Female vocals

Dietrich Fischer Dieskau :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0Rry-ahcHM

The greateast male voices for me are not tenor voices but bass voices, especially basso profundo or oktavists because there is a superpower in these voices , something akin to the sacred divine in a commanding way ...Oktavists voices are supernatural and counter tenor voices too but to a lesser degree they are unnatural and angelic in a feminine way ... My male voice supremum is Diectrich Fisher Dieskau who mastered singing at a level only the supreme female voices can do and staying a bass , a baritone ......

Oktavists :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKWueUXhYzg

The most versatile and moving female voice able to sing anything in any genre, is Marian Anderson :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_E7zjNiz2ZI

And now if you want to know how and where Billie Holiday take the inner power to put "strange fruit" expressive version listen to "crucifixion" by Anderson :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiFEOhZ8Jb4

Then Anderson being a counter alto , it is not the high frequencies mastery that make female voice supreme but something akin to some timbre tonal quality which is yin not yang to be short ...

The voice of our mother and the voice of God... You cannot beat these two  even with an angel voice ...😊

I think this is true ...

The female vocal chords are able to produce a tonal quality, for the most part, that cannot be replicated by the male vocal chords, and it is generally more pleasing to hear. Opera would be a good example. The male voice is rough on the ear, whereas the female voice is sublime. IMHO

And this is a fundamental determinative fact for all of us...

Our mother’s voice was the first sound we heard. We could hear it in the womb.

This is another reason I love level controls for individual drivers.

BASIC: Use SPL meter on tripod, test tones: get best balance, individual speaker drivers, then re-adjust when both playing IN THAT SPACE. Do some, go to bed, finish in the morning, not easy but results are outstanding.

Then, using musical content refine Frequency Balance and Imaging looking for 2 basic factors:

You must have LPs done by superior engineers, excellent mic setup, and location of instruments/vocalists

MALE: I listen to Richard Burton; Tony Bennet; John Hiatt; Paul Rodgers, Simply Red... i.e. do they sound correct, clearly: their voice, it is surprising how this easily reveals basically ’wrong’ or ’right’.

FEMALE: Next, I move on to women for imaging. Of course their voice has to be ’right’ like above, but then, as the frequencies vary, low to high, say Cassandra Wilson; Annie Lenox; Barbra Streisand ...

There can be no deviation from center, no specific frequencies wandering slightly left, or slightly right relative to the general center (from speaker drivers), which will weaken Imaging. IF ’right’, then they and every instrument/vocalist will be properly/tightly located left or right without slight wandering. You get awesome imaging.

This is why I choose cartridges wide channel separation and tight center balance as well as frequency linearity.

This can also be important when playing MONO Lps. Proper MONO cartridge produces clear distinction of individual instruments, not imaging, but distinction. IF frequencies wander a bit left to right, a partial/false sense of imaging can occur, unlike stereo, now weakening the distinction.

Example: I have LP with MONO recordings from the 20’s and 30’s. I played it with a Stereo cartridge, it came off as a history lesson. Early Louis Armstrong: where’s Louis? I would never listen to it again.

Then I got my Grado Mono cartridge: now, what I described, there’s Louis, that’s a Trombone, that’s a SAX, the distinction of individual instruments was very enjoyable. Also, noise is reduced, essentially by half when no inadvertent vertical noise is mixed in (warps, scuffs, dust in grooves .....

There are plenty of women singers who do not in the slightest resemble jazz, Norah Jones, or Diana Krall, but who actually ROCK. 

I think at some point, someone said that a female vocal was a good source in “testing” the fidelity of an audio system, and it stuck.  
There seems to be now some weird subculture with audio nerds where vocals by a female are weirdly fetishized. 
There are so many damn threads about “female vocals.”  
I don’t get it.  
I think the frequencies the typical female voice produces may cause one to feel they can more easily dial-in the finer points of their home audio.  
Or something. I don’t know.  
Maybe because the typical male voice produces lower frequencies, it makes analysis of an audio system’s fidelity…messier(?)…than if it was done with a female vocal?  
Kind of just guessing at this point. 
I like the human voice.  
Gender got nuttin’ ta do widdit.

After I heard Margo Timmins/Cowboy Junkies covering "Sweet Jane" on Natural Born Killers, I was hooked.