If this were a fairy tale, we'd continue with "and so it came to pass". In fact, I had to consult Final's website to insure that my memory—of the three model's matching sensitivity—didn't play tricks on me. Not. That came as a shocker. To the ears, the X's lead of clarity, dynamics and articulation manifested in all the ways we know of when cheating with higher volume. It really played in a completely different league from the III. Talking points would be directness, control and far twitchier dynamic reflexes. The practical upshot of said twitchiness is that you set the level as you usually do, expecting a plush cruise down the music highway. Suddenly little melodic peaks act like road bumps. They shove your head into the roof and your hand races to the volume knob. That difference, between middle-of-the-road stuff and highlights which peek out from amongst it, was demonstrably larger. It behaved as though some dynamic energy got absorbed or stolen by the lighter 410g plastic casings. By contrast, the heavier 630g cups converted all of it into acoustic sound pressure. That's back at a more efficient energy transfer. For all intents and purposes, that behaved like higher sensitivity.

A direct side effect was the sensation of clearly higher information density. Take an ambient groove which every eight bars adds a percussive element; and does so throughout a very lengthy multi-minutes intro before the melodic theme appears. This stacks layer upon layer upon layer of beats and synth chicanery. The obvious tendency is for the deepest/earliest layers to get obscured soon. By the time the higher instruments segue in, one no longer perceives most of the isolated rhythmic motifs at all. They've locked instead into a pulsating holistic construct. The intended focus is now on the melodic development. There isn't sufficient penetration power to deconstruct all the background stuff back down into its individualized ingredients. On that count—hearing deeper into the mix for fuller vertical insight into simultaneity—the X held on noticeably longer. As a result, I literally heard more discrete things. An easy way to visualize the effect is a pointillist painting. The closer one steps, the more it falls apart into individual flecks of colour. As one steps away, these flecks begin to organize themselves into different groups and shapes. Suddenly, everything snaps into a landscape where people are having a Sunday brunch on blankets in a meadow. With the X, my attention could move up very close for the full deconstructionist effect; move back for the holistic view; or hold on to both at the same time. And that's the very definition of high(er) resolution.