Tonal EQ calibration (there's more than subwoofers in your system!)

[enovikoff]

In the course of experimenting with the pro sound system I've been testing REW with (see pro sound posting), I noticed something interesting. I have one of those "purist" systems with a Theta Digital controller that has every bell and whistle... but no tone controls. Who needs 'em, anyway? Right? Right? I found out this last weekend that was totally wrong for me.

First of all, some background. I have Aerial 10T speakers: finicky, but with sufficient effort to room acoustics, you get incredible sound. However, I tend to move my furniture around a lot, so the attention to room acoustics isn't practical for me. So last weekend, I put this pro live sound reinforcement system in my livingroom to play with it. It has some Mackie SRM450 powered full-range speakers on stands. These speakers aren't particularly accurate, nor are they particularly musical. Of course, they sounded worse than my Aerials (even if they are a lot louder!) I had difficulty distinguishing details in test CDs as well as getting the feeling I usually do that "I'm there." But then, I started using REW to do tonal EQ on the system. What I mean by tonal EQ is measuring the response of the room above 500Hz, and compensating for it to get a "flat" response (or in the case of some of my test CDs, using some tweaks on the EQs as tone controls to fix bad mixing in the studio.)

Voila'! The sound opened up and details became distinguishable, and overall the presentation was much more balanced, pleasant and listenable. Unfortunately, I won't be able to try this with my own setup, since the pro sound system is racked up and hardwired, not to mention using a $5000 DSP system. But it's definitely getting me interested in some sort of adjustable EQ, set up with manual filters from REW for now, with my normal setup.

Has anyone else experienced this? Have we dumped the graphic equalizers of yore in the quest for perfection, only to produce sterility and loss of musicality as a result?

I'll let you know what happens when I manage to EQ my normal system....

Best regards,

-eric

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

Has anyone else experienced this?

Sure – we all have $5000 digital EQs in our systems. Kidding aside, many receivers these days have digital room compensation that for the most part seems to be really effective. Not sure if it can make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear, like the BSS did to the Mackies, though...

Have we dumped the graphic equalizers of yore in the quest for perfection, only to produce sterility and loss of musicality as a result?

Not a fair comparison, I’m afraid, comparing those tinker-toy 10-band EQs or yore with that DSP wonder. I was happy with the results I got with my AudioControl 1/3-octave EQ’s though.

I’ll be interested to see what the Soundweb can do for your Aerials...

Regards,
Wayne

[JohnM]

Remember the Cello Audio Palette? That had the audiophiles raving about how wonderfully a bit of well-implemented and carefully adjusted EQ could improve the sound, and as I recall it wasn't even parametric. http://www.celloseattle.com/ctdocs/prodserve/peripherals/audiopalette.html

[JohnM]

Here's an interesting follow-up on that, Eric: http://www.avrev.com/news/0306/22.burwen.shtml & http://www.burwenaudio.com/BURWEN_BOBCAT.html

Not sure about the "digital music [...] possibly has ill effects on your health" bit, maybe it depends which band is playing