials present the tweeter with an ever changing waveguide. Evidence against found on page three:
https://assets.ctfassets.net/4zjnzn...3bb717fe31e/genelec_8260a_technical_paper.pdf
3. Forums: Coaxials have a small gap that causes diffraction. Evidence to the contrary in the same document above.
4. Can't remember, but I swear an email with Dutch & Dutch or someone else from a forum a year ago brought up another "disadvantage" that has been resolved for a decade or more. Maybe it was not being time aligned? (The Elac Navis, and KEF LS50, and all other speakers by both brands don't seem to have this issue... People sometimes think of coaxial car stereo drivers I think that might have wonky dispersion.)
Potential Advantages:
1. Easier to not have crossover cancellation. (Off topic PM: why no active crossovers at -999dB per tenth of an octave?)
2. Better vertical dispersion, similar to horizontal.
3. Point source instead of a voice sounding like it's coming from a six inch or foot wide mouth.
4. More compact, shorter speaker designs are possible. 3-way the size of a 2-way.
These measurements are appreciated, this was one of the earliest speakers I looked at buying when I decided to do the DIY HiVi 3.1. Haven't heard this, but would have guessed it sounded better... But that's marketing!