I mentioned earlier in the thread talk with my reviewer friend who had the larger Borresen X6 speakers in his place to review - the next size up from the X3 Erin reviewed.
While he was reviewing them he described them to me just as he does in his review:
Large and deep sound staging, precise imaging, highs refined enough to be enjoyable, really punchy bass that he was having fun with. But in listening he found a hole in the midrange, just as Erin did.
He ended up seeing this in some quick measurements. Though ultimately he really enjoyed the speaker.
FWIW, snippets from that Boressen X6 review. You can see from the in room measurements they feature the same type of mid range dip as X3s did:
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Still running records, I cued up Vladimir Ashkenazy’s 1973 recording of Franz Schubert’s Piano Sonata in G, D.894 (London CS 6820). Here, I began to scratch my head a bit. After listening to a full side of the massive, planet-smashing power of this monstrous music, I began to feel like something was missing. I’m used to this album making my listening room feel like a tomb that’s a hundred feet underground. It’s ponderous music, relying more on the left hand than the right, and it relies on the power of the entire piano, of the instrument as a unified device, to make its point.
The X6s recessed the piano in space, moving it backward into the soundstage, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but they also removed much of the power of the actual instrument, making it sound thin and small. I listened to this LP a couple of times, while moving the X6s around in an attempt to reinforce the lower mids a touch. Spreading the speakers out wider and toeing them in so that they pointed at my ears improved things a little.
With the additional width and the toe-in, the soundstage increased in size and scale, which was a very good thing—more about that later. The lower-midrange dip was reduced in intensity, but still there. After I’d satisfied myself that I had the X6s positioned properly, I decided to run the X6s through the Anthem Room Correction process that’s built into my Anthem MRX 300 home-theater receiver. Now mind you this—I only use the MRX 300 for watching movies. I run the front L/R preamplifier outputs into my Hegel P3A preamp, with the MRX 300 powering the center and two surround speakers. I run ARC on any speaker that’s going to hang around in my room for any length of time, mostly to balance the volume levels between the main left and right and the other three speakers. I’m far,
far from critical regarding home-theater sound quality. So long as it’s in the ballpark, I’m happy.
I’ll repeat in clearer terms—I did
not use the ARC-modified signal to drive the X6s for this review. ARC provides me with a generalized, not-too-detailed view of what’s going on in my room—one that’s reasonably consistent from speaker to speaker. Looking at the room curve, I noted a fairly wide trough, centered at roughly 200Hz, that maxed out at nearly 10dB. This, it seemed, was where the power of the piano was hiding.
The red trace is the measured response
Once I’d accounted for this trait, I continued listening without much concern, as there was so much to like about these speakers.
…..
There was much to like here with the Børresen X6. The bass was excellent, and up top, the X6’s highs were smooth and unfatiguing. The Børresens threw an image in my room that was delightful in its solidity.
I wasn’t that bothered by the X6’s lower-midrange dip. I’m quite adept at listening
around deviations such as this. I did, however, find myself gravitating somewhat toward music that didn’t rely on this power region. I’d be remiss if I did not mention that several people who listened to the X6s in my room
were put off by this frequency aberration.
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I know that people here eschew such reviews and just want to be shown comprehensive measurements.
From my own perspective, I would see enough information in that review to let me know I would not be seeking out these loudspeakers for myself.
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