Toole's main takeaways are that on and off axis frequency response matter a lot - on axis should be as flat and smooth as you can get away with, and off axis should have a similar character to on-axis (i.e., the curve should be roughly the same shape as on axis). Cardioid just extends that controlled directivity down lower. Re: linear vs minimum phase, technically speaking linear is better in crossovers as you lose the weirdness that steep phase rotation from pass filters can cause, and it doesn't cause pre-ringing like linear phase usually does because when you sum them they cancel each other out.I hope you are right about the DDs - where does Toole talk about cardioid speakers? I can't remember that... I thought the Beolabs were the first and they were not introduced at the time his book came out.
Also, Erin already put the 8C on his NFS. It's exactly as textbook perfect as you'd expect. Kii Threes, too. The D&D is a hair smoother than the Kii, but we're splitting hairs there. The big place the 8C wins is its short term compression behavior, which is markedly better than the Kiis.
Last edited: