Speaker of the Century Award Goes To ....

The one thing that most will agree on is that any speaker is compromised.  You need to find a manufacture that you like as we all hear differently regardless of room interactions etc...  

All type of speakers have their problems regardless of what folks may want us to think.  That's where marketing comes in.  When you go to a store and listen to totally different systems and listen to your own ears (most have heard live music) and not to what you are being told/sold, you will make better choices.  I'm so hard on speakers IRT being hot or dull.  I know that I enjoy the Vandersteen line for what I can afford.  I've heard speakers in the ranges I can buy as well as a ton from 15-250k or so and have an idea of what is out there.  

Most speakers are so much better than what we got only 15 years ago,  We are blessed to have the choices we do.  

2.5 - Way speakers tend to sound better than 3-Ways IME. The only affordable 3-ways I can imagine living with are Vandersteens.

I find the opposite to be true.
So it would appear that execution has a lot more to do with it, as is so with many things in the audio world. A lot also depends on what is 'affordable'.

@French_fries :

You are arguing car brands, while I am arguing vehicles. To completely overuse this metaphor, I argue that the 4 door sedan is the vehicle of the century. I’m not arguing which brand / model, but that overall, this type of design has a lot going for it for most consumers.


Of course, there are always those who insist a super car, or mini van are THE ONLY POSSIBLE CHOICES.


Best,
E

IMHO the 2.5 way speaker is THE ideal high end speaker for the majority of enthusiasts.

Interesting take but I can think of some "affordable" 3-way designs that check most of your boxes. Years ago, the Joseph 2.5 way was on my short list and I briefly considered Avalon, Focal and Monitor. Pretty much everything on my more recent short lists have been 3-ways.

I'm now running the Thiel CS2.4 which is a "3-way" but has single high- and low-pass filters. The tweeter and midrange are coaxially mounted and use a *mechanical* crossover. To my knowledge, Thiel was the only manufacturer of such a design. Similar coax drivers were in the CS6 and CS7 but those designs added mid-bass *and* bass drivers, each with its own filter. The coax in the CS2.7 and CS3.7 used separate filters for the tweeter and midrange. According to Tom Thiel, Jim Thiel planned to return to a mechanical crossover for his uber CS7.3 which was never completed.

I owned a Audio store for years  and went to many shows.
my all time  favorite speakers  when setup properly were 
the Great MBL -101 Ultimates , even without the extra bass columns they just disappear and sound like you are there.