Mega D'Appolito Speakers - The Holy Grail?

Is the dynamic range, detail, transparency, distortion and imaging consistently better than other type of designs?

I would say not really so much,only tiny differences in presentation.


Kenny.

Like Ricred I also own the Pl-500 from Monitor Audio. For this money you will never find this level in sound quality.

It outperforms in stage depth, width and especially in diversity in height the Magico speakers.

But the D’appolito system creates a level in physical appearance you seldom wil hear. It makes voices and instruments so much more physical tangible.

Beside this the level in grip and authority is of a different level compared to other speakers who have no d’appolito system. The ease and accuracy in grip is really impressive.

Bo1972,

There are no absolutes in audio, only preferences. There are many, many outstanding speakers to choose from.

At SpeakerCraft/Marcof we were building MTM arrays before Joe came out with his well deserved praise for his development. Joe was trying to eliminate lobing error independent of inter-driver phase relationships.  Most of the time Joe used all 18db slopes and drivers that had a smooth transition in the mid band. I could speak extensively here,  but If I read the ops starting message, I think the main question by the op is... Are larger speakers that incorporate an MTM design, inherently better in some way than other methods. 
Done well,  I would normally rather listen to a very good MTM over the same drivers in a 2 way design.  However, when you step into large 3 way or 4 way well done speakers.  I cannot say this is the case.  Many large speakers sound quite good in dynamics, a large midrange transducer to have that extra air moving in the mid band,  shoot,  I've heard some pretty terrific 15 inch 2 ways. So for a direct answer, I would say no. The attributes that you mentioned are not necessarily better in an mtm over a non mtm in Large speakers.  Legacy Aeris comes to mind as a great example. 

Hi @timlub
Thanks for your contributions, here and elsewhere.

I _really_ did a poor job of explaining myself. I'm really not thinking of D'Appolito 2-ways.

I'm thinking more of large expensive towers with drivers arranged vertically around a tweeter which are at least 3-way designs.

So it sounds generally that you agree, midrange surface area/dynamic range is a big deal, more so than the lobing and arrangement of the drivers?

Best,

E