How thick should the front baffle of speakers be?

The only reason small woofers proliferate these days is that designers can orient them front-facing and still make the cabinets slim, and hence decorator- and spouse-friendly. I've heard multiple small woofers in speakers vs. a 12", and preferred the 12" every time.

Well I dont think a speaker can sound accurate with one genre of music and not another. Harbeth's lossy cabinet represents the worst possible approach to this problem in my opinion. 

jsautter,
I disagree.  The Harbeth SuperHL5plus that I owned sounded excellent with all genres.  A very balanced, neutral and revealing speaker (which employed it's lossy approach to actually achieve this balance).

I have to agree with jsautter with respect to lossy cabinets. It’s an attempt to make the cabinets sounds “add” to the drivers output in a perceived pleasurable manner. My (admittedly) personal preference is a design that minimizes the cabinet’s -specifically the baffle influence on the overall output.

To the OP, how do mere moving pieces of moving paper cause the your pant legs to flap? The answer is it’s a sum total of the amp, speaker membrane, voice coil, magnet, cabinet and room interaction.