The purer space which the MusikBoxx left between the beat 'teeth' of hand-drum salvos rendered such percussion with unusual focus and clarity. It removed some form of micro blur which tends to occupy the gaps between ultra-fast staccato sounds. This crystallization obviously didn't restrict itself to snappy whirlwind drumming. Soundstage 'holography' as that sense of extra-keen focus too was very high. Both aspects point back at those snapping-into-focus comments which reviewers of Wilson speakers post when an expert makes time-alignment adjustments whilst they remain in the seat. It's an absence of blur, not the presence of pixilated outlines or metallic leading edges. It's why this rhythmic exactitude of the Boxx doesn't feel unnaturally peppery. It retains the earlier-mentioned subtle relaxation or softness.

Now we think of the time domain not just as the beginnings of sounds but their stoppages. When recorded as close-proximity dry hard hits, sounds don't just start with suddenness. They also end super abruptly. When fundamentals and their harmonics rise in sync even though that sum total may spread over multiple drivers, we get clean transients particularly from low-mass drivers. Hello physical time alignment. When the same sum total clips off just as cleanly to make room for the next sound, we hear superior stoppage. That keener precision isn't about the virtual front foot of the attacks. It rests on the back foot of the sounds' ends. It becomes particularly obvious on close-mic'd recordings where our ears mustn't separate the direct sound from its reverb trail. Talking about front and rear foot helps envision why the Boxx wasn't guilty of deep-fried overly crisped attacks. It combined its superior staccato diction with a subliminally laid-back attitude, not a forward lean. In tech terms we'd probably call that excellent damping and pistonic behaviour for the Accuton mid/woofer. It made for brilliant intelligibility and separation of tightly spaced sounds in a rapid flurry all originating with one instrument. But with equally punctilious tonal beginnings, superior separation also factored for dense wet recordings with plenty of acoustic reverb. Our ear/brain locates sounds by their rising edges. It's how in a noisy restaurant we can follow a conversation a few tables over by extracting it from the surrounding din.

Now spread out five or six musicians all jamming furiously in a reverberant venue. Close your eyes. Despite the inherent blur of the reflections having sounds overhang like wet water colours, cleanly rising transients still give our ear/brain the necessary cues. We can precisely 'see' where each performer is relative to the others. If we wish, we may lock onto their individual playing and peel out a counterpoint or tertiary line from the mix. Likewise for time-coherent speakers. Better separation doesn't mean that the musical whole falls apart. It just means higher clarity and less distractions from time distortion. Now we can reverse-engineer a mix in our mind; untwine complex compositional structures; isolate layers in polyrhythmic density. But higher resolution doesn't oppose listening for pleasure. The ability to inspect a tune exists simultaneously with a standing invitation to merge with it. We decide, moment to moment. A merger is always possible. That relies primarily on our emotional readiness. It's available from a clock radio or crackling car stereo. Musical inspection meanwhile is limited or liberated by the extent our hardware throws up obstructions; or not. That's back at eave-dropping despite overall clangour. We needn't do it and it's a rude thing to do in public. But playback is private. We may eave-drop all we want on an upright bass or background singer working behind a band. Particularly listeners who use their ears to see are greatly helped whenever a virtual stage is well lit, properly sorted and cleanly focused; when sounds start and stop on time. They will find the Boxx a tripod-steady wide-angle lens of astonishing depth of field. Meanwhile pleasure seekers looking to be swept away certainly won't be handicapped by more adroit enunciation and greater intelligibility. That's so despite the ongoing truth-vs-beauty argument that declares high resolution the enemy of musicality. If it could, to that the MusikBoxx would say, "what a bunch of pickled croc!" And in its own way, it does precisely that.¹
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¹ Recipe for pickled croc: 1 part leathery crocodile meat, 2 parts alligator tears, 4 table spoons of sugar, 5 shots of piss 'n' vinegar. Leave out in the open until it frothes. Serve raw.

Tonal tonic. Do you prefer soda or carbonated spring water? Let's revisit our pickled croc where it auto-conflates a quick precise sound with leanness. For good measure, let's throw 'class D for devil' bumper stickers onto the same pile; and hard diaphragms of metals or ceramics. Fire up the heap with some red-hot tubes. Get nicely toasty standing next to the burn. This isn't about taking sides. Everything has its place and admirers. This is about tackling preconceptions, some of which could be based on facts – including bygone facts. Having on hand a rather older 5¼" two-way small tower speaker with Accuton's inverted tweeter and one-piece ceramic mid/woofer, I can categorically state that the current 6.2" version of the MusikBoxx does more colour. What's more, in my gloss finish that Albedo Aptica sold for €9'380/pr when I reviewed and subsequently bought it in 2013. 10 years later the MusikBoxx is not only the better value. Its tweeter is superior, its outboard filters are next level, its mid/woofer is bigger and more advanced. The only advantage Aptica holds is honest response into the high 30s from smartly executed transmission-line loading.