Having built esl's, magnetic planars, ribbons, and owned a variety of domes soft and hard types. I found a reason to like each.
Cant say I spent much time with horns or amt's, or exotic drivers such as plasma or bending wave drivers., though I am impressed with MBL's tweeter.
My consistent favorite has been a line source dipole ribbon.
The dipole nature of the driver just sounds right to me.
The large presentation and effortless way it portrays music is a big plus in my book.
If I were not a hopelessly addicted speaker builder and was looking for musical satisfaction, I could live with a good pair of ESL's.
But the hot rod in me wants to stretch the legs of the speaker every once in awhile and this is where an esl's shows their limits.
That being said, the heart of the music resides in the mids, there are single driver speakers out there that can do the job too.
Ignore the frequency plots that roll off quickly on both ends of the spectrum. If it gets the mids right you will know it and not care for the other shortcomings.
Greg
GT Audio Works