Pio2001
Senior Member
Just speculating, given that the 305 and KH120’s on-axis FRs have been perfectly matched, there’s two factors off the top of my head that could lead to this impression:
- The recessed sound power of the KH120’s upper midrange. Less energy being radiated in this range into the room compared to the 305s could impart a bit of a “polite” and more relaxed presentation.
- A difference in the distortion levels of the two speakers’ tweeters. The KH120’s tweeter plays unusually cleanly for its class—the exact same tweeter is used in the KH420. The higher distortion of the 305’s tweeter could lead to the impression of a brighter, more detailed sound, even when its frequency response has been matched to the KH120’s.
We can see that the JBL, with the equalization that I was using, have more energy, measured from the listening position, than the Neumann from 2000 to 8000 Hz (here measured without any room correction).
The treble setting of the Neumann only affects frequencies above 8000 Hz.
And the H3 distortion of the JBL, around 1%, can also play a role :
I can't measure the harmonic distortion of the Neumann at moderate playback level. All that we see here above 1000 Hz is the noise floor of the Umik-1 microphone :