Is the ideal multi-way a 3-way with limited bass?

Of sorts. Using dynamic drivers the best approach IMHO is a two way with subwoofers. You only need one crossover (not including the sub) and you can usually put it up around 2500-3000 Hz where it will not be as audible. With a two way you can do an open baffle design, easy to make. Use two midbass/midrange drivers and one tweeter in a D' Appolito configuration. 12 db/oct Linkwitz-Riley crossover. Two double 15" subwoofers and you are off to the races.
With Horns I think you are stuck with 3 way and a sub.
But, with ESLs you can do one way with a sub. Some people will opine you do not need the sub and with very large ESLs this is true. But, distortion levels are even lower if you use a subwoofer system correctly. And you can increase your headroom at least 10 dB. That is double the volume!

Imo, more impressive soundstage is only one advantage of larger speakers. Having owned several small/bookshelf speakers and small floor standers over the decades, there is no way I would opt for them in pursuit of superior sound and experience. They are a fundamental compromise, imo too often made out of fear of bass issues. I would far rather struggle with bass (the exception being a perfectly square, small room) than divorce all the benefits of bigger speakers. It's literally like eschewing half the glory of HiFi.  

It's much more about the size of the listening room than the size of the woofer(s). As you've got two variables in play, I don't see how you can arrive at any firm general conclusion.  Rather you'd have to say, for a room of X size, Y size, etc.

I've been advocating something like this for a while, since really there isn't much point to making a speaker go down to 20Hz since standing waves 'stand' a good chance of causing the bass to not be right at the listening chair.


A Distributed Bass Array (like the Swarm from audiokinesis.com) can take make the deep bass and break up standing waves. As long as the speaker can make it below about 60Hz or so and the DBA set up to not go above 80Hz, the main speakers will convince you that the bass notes are coming from in front of you and there won't be any bass problems, right down to 20Hz (at least in the case of the Swarm). The only issue I see that could be a problem is out-of-band bass messing with the woofer in the main speaker. But otherwise you should be able to put something together that would rival a speaker that costs in 5 or 6 figures unless your room was enormous.

Perfect sound reproduction requires flat response 20-20khz. Anything less is WRONG. 
If you want perfect transients you do a 1 way full range cone. If you want more highs you do a 2 way. If you want a bit more mids you do a 3way. Its not rocket science. Open baffles are WRONG which is why we have box speakers in the first place. Use your brain. It is not rocket science. If you want to be a master tuner you need to learn how to listen. If you want good bass get yourself a better room dont blame the speakers. No such thing as dopler distortion. Have you ever heard John atkinson criticize how terrible all these 2way speakers sound due to dopler distortion? Never. Get real and stop complaining.