I wonder if it would be possible to make the woofer box shorter but wider. One would have to take into account the compression volume, throat opening area, the cone flair rate could be the same, and the final mouth opening area. (Not sure if the terms are quite correct.)

I suppose it would also be possible to add wings to the box, so that it would be trapezoidal, but this would change the flair rate and mouth area. (I like the idea of making the box shorter better.)

Has any thought been given to this? Are these parameters crucial to the sound?