It appears that distortion is somewhat higher than might be desired or expected in upper bass and even throughout most of the midrange. At 96 dB it doesn't go completely through the roof like it does with a lot of speakers, but it teeters around 1% from 300 Hz up through 1 kHz, and reaches 10% at 100 Hz. I will speculate that this is a consequence of the cardioid design philosophy. The cardioid pattern is achieved via phase cancellation between the wave exiting the side opening and the wave directly from the woofer in front. This cancellation effect increases as the wavelength grows longer, and apparently ceases where the passive radiators take control. If this were done with a purely passive speaker, we would see a steady decline in response as frequency goes lower, with diminished bass. To compensate, they have no doubt used equalization to flatten the response. This lunch isn't free: there is surely a very significant increase in driver excursion. It should be apparent, just from watching the driver, that at frequency in the neighborhood of 200 Hz and at moderately high volume, the woofer excursion is greater than what would normally be expected at that combination of frequency and volume. Without question, the moderately high distortion is the price that was paid in order to achieve the cardioid pattern. Whether the cardioid pattern is of significant benefit likely depends on the room placement. It isn't a question that can be answered without spending a lot of time listening to the speaker, ideally experimenting with different room placements and even different rooms. And as long as you don't turn it up really loud, you likely won't hear the distortion.
