Magico - Wide vs. Narrow

In my experience most wide baffle speakers do have somewhat of a distinct sound. This may also be due to the fact that many wide baffle manufacturers also subscribe to old fashioned design ideas like lossy cabinets, flat baffle fronts, etc. 

Imo, all else being equal, the edge diffraction of a wide cabinet is more likely to degrade image precision because its false azimuth cues arrive at a worse time.  But imo cabinet shape matters more than cabinet width. 

It is not clear to me that baffle width has a major effect on perception of the acoustic space on the recording, but if it does, I think the advantage would lie with the wide baffle. 

Duke

The big baffle is a two dimensional horn… complete with coloration and distortion… you can test this at home with a square of cardboard, cut a hole and speak thru it w observer or recorder… compare…

To the OP the Magico you speak of used renown Scanspeak ring radiator… sort of a large two dimensional moving baffle… ha.

my preference, expressed as $ and emotional investment are for minimum baffle designs.. TAD and Vandersteen… my Apogee keep me quasi… honest..

cracks me up when people obsess over treating first reflection points MANY m-seconds distinct from ear brain confusion point…then ignore that big hard suface baffle…reflector…

@audition__audio a very astute observation…. especially the lossy cabinet and drivers with non pistonic behavior….