Mark,
It’s very nice looking. Does it sound great regardless of whether it’s playing softly or loudly; near- or far-field?
Michael
Michael, THAT is an excellent question, and one that many misunderstand.
NO common PRODUCTION speaker can "sound equally great" at all volume levels and distances.
All individual drivers have sweet spots in their voltage to performance outputs. That is why the caps or digital XO's exist to take EACH Driver and set it to perform within a small window of frequencies, and voltage to output levels to match and complement the other drivers in the system. . . .BUT ONLY within the confines of a precise SPL.
Any SPL well above or below that output will suffer anomalies. An example might be a PRO CONCERT Speaker that is designed to PLAY LOUD and at longer distances, but sucks at lower outputs and near fields. All "fixed" speakers suffer this restriction.
Secondly, the Human ear has been demonstrated to have a similar neuro-mechanical quality of having differing sensitivities to differing SPL's/Frequencies. This is called the Fletcher-Munson Effect. It has been noted, that as SPL decreases, sensitivity to the higher, and lower frequencies reduce. This finding (years ago) lead to the "LOUDNESS" Compensation circuits on some Amps and Receivers.
So ANY fixed XO will suffer these limitations, unless you have a compensation mechanism.
There are a few ways to do this to somewhat compensate. You mentioned one, in nearfield listening. This can present a greater HF presence due to the fact that dispersion (over distance) has not reduced the HF information, but it does not act on the Lower Frequencies, in fact it reduces their quality.
So EVOKE has a system quality that includes a high quality L-PAD to the tweeter and MR drivers to allow small adjustments to the SPL of those drivers to provide an individual means to TAILOR the Sonic Profile Balance to your listening position, your hearing ability, and your personal preferences.
Without electronic XO's that can also do this, but with arguable greater difficulty, this solution works exceptionally well and makes EVOKE somewhat unique in those abilities.
So you can increase or decrease the Tweeter and MR relative to each other, and doing so ALSO adjusts the relationship to the woofer's output.
So you can run them flat, or slightly tilted up, or down to get closer for the PERFECT SOUND "you" want and like, instead of running out to find another FIXED Output Speaker, that has the same issues.
THAT is why I use EVOKE in my personal system and suggest them to ALL my customers and friends.
IMHO