What I mean by Warm Sounding Speaker.

A prior thread, along with significant changes to my speakers here at home have had me thinking a great deal about what "warm sounding" is.  I've bee thinking about this a great deal, and wanted to put my own thoughts out there without derailing the other thread. 

It may help to put aside what I think is most definitely not warm sounding.  Briefly: 

• Harmonic distortion or noise
• Elevated treble
• Uneven frequency response (in tight bands) 
• Prominent bass bite. "Jump factor" 

The two qualities which I believe create a warm sounding speaker is: 

• Smooth frequency response.  Not necessarily flat, but without small aberrations, but especially important in the midrange through bass areas.
• A gently descending frequency response from around 100 Hz.  Close to the B&K Curve if you will.

So now let me get to some specifics.  Normally I find Magico VERY smooth, but  for me, slightly cool.  

I can name a number of mid to high end speakers with small rises and dips in small bands which I believe contributes greatly to their signature, and probably their success as well.  

I want to make it clear that warm is not flat, nor is cool flat either.  The frequency troubles I am talking about happen within an octave or two, they are areas where the speaker will sound like it has more detail than others exactly because of these little peaks and valleys of reproduction.  

To be a warm speaker is to be a very smooth performer, with no particular area more prominent.  For instaace, if I notice excess chest sounds, or resonances in the lower female voice, particularly plastic sounding reeds, which may sound more natural if my ear was on stage.  Also, not warm are systems that have one note bass.  A warm sounding speaker should have unique tones for each performance, not color each performance with it.  I know this sounds counter intuitive, but a warm speaker doesn't make Gwar sound warm, but rather it has the possibility of sounding warm when the source is warm.  

There.  Now that I have perturbed the waters of A'gon I can get a good night's sleep.