FWIW, regarding the L212, I try to take his comments with a grain of salt. Some people read his remarks to suggest that the L212 was deeply flawed system, but I don't think that's right. I just think he was disappointed that it didn't live up to his extremely high expectations.
It's been a while, but as I read his words and articles on the subject, my conclusion is that the two major failings of the L212 were the weak-sauce sub and a hump in the range of 80 Hz. I think that with a decent sub and perhaps a HP filter you can correct both problems.