Out of curiousity, I hooked these into a Pioneer SC-63 monster receiver and ran the MCACC speaker tuning system, which uses a mic and various gunshot-like bursts to adjust EQ, channel balances, measure standing waves, etc etc etc. Perhaps not the most scientific way to correct things-wildly different results can result from minor changes in position, and these speakers ARE highly directional little buggers. Personally, with (higher-end) speakers, I disliked how it stripped them of their personality and inevitably boosted the bass too much, sliced the midrange into oblivion, or hyped the treble into tweeter-blowing territory. Ya know, the things
I'm supposed to do when presented with an equalizer! But what the heck, why not give it a shot?
These have no right to sound nearly as good as they do. These don't sound like full-range whizzer jobs. They don't sound like budget speakers from ca. 1968. Night and day is not stark enough a contrast to describe the difference. The midrange has gone from utterly dominating to perfectly natural, high details materialize out of nowhere, a hint of bass comes forth. They're...tamed. I'm simply shocked at what I'm hearing. That's not to say they've lost all their personality or that you shouldn't spring for those K-horns and just EQ the hell out of your Soundesigns. They're still most at home with dialogue or acoustic music at mild volumes, anything too loud or busy gets noisy. But again, these are cheap 1968 speakers that I've bent into sounding like mid-tier 2018 speakers. Truly I am a force of nature to be reckoned with.
I performed three measurements; one from their normal location (above my TV, on a shelf), one with them 2' apart on a desk opposite each other, and one with them toed in towards the microphone as in a normal near-field listening setup. The EQ curves, more for my future reference than anyone else's, are as follows:
- Shelf: 63Hz, 0dB. 125Hz, 0dB. 250Hz, +0.5dB. 500Hz, -6dB. 1kHz, -2dB. 2kHz, -6dB. 4khz, -3.5dB. 8kHz, +6dB. 16kHz, +3dB.
- Opposite: 63Hz, 0dB. 125Hz, 0dB. 250Hz, -3.5dB. 500Hz, -7dB. 1kHz, -2.5dB. 2kHz, -4dB. 4kHz, 0dB. 8kHz, +5.5dB. 16kHz, +3dB.
- Desk: 63Hz, 0dB. 125Hz, 0dB. 250Hz, +1dB. 500Hz, -3dB. 1kHz, -3dB. 2kHz, -5.5dB. 4kHz, -5dB. 8kHz, +6dB. 16kHz, +3.5dB.