I was once listening to a set of fostex fx200 drivers (ob mounted) and was wondering why they did not have the punch of my 16 array. Well punch may not be the right word, but they had horn dynamics without the horn tones. Then I moved about 1 or 2 ft from the fostex driver and they were there (turned down when close). A while back when I had a chance listened to the needles line array it had that line array punch also. Jim Griffin gave a talk at the Dayton DIY meet and noted the two different sound types. Jim was contrasting the nearfield and farfield sound. He did not go into the cause and I did not think of asking him. Has any one else noticed this, better yet have an idea why?
-Linc