Confused

This falls into a number of categories. Firstly, it deserves a NSFW warning, so be careful out there. Secondly, it has curious audiophile credentials. Apparently the performance was recorded "live", analogue, straight to tape. (Although it then gets released digitally on multiple streaming platforms and on YouTube, make of this what you will) Thirdly, it is a tune. A very lively, political, post punk kind of tune. Lastly, it has nothing to do with Radiohead.

Currently, I am using convolution filters created using Focus Fidelity Filter designer. Although for clarity, at the time I performed the "9 inches from the wall" experiment, as mentioned in an earlier post, I was not using any kind of EQ or room correction.

For clarity, per the KEF manual, 9” / 275mm is the minimum distance, not a recommended distance.

I recall experimenting with the positioning of my Blades. (Original Blade) Measuring with REW it was clear that I had a modest "null" at about 120Hz. Moving the speakers nearer to the front wall seemed to have little influence on the overall frequency response, but it did fill this null a little. So I thought to myself, OK - as an experiment, why not try going right back to the 225mm minimum specified by KEF? Yes, it did help with the null, according to the measurements at least, but some things started to sound a little odd, this I could not live with. It was not long before the speakers were moved much further into the room. So 225mm / 9" did not work for me in my room, what was interesting though is that I could move the Blades only a little further into the room, the "odd sound" disappeared and things started to sound pretty decent again. Obviously this is all very room dependant, but I think for some you could get reasonable results much closer to the front wall than you might expect.

It is confirmed that the Varese will be demonstrated at the Ascot show next weekend. https://www.hifinews.com/images/2024_Hi-Fi_Show_Preview_4.pdf No mention of of any A/B comparisons with the Vivaldi, so hopefully my remote (and my teeth) will survive the month, but we shall see.....

For anyone here with an hour to spare and some interest in the correlation between measurements and sound, these is actually some reasonably objective, and interesting, information here. The most objective information relates to speaker design, but other topics covered. Arguably off-topic, as one or two points indicate as to why can trust measurements, some of them at least.