Roscoeiii
1000+ Head-Fier
Sure. So let me start by giving a brief background in my scoring. In Holland, the educational system works with a 1-10 scoring system. With a 6 you've barely made it, a 7 is average, an 8 is good and a 9 is excellent. But there's a sort of uniform hesitance to score a 10, because there's 'always room for improvement'. When I was doing my masters there were a few American exchange students who would get frustrated by teachers' reluctance to score a 10 for essays, even though they felt it was an excellent paper, while in America you'd more easily get an A. As I'm a product of my culture, I too have this built-in resistance to score higher than a 9. I can't help it. I haven't heard the KSE1500, the Obravos, the Audeze planar iems, etc. Maybe they're doing something much better, I can't say. Like I said, there's always room for improvement.
I mentioned a while back that I found a score of 80-84 good for TOTL, 85-89 above average, and 90+ exceptional even by TOTL standards. I scored Vega's bass an 86, so I hardly think that classifies as 'a very low score'. It's higher than the 3 of the 4 other scores.
Vega has the most enhanced (sub)bass in this shootout. There's a reason that most manufacturers choose not to tune with so much bass, and it's not just because they can't. Powerful bass sounds impactful and dynamic, but Vega's grand sub-bass notes can be intrusive in the presentation for people that don't appreciate it. Traditionally bass is supposed to have a more modest role, although a lot of people value a higher quantity. An enhanced bass further affects the stage structure. As its speed and decay isn't very quick, it warms the stage and reduces the airiness, which in turn affects the cleanliness of the separation and transparency. In addition, the resolution of the mid-bass is not very high, or better said, there are others that do better. In the end the scoring is relative to all the contenders.
So the scoring is this:
-intrusiveness of sub-bass notes
-speed
-warmth
-/+mid-bass definition
+naturalness of decay
+impact
From an 'audiophile' perspective I would score it an 84, which is good in its own way. But I gave it 2 extra points for its engaging and unique qualities, totalling an 86; an above average score.
Thank you for the detailed response. Very educational. Enhancing an already great thread.