Quote Originally Posted by bowtie427ss View Post
To be fair you should build fixed pad for the 288's to try to get the L-pad somewhere in the middle of it's range with the 288's.

To balance a passive system i like to start with the HF way low and bring it up slowly to more or less a point of balance. It sounds like the L-pad is hugging an extreme to get the 288's close to their balance point which is gonna make it pretty hard to make a fair assessment.
You would think that on packaged "system" like this A6, the "pad" should be built in to the crossover. It's not like I'm mixing components. This system was sold this way. Like I mentioned, the only think I can think of is that it was meant for an environment where a lot of ambient noise was expected and the HF is hot to overcome this. I'm sure it was not meant for a small room like my living room where someone would be sitting 9' away.

The 802s seem a bit mellower in the mids, well more than a bit, and more extended in the highs. To be honest, at first blush I don't feel like I'm missing anything. That surprised me. I might measure them, then again I might not. I tend to prefer measuring with my ears. I have several 'reference' songs that tell me what I need to know. And a major factor for me is whether the music pulls me in, or pushes me away, especially after a longer session. First impression is that I could listen to these all day.

Part of what I think it might be is with the 288s I can here the horn itself. I can hear the fiberglass resonate as certain points. The 802s don't seem to 'ring the bell' as much. I wish I could try them with a different horn, but this is all I have at the moment.