While acknowledging that distortion is a technical weak point, and it's fine to investigate the cause, the irony about the distortion commentary to me is that it's the lower mids and bass
specifically --the region with the most distortion -- that stood out when actually listening to this speaker. That, to my audio memory (and written notes) sounded better than any speaker + dual subs combination I've listened to. Something about the cardioid directivity and specially timed rear wall bounce from the subs, methinks. It just sounded so
clean.
Every once in a while I want to reach out to Martijn again to try out the 8C and see if it was all just in my head
Hard to know how much of it is just the cardioid aspect, not having heard any other speakers cardioid to so low. But I suspect I just like constant directivity designs. Probably part of the reason why I liked the L100 Classic so much too. Despite a flaw frequency response, the wide baffle keeps the directivity constant to pretty low (plus pretty wide directivity in the highs).
For what's happening above 2kHz, there are plenty of other speakers I'd trade with the 8C (as many of y'all know, I prefer wider directivity). The 8C is about as good as it gets in FR and Directivity in this regard, but also far from the only good speaker in this regard.