Yamaha NS-5000 design compromises?

[jtgofish]

The Yamaha NS75Ts are sealed box with a 12 inch woofer and same dimension box as the NS1000 but they go quite low.I think the difference is they were aimed at domestic use whereas the NS1000M was more for studio use.The NS1200s also go quite low but like the NS1000s do not image well.A friend had a stacked pair of them.

 

[Audio>X]

For some reason nearly ever Japanese "large" speaker (and a lot of non-Japanese too) I measured had the same 50 Hz@-3 dB extension. Even the larger ones like Sony SS-G7, Diatone DS-5000 or Fisher STE-1200, which are definitely out of "big bookshelf" category. Maybe some weird national sound preference, or maybe all the designers/manufacturers had an unspoken agreement, or they thought it will integrate better in a small room. Have a hard time imagining DS-5000 in a 12 tatami apartmant, though.
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In general, I agree: 12" in a sizeable box should (and can) provide lower bass cut-off, it's definitely doable to get 35-40 Hz without compromising sensitivity. However, for given TS

I think that 'classic' -3dB @ 50Hz benchmark may actually relate to one of the old "DIN" reference standards (?)