Unfortunately my sources are pretty bad - Mileta, the only textile company still running (afaik) has this info on its website. It was easy to confirm that it's true (by that I mean the fact that there were several running factories at some point) by googling and finding some mentions here and there, but nothing more. According to a historical postcard, one of the factories was called "EM. FEUERSLEIN A SPOL", but again, no more information to be found. Towns around here often have tons of historical records in their archives or in local libraries that would surely contain useful information, but it's almost never digitalized (=takes a long time to search through it, it would also obviously be in czech or german) and may not be easy to get to.

Czech here, I'd start here, textile was traditionally produced there and there were several active factories at the beginning of the 20th century. Feel free to message me if you need help with something, I don't log in every day, but I'll try to help.

To be honest, I don't know about any research directly comparing omnis, constant directivity speakers with 2pi/imited dispersion and non-CD speakers. But yes, modern research in psychoacoustics says that constant directivity is one of the most important factors in the sound being percieved as real and natural, and some of the (well-known and rational) researchers mention omnis as one of the solutions, although they obviously mention that they're not very suitable for small untreated rooms. But to claim that omnis go against everything we know about sound reproduction is uneducated and together with assuming various types of bias just because I don't agree with him borderline delusional.

You can't seriously think that "it sounds like shit" and "it splashes high frequency all over the back wall" are objective arguments about sound quality while discounting anything I say as subjective without actually responding, that's bizzare. Judging by your reasoning about room interactions and some hypotetical closed headphones that don't exist, you obviously know nothing about much research in psychoacoustics (have you at least read about constant directivity?), or the reality of home speaker design.

Yes, I have, and I found the sound unnatural like I said. I actually do most of my listening on in a near-field ambiophonics configuration because it makes sense in my acoustically bad room and it sounds great, I'm planning to build a pair of Synergy horns for the same reason, but I recognize that it is a compromise.

You realize that your statement, effectively, is that omnidirectional speakers can sound as good as directional speakers if you negate all the effects of their omnidirectionality?

But I didn't say that. I actually said that in an acoustically dead room everything sounds shit. Just like in a completely empty room everything sounds like shit. You need to place differently radiating speakers differently and use different room treatment (not just absorbtion, but also difusion) for the best sound, how isn't that obvious? Yes, narrower constant directivity speakers will almost always sound better, but omnis will in many cases sound better than any traditional non-CD speakers.

Well this is just silly. A closed acoustical system of such small size affected by the shape and size of everyones head and ear is almost impossible to do right, and the imaging of large headphones has many compromises, only different ones than speakers do. Maybe in-ear monitors playing binaural recordings could be closer, at least in the second aspect. But you seem to be saying that something like putting speakers in an anechoic chamber to completely remove any interactions would be the ideal system, and that's be wrong.

So on one end we have your experience and on the other end we have my experience and research of people like Siegfried Linkwitz or Floyd Toole, one of the few sane people in the industry. What do you expect me to say?

I'm not as uneducated about speakers as you think I am. Even though early reflections are undesirable, constant directivity over most of the spectrum (down to at least 700 Hz) is more important for how natural the speakers sound than the angle at which they are designed to radiate (if the directivity varies), although narrow constant directivity speakers obviously behave better in small/untreated rooms. Any speakers with beaming treble will sound sound like shit unless your room is acoustically dead, in which case anything you put in there will sound like shit. You always get reflections, the point is to a) reduce the very early ones without killing the later ones b) make the reflections have similar frequency response as the direct sound, because in that case your brain will identify them as natural sources of sound in your room, making the stereo image sound real. This is the point of modern speakers with controlled directivity, speakers with beaming treble have been here for decades. Omnidirectional speakers do b) naturally and can get reasonably close to a) if you have a big room with decent treatment.

But they're not splashing just high frequency everywhere, they're omnidirectional at all frequencies, it's not like the rest of the spectrum doesn't get reflected at all. Yes, obviously speakers with narrower constant directivity will sound more detailed and less affected by room interaction overall, but this is a legitimate concept coming from the idea that many natural sources of sound are omnidirectional as well. It's not bullshit, it's just a different type of compromise for stereo reproduction. After hearing the Duevels I'd love to have a pair of decent omnis as secondary speakers (together with some Geddes-like speakers or Synergy horns) if I had the space.

About the MBLs: why do you think the concept is stupid? I haven't heard them, but it surprises me a bit that you considered them bad, that's probably the first time I've heard someone dissing them. But my point is, omnidirective speakers sound like a decent concept (although ideally for a better room), and the ones I've heard, some entry-level Duevels, sounded pretty great - not too detailed, lacking bass, but with an amazing soundstage better than anything I've heard at that price.

I actually almost never smoked in public because I was around 20 and looked hipsterish and didn't want to look like a poser. I still identify with everything goldbludgeon said. There are definitely more ways to stop and relax, but this used to be my favourite. (I'm unfortunately pretty much straight edge due to unrelated health problems and I do miss it)

Thanks, as you probably noticed I'm new here, so I appreciate the information. I didn't know it's possible to make posts with more than one tag, which indeed seems like the best solution.