"How about the very simple, and I guess generally accepted, frequency contouring of speakers? "
The geometry of the speaker box is very important to the sound quality and projection. I'm no expert in this area, but I have experimented with speakers in boxes and small changes make big differences. It's pretty complex, because sound waves bouncing off the backplane combine with the fundamental wave and you get cancellation and addition of the waves. At different frequencies you get different summation patterns of the waves, so there is always phase problems/effects with the box resonance and reflected waves.
To see what I mean, go to a web site that allows you to play with a simulated "wave tank".
The geometry of the speaker box is very important to the sound quality and projection. I'm no expert in this area, but I have experimented with speakers in boxes and small changes make big differences. It's pretty complex, because sound waves bouncing off the backplane combine with the fundamental wave and you get cancellation and addition of the waves. At different frequencies you get different summation patterns of the waves, so there is always phase problems/effects with the box resonance and reflected waves.
To see what I mean, go to a web site that allows you to play with a simulated "wave tank".