Harbeth vs. Tyler

Poly midwoofers are a "dime a dozen". Been around since the 70's. And after 30 yrs I still hate their sound.

I assume you are referring to the Harbeth. Harbeth's founder, Mr Harwood (of the BBC) did, I believe, originate the polypropylene driver in the mid-seventies. However, that was significantly changed in the nineties when Harbeth, aided by a research grant from the UK government, developed and patented the midwoofer that is used in most of their leading speakers today. It is called the RADIAL and it is Harbeth's secret ingredient, a major reason the company has achieved its modern-day success. You can read all about it on the Harbeth web site.

Some Harbeth models do have a slight midrange dip.

I'd love a serious audition of Tyler speakers because many people, not just Bartokfan, are enthusiastic about them. Maybe designing speakers is made out to be more difficult than it really is, but I always wonder how Tyler can offer a choice of drivers in a product. It seems to me the crossover would need to be redesigned to accomodate a Seas vs. a Scan-Speak or whatever. Maybe he does change some values, but it is as easy as all that? Seems like the Madisound DIY school of speaker design. I get the same hit from Silverline (perhaps unfairly): throw them in a box -- how many drivers you want...3? 4? 5? -- wire 'em up, and voila! Which is counter to many other manufacturers' claims about searching long and hard to find "just the right tweeter," having to modify it to "our exacting specifications," blah blah.