You don't think the smear in bass reflex is due to the relatively high Q tuning most designs employ?It smears over detail , the inner musical details become more obvious with top SS.
Rockport LYRA / CH 10 series made it quit obvious .
Also Halcro/ Vivid / analogue did it for me
After the last shows here in brussels i drew the same conclusions after hearing ARC / wilson and Octave .
In my new speaker designs i use top of the line scan speak which are a bit more revealing .
Even testing with my DIY 10 watt SS Class A amp versus the CAT made it obvious .
Another conclusion i have drawn for myself is that a bass reflex design smears the sound as well .
Due to mixing of the air coming from the port and unit membrane air displacement