Borresen X3 measurements

The biggest problem with measurements like those conducted by Erin, is they don’t take into account room modes and reflections, and don’t reveal what a listener will actually hear at their seat. The upper bass boost is probably intended to offset the bass null that occurs around that frequency in a typical listening room when the speakers are otherwise placed for optimal imaging (away from walls). It just so happens that those nulls tend to be around 10dB in magnitude IME.

If anything, for me, Erin’s results are evidence that speaker measurements are much less useful for determining sound quality than I had long thought. That’s because the X3s at their “street price” are without question the best sounding <$10K speakers I’ve experienced.

Recently, I had a very brief audition of their new C1 standmounts. Despite the brevity of that experience, I could immediately tell the C1s are likely the best sounding standmount 2-way I’d ever heard. And that’s despite having owned/heard many textbook-measuring speakers in my time.

When you think about it, it’s kind of bizarre that the audiophile community puts so much gravity into the conclusions of two psychoacoustic researchers who were once colleagues. In contrast, there is a far greater body of research conducted on cholesterol, and yet the experts can’t seem to come to a consensus on which is bad/good etc. The same applies to a multitude of other subjects.

#3 the lack of dynamic range. I have read people state they can play very loud but the data strongly suggests otherwise. This would explain why the X6 is made. I thought there might be something special with the tweeter but it shows heavy compression too.

I was surprised to see those results, because the X3s can play louder without audible distortion than any speaker I’ve owned. They seem to have incredible dynamic range in my room.

Some of the Spatial open baffle speakers, lots of lovers, lots of haters.

And it’s worth noting we do see a lot of these pop up on the used market, along with many Revels, KEFs and Harbeths. Apparently there are some for whom a flat line is not the end-all, be-all.

Step a) Get 2 kef kc62 subs. Face reality, the X3 small drivers are meant to do something else very good, not get you down to 20 hz and qualify as a full range speaker. It is also meant to be a sleek looking speaker, not some fat eye sore.
 

I can get the X3s to produce a 30Hz tone in my room. 

Ultimately, I still preferred the Harbeth 40.2 because of better midrange, refinement and transparency. That seemed to offend a lot of folks though. Somehow, folks equate cool technology/drivers, buzzwords, etc. with better sound. That’s not always the case as most of us already know.

I wasn’t offended, only perplexed. Based on my auditions of 40.2s, it’s difficult for me to fathom how someone would come to the conclusion that they are the more refined and transparent speaker. That actually goes for any speaker I’ve heard that employs Textreme-based midwoofers—to my ears, all have performed at a higher level than any Harbeth I’ve encountered.

Still, it’s difficult to make definitive conclusions without hearing each speaker back-to-back in the same room, with the same ancillaries. Our auditory memories are not very reliable.

It doesn’t matter...it is a 2.5way crossed into a ribbon.

For every lower bass octave you force a driver into, you force 4 times the driver motion, not the greatest thing when it also has to multitask with the upper octaves, You also create a lot of unnecessary cabinet chaos when you do such things..i.e why bass management and subwoofers are as important or more important than a tweeter itself.

If my X6 can have a huge benefit with the right subwoofer pairing+integration, I would wager that the X3 would benefit even more.

Everything should sound fine as is (good enough for govt work), but, above mentioned explorations are for dudes who like to watch the jaw dropping of other hifi enthusiasts.

 

I get what you’re saying. My point was merely that the X3s can dig deeper than many would assume based on the spec sheet and driver complement. Even despite being a 2.5-way, it’s my experience that the X3s suffer less compression at high output than do speakers like the Revel F208s. The X series drivers can handle a lot of power. What many fail to understand is that a small driver that can remain linear over a long excursion length is sometimes better than a large woofer with limited excursion and poor motor control. Audiophiles forget that it was once common for a 10” driver to have a maximum power handling of 20 watts and a very short X-max. 

As for subs, I am currently running an REL Carbon Special crossed over at about 35Hz. The two Rythmiks I had previously couldn’t keep pace with the X3’s woofers at all.