In this article of October 2013 Mr. Andrews admits line arrays go up "faster".
http://www.audioprointernational.com/news/read/best-of-british-funktion-one-still-flying-the-flag/06479
Yet in this piece dated 2004 he states this is not the case.
http://www.funktion-one.com/news/line-array-nice-but-dim/
What has changed?
Ah, you have hit upon the universal truth of buying loudspeaker systems (or pretty much any systems) that I constantly remind people of:
Nobody buys PA
because it sounds good.
As long as it sounds halfway decent, then you buy it because:
- It rigs quickly
- It packs in the truck nice
- Its the right size & weight
- Its got the right dispersion for the application
- You have a good relationship with the dealer
- You can subhire it from the guy down the road easily
- Its cheap to run
- Its got the right brand name for the client
- You already had some other stuff by the same people
- You didn't want to have to change your amps/cabling/processor
- It looks pretty
- The dealer bought you lots of beers
- etc....
This is why line arrays won. Because they are far more practical than big point source systems. Its that simple. They didnt have to sound better to win, because actually, as long as they sound OK, people buy them for all the other business reasons that have nothing to do with sound quality.