Omnidirectional speakers. The future?

The "point source" thing doesn't really make sense if you think about it. Most instruments are pretty big points. Furthermore, even if the instrument were a solo kazoo, its sound would propogate as a spherical wavefront, and after traveling 30 or 40 feet, this wavefront would be nearly flat. A planar speaker can best regenerate this wavefront.

sean...To be precise, the wavefront generated by the original Ohm speakers is cylindrical, rather than spherical.
Lack of vertical dispersion is a good thing when the speaker is used in a room with ceiling and floor to make reflections, and is a characteristic of line arrays, and of the ubiquitous MTM driver configuration. Even so called "planar" speakers resemble line arrays because (Quads excepted) they are taller than they are wide.

More on point sources...the musical instruments are not points, but the microphones that make the recording are. I regard the microphones as "sampling" the planar wavefront of the original sound. Now, when you play back the recording using a point source loudspeaker, the loudspeaker sound radiates outward again forming a spherical (planar) wavefront. However, with a point source speaker the radiation process starts over again from a point, with SPL falling off rapidly with distance, whereas a planar speaker generates the wavefront as it exists at a distance from the source where it has already expanded, and so there is only slight variation of SPL with distance from the speaker.

Speakers of all descriptions can sound good in certain situations (even horns and ported boxes). In fact I have even heard the original Bose speakers sound pretty good with the right setup and kind of music. There is more than one way to skin a cat, which we all agree is a good thing.

The microphone "samples" one point of a planar wavefront generated during the performance. A planar loudspeaker recreates the planar wavefront, and what happens after that, regardless of what kind of loudspeaker is used, is at the mercy of room acoustics.

Can you give some examples of point sources? Every instrument I can think of, with the exception of a human vocalist, has a sounding board larger than the typical cone driver.

Opalchip...The sound generated by a point source speaker becomes, within a few feet, a planar wavefront, just as you have described. By generating a planar wavefront to begin with the planar speaker is (neglecting for the moment any reflections) simulating a point source at a greater distance. As a result of this the SPL falls off much less rapidly as distance to the listener's position increases, producing (IMHO) a very stable and uniform soundstage throughout most of the listening room. This characteristic of planar speakers, more than their inherent bidirectional nature, accounts for the sound that some people like.

Never done any serious outdoor listening, but I have heard speakers (Maggies) syspended from the ceiling near the center of a barn that was so big that I'm sure there were no reflections to speak of. The best IMHO. But not everyone has a barn.

Sean...with regard to percentage of reflected sound...I used to work as an usher (unpaid) at the Tanglewood summer music festival, and so I learned something of the acoustics of the huge shed in which the BSO performs.
Seats up front can hear well. Seats slightly further back, but still in the higher price range don't hear well at all. The very last few rows, way at the back, hear well again: almost as well as those expensive up-front seats. The reason is reflective panels that are suspended about 40 feet above and 30 feet behind the last row, and angled down. Reflected sound can be loud.

Sean...Come to Tanglewood and listen for yourself. The "last row" effect is well known.

Sean...This is a truly huge pie shaped shed, but its acoustics have been taylored by various absorbing and reflective panels. Other than these panels, all surfaces are highly reflective wood and iron trusses. Of course the sound is constrained between the ceiling, about 60 feet, and the floor. There are no sidewalls from ground level to about 30 feet. Suspended over the stage there is a constelation of curved panels much like a band "shell". I think that the sound has an easy trip over the heads of all the people to the panels at the back, and then down to the last few rows. This is a most unusual performing space but I think that the proportion of reflected sound is very high, and just about 100 percent in those last rows. And it still sounds pretty good.