David,

That was an awesome explanation of what I was hearing and experiencing. I really appreciate you solving the mystery to me those phenomenons. I trust my ears to what I'm hearing, but would never challenge proven science with them. I love the CBM-170 SE speakers for all the things I mentioned earlier. I guess I just prefer music to sound a certain way, even if it's not technically accurate. I did mention that I usually always adjust the tone controls at least a little to boost the bass and treble.

I don't doubt that your speakers have plenty of research behind them, hence your success with the speakers.

Bottom line: I think it will just take a little more time for my ears to get accustomed to very accurate monitor speakers. I admit I'm not used to that.

More than that, it's refreshing to know that you are keeping the sound technically true, accurate, and authentic as possible to the music. In other words, I almost feel as if I have been scammed in a way by other speaker companies in that they will intentionally shape the sound in a certain way modifying the drivers or crossovers for more mass appeal. In other words, I would rather them take the approach you have taken by manufacturing a very accurate speaker and then leave it up to the end user to change the sound how they prefer it.

The CBM-170 SE speakers are keepers, but even more so after your great explanation of what was going on. Because without your explanation, I would have felt like there's something weird going on with your speakers and that the phenomenon was trying to be swept under the rug because of some known anomaly.

The thing is if I get used to the sound of the CBM-170 SE speakers accuracy over time, when I go back to listen to the other speakers I may say why do these speakers sound so unnatural and inaccurate? I'm going to have to adjust them to sound more like the CBM-170 SE. Because again, I listen to the Ascend flat and not so with the other speakers.