Along with Onhwy66, I’d say it depends on speaker design.
Narrow/wide baffle is not always better one way or the other. From my limited experience, wider the baffle, the more easily distinguishable point source for frequencies above the wavelength of baffle length. Another way to say this is, the lower the frequency, the bigger the baffle can be without the brain being able to distinguish where the sound came from.
Wider baffle doesn’t equal better live sound - examples; MBL, Ohm-Walsh, Kii, LXmini, Gallo, etc. Musical instruments themselves radiate in more directions than toward the audience. Furthermore, venues add their own unique sound, none of which has to do with sound radiating directly from instruments.
Live music is typically captured by numerous mics spread throughout a venue, and in many cases directly from instruments. So that conglomeration of tracks gets mixed and mastered. If the sound was captured by a wall of microphones, then I might have reason to agree.
The theory that live music sounds better with wide baffle speakers seems questionable. I would agree that the larger the baffle, the more likely it is for the brain to distinguish where the sound came from - unless it happens to be the resonant frequency of the eardrum or room (or to a lesser degree an ordered harmonic Fs...n of that resonant room frequency).
Narrow/wide baffle is not always better one way or the other. From my limited experience, wider the baffle, the more easily distinguishable point source for frequencies above the wavelength of baffle length. Another way to say this is, the lower the frequency, the bigger the baffle can be without the brain being able to distinguish where the sound came from.
Wider baffle doesn’t equal better live sound - examples; MBL, Ohm-Walsh, Kii, LXmini, Gallo, etc. Musical instruments themselves radiate in more directions than toward the audience. Furthermore, venues add their own unique sound, none of which has to do with sound radiating directly from instruments.
Live music is typically captured by numerous mics spread throughout a venue, and in many cases directly from instruments. So that conglomeration of tracks gets mixed and mastered. If the sound was captured by a wall of microphones, then I might have reason to agree.
The theory that live music sounds better with wide baffle speakers seems questionable. I would agree that the larger the baffle, the more likely it is for the brain to distinguish where the sound came from - unless it happens to be the resonant frequency of the eardrum or room (or to a lesser degree an ordered harmonic Fs...n of that resonant room frequency).