2nd order is better, but not by that much, and phase issues are rampant.

For home use I think 3rd order all around offers the best compromise between performance and component cost.

In pro use active crossovers and multi-amping are the preferred route by and large, but quite adequate protection and performance can be had with 3rd order LP and 5th order HP filtering; the performance exceeds that of 4th/4th but with the same parts count/price.