Phonograph Makers: Jean-Luc Fradet: "Acoustical reproduction systems were so limited in the higher and lower end of the spectrum that they could not even reproduce a female voice correctly - not to mention piano music."

I'm trolling around for phonography history based on an uncited comment in "Rocking Out" by Garofolo stating that there have been claims that female voices were not well reproduced on early phonographs. He disposes of this theory for the lack of women's prominence in early recordings, commenting that if that were true, then how would they have made picolo recordings?