Irv, Thanks so much for contributing in this thread!!!
Well-recorded kick drums don't sound natural either.
I remember that was a major objective when you were setting up (deciding on) your DD18 with Salon2's. Since your wife plays drums, you know the sound! How would you describe the RF-62ii's vs a real kick drum?
It bugs me a little bit, knowing that they really deviate more than expected from neutrality, but what the hell, they're just plain fun for HT. Maybe someday I'll splurge for better speakers, or stick the Salon2s in this system when I find something better for my music system, but for now I'll just suspend disbelief. This tells me a lot about movie and tv sound; intentional coloration must be even worse than I thought, otherwise I would dislike the RF62s.
The bold statement captures them fairly well, IMHO.
For speech intelligibility, I get the sense that the horns throw the voice to my ear (rather than it coming from the speaker) which is great for understanding what was said. It really doesn't sound natural, but it is not offensive either.
It is a little like putting on polarized amber driving glasses near dusk when the roads are wet! Things look unnaturally vivid! (Costco sells great prescription driving glasses)
Looking at the green section on the right side of the chart below, Percussive attack, Vocal Recognition, and Clarity & definition all fall in the 2k-6kHz high midrange region, so I suspect the horns work their "artifice" in that region. I kind of feel like the sounds at these frequencies are arriving a little faster, but have no idea what is really happening. Maybe it is a reduction of early reflections (because of the directionality of the horns at these frequencies) that puts the signal cleanly at my ear and gives the "thrown voice" effect. I don't feel like they are any louder at these frequencies.
