With regard to the sound power reigning high over the listening window, maybe to some extent we can do that with the boundary gain compensation rotary switch on the DSP. Axiom's published LW and SP curves are measured with the BGC at neutral position. In my room, as I switch to FAR1 and FAR2, the stage expands horizontally to the wall boundaries which are 5 feet away. I even get a wrap-around effect. Most amazingly, fidelity, images, depth and width do not suffer. The soundstage expands and the images follow. It is as if the ALFRs are generating new space.
That BGC increases the output of the rear array by 3dB at FAR2 relative to the front mids and tweets. Since my room is not overly damped, I expect the FAR2 setting has the SP riding higher than the LW. That would mean I am hearing more reflected sound over direct sound than I would at other settings.
Dr. Toole has said that for a well-designed speaker, we hear about 17% direct sound in a typical room. (Well-designed means horizontal LW with declining sound power and no resonances in either curve.) The rest is all reflected. I think with the ALFR, some of that theory is out the window and we are likely hearing less than 17% direct sound if our rooms are not critically damped. And it sounds absolutely fantastic!
I've fooled around with the direct/reflected ratio. I've even eliminated the front mids and tweeters and was able to get narrow sound stage tracks to sound wide with good imaging. But the fidelity fell apart. I've lead myself to believe that if we can have control over the SPL of the front mids and tweets, we would likely be able to make all recordings sound spacious. But I don't think just a volume control would work. It would have to attenuate some frequencies and boost others. The reason is, as you boost the reflected sound over the direct, the frequency response is altered because you are hearing more of the room and what you have on the boundaries and in the room acts as an acoustic filter.
So maybe we need room correction but room correction that operates separately on the LW and SP.
As for drivers on the outboard sides, maybe those can help with the directivity for the room correction I described.
