I, for one, find open baffles just amazing in their ability to give the impression of clarity, for lack of a better word openess, in the midrange.As you observe, you generally need help at the extremes - long throw woofers in the bass and some sort of tweeter at the top. But OBs seem to get the mids right, better than anything else I've done.
I tried to find info on the 8130 - couldn't find anything. But the quality of JBL products in general is about as good as it gets.