Although I disagree somewhat with Audiokinesis' theory about ambiance recreation, I do agree with his point concerning power response. (I believe speakers should ideally reproduce the actual ambiance captured on the recording, not introduce spurious additions of their own, something which the listening room is already going to be unavoidably doing anyway - although one can always make the argument that recordings fail to adequately capture all of the natural ambiance, and therefore we are forced to 'add some back' through any means necessary. My problem with that is the fact that the added 'ambiance' will be constant in character [as indeed are all listening room signatures] and unrelated to the soundfield of the actual event recorded, so that while it may sound pleasant in certain instances, it is still a distortion. However, that's a disagreement about ideals, not about panel speakers per se, which can offer fewer side reflections than monopoles, and properly positioned and diffused, I do agree that dipoles can offer their own intrinsic strengths which allow them to more than compete with typical box radiators under the right circumstances.) But to affirm his admonition against over-damping in different words, the speakers you buy are balanced for optimal in-room frequency and power response *without* having to resort to a LEDE (live end, dead end), quasi-anachoic listening room set-up, so if you over-damp by absorbing the backwave, the resulting frequency balance will not be as intended.
From my own (admittedly limited - I've never owned any, yet!) experience with 'stats, I have found that placement is highly critical, especially distance from the front wall, with practically every inch potentially making a difference. I also have found that, even with curved panels, a little judicious toe-in can still have a beneficial effect in redirecting the reflections and altering the perceived direct/reflected sound balance, even when diffusion treatments are being employed.
Unsound, to address your typically creative suggestion about using two pairs of panels back-to-back to achieve bi- instead of di-polar propagation, the phase inversion aspect in a dipole really matters the most not in the reflected waves bouncing around the room - where the phase will quickly become all jumbled up with any radiation pattern or ?-pole design anyway - but at the sides of the panels where the waves wrap around and cancellations occur. If one were to take speakers designed for dipolar operation and alter the figure-8 radiation pattern through the introduction of out-of-phase interference, then presumably the side cancellations accounted for in the original design and voicing of the speaker would be violated, upsetting the correct response. I think.
I've always been interested in the ideas Sean and Karls mention. I believe the Wisdom Audio planar-magnetics incorporate a monopolar panel radiator through the use of a damped rear cabinet (in their current form - the first generation were dipoles with open backs). But considering the inherent problems introduced by all cabinets, the in-wall, open on both faces, infinite side-baffle configuration seems fascinating (and what a cool way to get multi-room sound!).
From my own (admittedly limited - I've never owned any, yet!) experience with 'stats, I have found that placement is highly critical, especially distance from the front wall, with practically every inch potentially making a difference. I also have found that, even with curved panels, a little judicious toe-in can still have a beneficial effect in redirecting the reflections and altering the perceived direct/reflected sound balance, even when diffusion treatments are being employed.
Unsound, to address your typically creative suggestion about using two pairs of panels back-to-back to achieve bi- instead of di-polar propagation, the phase inversion aspect in a dipole really matters the most not in the reflected waves bouncing around the room - where the phase will quickly become all jumbled up with any radiation pattern or ?-pole design anyway - but at the sides of the panels where the waves wrap around and cancellations occur. If one were to take speakers designed for dipolar operation and alter the figure-8 radiation pattern through the introduction of out-of-phase interference, then presumably the side cancellations accounted for in the original design and voicing of the speaker would be violated, upsetting the correct response. I think.
I've always been interested in the ideas Sean and Karls mention. I believe the Wisdom Audio planar-magnetics incorporate a monopolar panel radiator through the use of a damped rear cabinet (in their current form - the first generation were dipoles with open backs). But considering the inherent problems introduced by all cabinets, the in-wall, open on both faces, infinite side-baffle configuration seems fascinating (and what a cool way to get multi-room sound!).