It's not about what's true or what are the facts, but how metal makes you feeeel!
Well, sound makes you
feel something...I hope
The end result is always the subjective impression, I assume you agree.
I'm with you on this. It's just too much. In my room I had some harshness in the upper freq band and I really did remedy it with toe-out.
"Harshness" itself is not in the measurements. You may be able to identify in measurements what causes the "harsh" sound for you, but calling it "harsh" is a subjective assessment, a description of "how it sounds to me." Same as for instance if someone uses the description "a slightly metallic impression" for how a speaker's characteristic comes across to them, subjectively. As pointed out earlier, there is enough deviation from neutral in Amir's measurements of the original LS50 to impart some audible sound character, so it may leave certain sonic impressions in some, maybe not others. Someone may have disagreed with your assessment that the LS50's (before you adjusted them) sounded 'harsh.' That doesn't mean you weren't hearing something real about the speaker, and that it didn't leave that sonic impression on you.
I also agree the LS50 is a terrific speaker. Not perfect for sure, but did enough to be something of a game changer.
And I really don't like harshness so one of the biggest deals when choosing a speaker is to be able to enjoy loud highs.
I'm totally with you on that!
Listening to my friend's LS50s, I can hear a bit of upper frequency emphasis, but it doesn't come across as harsh in his system/house; I still find the sound quite smooth.
I am extra sensitive to harshness and brightness in speakers. And yet I don't want a rolled off "dead" sound. So I'm always looking for a presentation that sounds lively and open in the upper frequencies, yet smooth and easy to listen to. That's what I have with my system. When I listen to other audiophile systems I can have trouble turning up the sound, but on mine I can crank it much louder with comfort.