Thin Walled Speakers -Tonian, Musical Affairs, etc

True that (god how I hate that expression).

But if the cabinet's and driver's resonances are taken into consideration (designed in), in advance, and the drivers are adequately attached, the cabinet adequately braced, and in the case of the Tonians, being a semi-open baffle design, then it should handle most kinds of music provided its not used as a PA system.

Coloration can be a good thing as long as its intended.
When you think of a heavily braced, thickly walled, acoustically inert cabinet and all the sound absorption and abatement one must do to keep the sound from relecting back out through the drivers or ports at an unacceptable rate, who can say which is the better design? Both seem to work as long as they're well thought out in advance.

Coloration is not a good thing if your goal is to reproduce the music in its original form; thin wall and thick wall both intend to minimize coloration, they just use different methods to achieve it. But if you like coloration go for it; some like to walk around with tinted glasses after all. After a time they probably think the world is actually all pink.

It could be our ideas of coloration differ. Hues can be used to aid in tone. Gradations can enhance. Just how much is needed, or wanted, is in the ear of the designer. My take on coloration is of a slight application. Taking into consideration that speakers make the most distortion of any audio component in the chain (sometimes up to and beyond 10%), then coloration seems as reasonable as any approach in speaker design, along with cabinet construction, crossover design, choice of driver, etc.

As Nonoise stated, both types of designs can work or not work. I've had some pretty well damped and inert speakers I hated. Escalante Freemonts come to mind, they were 650 pounds of speaker that had no life or energy (not saying it was b/c of weight and inertness but they didn't "move" me. On the other hand Beauhorns with their thin walled cabinets were one of the musical speakers I've owned. Yes they were colored, or I'd say not as accurate as other speakers that have come thru my studio but at the end of the day they made me smile and listen to music.

(dealer disclaimer)

I think we need to keep in mind that speakers are a vague representation of the original event and things like cabinet design are a small (but sometimes crucial) part of this formula.

What I mean is if a speaker offers 15% of the real experience and a few percentages of that tone/quality is determined by cabinet design and is largly a matter of taste and musical preferences.

No design is even close to absolute and all should be taken with a grain of salt.

I tend to focus on the way a sound of a design makes me feel for instance...

my two cents