rear firing tweeters....

"If you want to hear just what's on the recording, no more no less, sit in the narrow sweet spot with nearfield monitors. If you want something that sounds like live music filling your listening area, go with omnis, bi-polars, or at least something with ambient drivers such as the rear-firing tweeter."

I think that's a bit much. There are plenty of full-range systems which can extract what's in the recording w/o requiring nearfield seating and which don't need "ambience" tweeters. This doesn't need to devolve into a religous argument.

My Vandersteen 5A's have rear fireing tweeters which provide extra high frequency energy for "problem" rooms...however, it also presents phase problem, so they have an "off" position for most setups.

I have Von Schweikert VR4JRs. I have a small room which is 17 feet wide at the front and 24 feet deep with my sitting position half-way back. Ceilings are 9 feet. The walls are treated with deep pile quilts behind and to the side of the speakers which are 30" from the front wall. I have found that on large scale orchestral pieces that the rear tweeter helps "enlarge" the performance, thus better simulating the event. For small venue performances and more intimate spaces the rear tweeter is not necessary. It is only a tool to help the room recreate the music. I believe it is more about the room than the speakers themselves. There's not much to argue about here. To each his own. I would not buy a speaker because of the rear tweeter but I wouldn't reject a speaker because it has one. My speakers project the sonic image of the performers very well with excellent height, width and depth. The rear tweeter is not trying to make up for deficiencies in the speaker design, it is giving the listener options in tuning the music to the room.

It may be artificial...but rear firing drivers seem to created an enhanced firm of depth......these spatial ques might not be for everybody

I have always wondered about the benefits and have never heard an a-b comparison. Maybe the question is -- At a particular price point, do you want some of your money invested in rear firing tweeters vs having that money spent on some other aspect of the speaker. The 'less is more' argument, particularly if they are usually switched off.