and that is exactly why i say it's not the mids that are weak...it's the upper bass region...i used a test tone disc...how do you isolate the mid frequencies in music when there's so many other frequencies being played simultaneously?

sure the ref1s were smoother than the 340s which were smoother than the ELTs...but you did say that the ELTs sounded much smoother in my setup...and did not start getting harsh until over 90dBs...