I don't have time to go into detail, because it's so complex.

But the short version is that the problem with separates is the phase change
is frequency dependent. Ideally all the sound would be omitted from one
place. It's most noticable if you do a frequency sweep of the full range,
the aparant sound source should not move. You'll find that with separates,
the apparant sound source DOES MOVE if you do this, because of phase issues
(Why? If one speaker plays the low notes, and another the high notes, the in
between notes are played by both. So as the sound moves from low/high or
high/low, the sound moves from one speaker to the other You can mount the
speakers close to reduce the problem, but it's never eliminated.

If you have a phase problem, you can fix it at only one frequency, and in
turn create a problem at another frequency where there wasn't one before.
Sometimes this is acceptable, sometimes not. The phase situation is a big
problem on high end systems, and one that comes WITH separates and not
bridged 2 way speakers. I elected to use bridged 2 ways so I didn't have to
deal with phase, when I was into high end car audio (not boom boom).

John
Aircooled.Net Inc.