I am referring to flat tone control or direct mode in the AVR with reference to the speakers response. Home cross-over curves if applied to speakers too to some extend will allow harmonic balance to a great extend and will allow smooth mellow response at the high frequency. Also the mid-bass gets masked due to the high-frequency and we can achieve octave-to-octave balance by using this simple technique.
Yes, agree. It ultimately boils down to implementation of the roll offs. If one is designing the crossovers, then we can implement the way we like it and have better control. But then again, not all the speaker designers think same. some implement things nicely and many don't. That's why we see all the colored implementations and crossover designs. If the user like a particular way of implementation, that's the way to go for it.
Also agree with your comment about mid-bass getting overshadowed by high frequencies. More so if the room is causing some peaks and dips with mid-bass response. That's what makes some people think the system is too bright. Best way is to have properly designed crossover and then good implementation of house curve, either through AVR or a crossover.
On another note - One of my friend here called me to hear the new speakers he has got. I had liked his existing speakers a lot. They were very nice, quite detailed, good bass bookshelf speakers. He has new bookshelf speakers. Both were not hooked to any subwoofers, so producing full range. Here is how it went.
* He first played a track through the old speakers. As usual, nice, detailed, good bass. Good sound.
* We quickly changed the speakers. Put the new speakers at exact same location. Heard the same track. Sounded little bright. The singers voice sounded bit raspy. some could have called it not right. That's how I felt too.
* Now, we changed back to the old speaker. I was hoping that I would like them now. But nope, it now sounded not as detailed. Turns out, we both like the detailed sound of the new speaker. The singers voice is actually raspy and it did sounded now natural.
we went back and forth between the two speakers and different tracks. Every time, I like the new speaker which sounded more natural, detailed. The first one had more bass but the lack of detail was now bothering me. The friend ended up keeping the new speaker. Now, this listening was not with any microphone or any testing. Just plain A/B. The idea was to find a better sounding speaker of the two. But we initially thought the speaker which was "bright" became "natural" sounding after we listened and went back n forth. We all do have our likes and dislikes. Those who come from analog will find the flat speakers all bright. Same with those who come with tube amps. Because they are used to that kind of sound. So, in my opinion, it takes time to get adjusted and we can only know the difference when we quickly go back and forth. You never know what one ends up liking!
