How are they dark sounding if their freq response is ruller flat?
I did not at all get a semblance of "darkness" from the KH120s when I heard them briefly lol.
KH120 are front-ported, 8030C are rear-ported. Even if both speakers measure near flat anechoically, you may encounter different frequency responses depending on room placement, treatment, and distance from the rear wall. Directivity will also be slightly different due to the different waveguides.
When the KH120 receives a review here, we'll have an apples-to-apples comparison.
This, though it's worth mentioning that
Neumann themselves posted a spin of the KH120 measured at Klippel HQ a while back. It should be roughly comparable to Amir's results, even if the mics are calibrated a little differently.
Comparing the KH120 (red) to Amir's measurements of the 8030C(blue), we have:
The genelecs appear to have a bit more energy in the mids and presence regions. This alone might position the Neumanns as being a bit darker relative to the genelecs.You might think such small differences may not be audible, but I'm quite sure they would be in direct comparisons.
Potential differences can also become exacerbated depending on the interaction of vertical lobing with your room/setup as well. The KH120 might have slightly worse vertical lobing, but it's hard to tell from the image
neumann posted).
I'm a broken record, but if there are audible differences with speakers that are otherwise well designed, they are likely explained by frequency response and directivity. But these are both excellent speakers and I highly doubt that the tiniest EQ couldn't largely make up for the differences between the two. Frankly, I'd just pick whichever you thought was prettiest and call it a day. =]