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In a listening test, other speakers seemed dull and boomy compared to the Resolutions, so we have to ask ourselves - who or what is right i.e. undistorted.
Obviously the Resolution's flatter extended treble plotted is in contrast to other loudspeakers reduced treble. The Resolutions extended bass is measurably lower in level at 300Hz than most other floorstanders -
which boost this band one way or another - at the expense of clarity and detail.
At this date, I am reluctant to bow to retailers wishes to add attenuation to the tweeters, until I can first establish if there is anything wrong with having a flat treble anyway.
My suspicion is that it is the recording mixdown that is increasing treble and reducing bass - in order to mix the music for typical loudspeakers, which inevetibly are rolling off treble, and artificially loud bass
around 300hz.
I cannot prove my suspicion unless I conduct a proper investigation, and I have outlined a procedure for measureing the changes in FR throughout the equipment chain, which should identify the main culprit - wether
human or machine.
I think it is unlikely to be due to Hardware as it is generally interchangeable without massive differnce in FR, so I expect it, as I say to be recording engineer's taste.
WHY
Ultimately what am I trying to achieve here? I wish to make my case that the Resolution is in fact clear, clean and unadultereated, but it is unfair to criticise it as a poor reference loudspeaker - when in fact it
is a fantastic reference loudspeaker, which deserves careful selection of recordings to be played - i.e. those mixed down using something flat like headphones or bass-lifted resolutions. This may seem selfish - but
so were the engineers when they rolled off the bass to suit their monitors. I wonder if there is any compensation in headphone amplifiers?
This is a big question though, as we all ought to know if our CDs are pure, or adulterated versions of the source instruments - otherwise we will make all sorts of wrong assumptions setting up a true high-end system.
As a retailer said this week "hi-fi is all about pleasure, not about equipment", but I disagree as equipment is important to get right in itself, otherwise you are just matching compatible system parts, and not
eliminating faults.
P.S. I am thinking of building an A-class amp just for the experiment to see if K.I.S.S works as wel for amps as it does for loudspeakers in terms of realism.
DETERMINING WHO IS TO BLAME
What I am investigating is from measurement at each stage, to be able to measure the tonal distortion/change at each component from recording to listener:
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