Sadly, the art of proper speaker design and tweaking is fading fast. Today's way, is to restrict the CRAP out of the speaker, using a small-volume, heavily packed (acoustically packed) box design with a massive Z bracing and using 6" screws in the corners, with corner bracing and expoy adhesives to build the strongest possible box using 1" or thicker Laminated HDF (High Density Fiberboard), which very heavy and ummm dense, to build the box and baffles. Then put HIGH power through the speaker to get typical listening levels.

I was beginning to pay attention to audio at about the time that Edgar Villchur's (Mr. Audio Research) first design was coming out:

The AR-1W (for woofer-only) == pretty-flat smooth low BASS in a relatively tiny box.
Soon followed by the AR-1 (dome tweeter) the cheaper AR-2 [*I* could afford = my first], AR-3 etc. In fact the first AR I saw - was brought to the lab to show us, by a physicist/musician. Haul out the oscillator, etc.

Ultra hi-compliance was the basis; your description: the method.

Villchur founded AR, later with Henry Kloss.. and I forget the dancing that created KLH and later start-ups. This was the transition point from the cheap, efficient {but ugh} bass-reflex, later with tubes to 'tune' the ports and so on. And where a Klipschorn could drive you out of the room with a 3-watt amp {6K6s ??) : (electrical) Inefficiency Had Arrived! Welcome Back, 2005.

As you say, the idea was to kill / decimate / randomize the "other-side of the cone" energy == Inefficient But So What -- as EL-34s then KT-88s (all 6L6 variants) and 6550s meant that Watts/channel could reach all the way up to 100! (Then, this being Murica - paralleled 6550s for ever More).
Mc Intosh "Class B" amplifiers == notch distortion but Lots of $$ and very pretty. The beginning of audio-Hyper-hype.

{sigh} Never anything New in this level of physics; not that that ever stopped marketers from blathering.

I never tried to build any drivers or re- re- design a New Box, but briefly played with "Sweet Sixteen" (multiple el-cheapo speakers to try to move air; that because of what Wasn't available: long-throw and l i n e a r voice coils with the end-flux not spilling over!) Lousy imaging.

Someone starting today would have to adsorb tons of lore, methinks - or would just reinvent. Would also have to cleans mind of a Lot Known that Ain't So.

But with all the US engrg Cos going out of business, $40K spectrum analyzers being set out in pallet-loads + modern strobes to look at cone breakup: WTF, with Titanium (stolen from someone's *$&%# golf clubs?) and carbon-fibre: why, one could experiment for another decade, heading for 0-mass and infinite rigidity.

Ah well - nostalgia ain't what ...

(At least, in the beginning it was about trying to recreate the illusion of a live symphony orchestra / pipe organ -- verified by demo: live VS the simulated -- in the hall -- with the musicians faking it at points, so's the audience couldn't tell 'where'.)
Simple: if YOU couldn't tell? It Was Adequate.
I have no idea what a "live synthesizer" Ought to "sound like". Y'know?

It was fun while it lasted; cut my lectronics teeth on that stuff. And the progress is that: almost any 'cheap' set of gear is now a bargain, and better than what any plebes could afford way-back. But when I see $10K "power amplifiers" and $50 per *FOOT* multi-shielded Speaker Cables:
I Know that we have driven ourselves techno-Loony, as in QED.
And I Know that: the gullibility quotient has reached an All Time High.

Ergo, I don't pay much attention to 'audio' any more -- it's religion and Mine's Bigger now; the High End stuff is completely faith-based, and it's a hoot to read the occasional Review of special AC supplies for your accessories at $400, maybe $1K now. Special grounding/shielding schemes - with microwave concepts for Ultra-Purity yada yada.
All I could say to those folks is,


You Sillies !!!