merlin
Avatar changed - Town names deemed offensive.
I know what you are getting at, but I don't think those are the right three speakers!
My thinking was that the AR-3 introduced the world to the small two way. The LS3/5a made people think we could make speakers even smaller and the K&H gave us the powered loudspeaker.
The world is sadly today filled with small two ways many of which are powered and sit on a desk or under a TV and I couldn't think of any design that competed in any way with that. The method of bass loading didn't cross my mind but I see your point.
Ported cabinets have of course been around for over fifty years. Hofmann asserted correctly of course that you couldn't have proper bass response in a small cabinet and maintain an efficient loudspeaker so something had to give. Well designed ported enclosures sound wonderful IME - many of my favourite speakers are well implemented bass reflex designs.
Again as an aside, maybe the Devialet Phantom that Frank and Clive have invested in will, in years to come, be seen as something of a watershed in hifi loudspeaker design and be seen as highly influential? One can only hope.