Just a thought… is it really the speakers that loose control at higher volumes or the amp you are driving them with?
I’ve heard that most passive speakers are optimized (crossover) for a sound level. The claim was components heat up the louder you play and this changes their value. I have not verified this.
It seems reasonable that crossover parameters are dependent on temperature, but the extent of this would be dependent on the thermal coefficients of the components used - inductors, capacitors and resistors. I still think the amps ability to drive a complex reactive load at higher volumes would have a larger impact.
I think our hearing perceives different frequencies different with different volumes. If I’m not mistaken that’s also what loudness buttons/settings try to correct. So a crossover could be adjusting the frequency response to sound more neutral at a certain level vs being technically neutral.
Regarding the subject the LS3/5a is an excellent example of a speaker that doesnot do much favors to certain types of music but do a fantastic job where no others can go. The Quad ESL another.
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or is it the room interaction becomes too strong? Most of us seem to play our systems in the lower part of the available volume range, probably due to the relatively small size of the typical UK living room.
Probably a bit if both, but for the sake of my comment lets assume the same amp with different speakers😁
The more radiating surface area a speaker has, the less the cone/cones have to move to produce a certain spl. So more drivers = less cone movement and the same goes for bigger drivers. Less cone movement usually results in lower distortion. Obviously when comparing speakers of equally scaled quality.
Yeah, I get this, which is one of the reasons I spent quite a lot of time thinking about speaker placement, room modes and compensating room treatments. Getting a big undistorted soundscape in a small room will always be a challenge.
Agreed, but more or bigger drivers also comes with additional problems. The bigger the driver the harder it is to control flexing which also leads to distortion. Integrating multiple drivers moves away from what some would consider the ideal point source. We just need to find a material which has zero mass and 100% stiffness… problem solved 
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