[Matteo]

Hello all. It is so sad. About 2.5 years ago I hooked up my subs, EQ'd them with BFD, then have mostly sat on them until now. Here was the project:
http://www.hometheatershack.com/forums/home-audio-subwoofers/999-riser-sub-new-forum.html

Have had odds n' ends speakers and such, but nothing permanent. My full system is ready to go. Here was my tortuous REW path last time:
http://www.hometheatershack.com/forums/rew-forum/1071-first-graphs.html
for those of you who want a good laugh/cry.

Anyway, just pulled out all my old gear. I can't find my ECM8000 cal file anywhere. I am on a new computer and must have lost it along the way. On the link above is a link to Sonnie's cal file, but for some reason I don't have access to it. Does anyone have another link or file they could send me?

I am sure there will be many questions to follow. If you are a praying person, pray for me and you. If not, I suggest the strongest drink you can find. My stupidity will be shortly forthcoming.
Thanks.
Roly

 

[Matteo]

Re: been awhile, hooking up stuff again. Need Cal file.

Okay, so I know have couches, some blinds, drapes, screen, etc. Here are the graphs of my sub with EQ (first) and without (second). Keep in mind I EQ'd these years ago when the room was basically empty.

 

[Matteo]

Re: been awhile, hooking up stuff again. Need Cal file.

I have tried to save my measurements as pics but the only option it is giving me is .cal or .mdat. I tried to manually save as filename.jpeg, but REW saves it as filename.jpeg.mdat. I know this is simple, just not sure how to convert the file or save it correctly.

 

[Matteo]

Re: been awhile, hooking up stuff again. Need Cal file.

ah, never mind. Just looked under the "graph" tab and there it is... " save graph as jpeg"
thanks

 

[Matteo]

Re: been awhile, hooking up stuff again. Need Cal file.

So... Since I have 2 rows of seating, one on the riser and the other below and in front, AND I am not sure where my sweet spot will be, is it better to EQ it for a middle position between the two? I am going to start over since the graphs are so close and the response to the room seems to be quite different.

 

[Matteo]

thanks for deleting the ohter post.
I erased all of my settings on the BFD, I think, ( held down the reset button for awhile), then took these measurements at 2 positions: the first is front row center, the second is back row center. Interesting the difference. At 25 and 50 Hz, the graph is doing almost the exact opposite. My seating position in front is located directly in front of the subs. The rear of the couch is about 8 inches away from the 4 x 15" drivers. The seating position in the rear is on top of the riser/ sub box. I suppose this will make it very difficult to EQ. Would adding another sub at the front of the room (or somewhere else) be an option to smooth it out? Or should I just try to EQ it first and see what happens?

 

[Matteo]

I can't move the subs. They are built into my riser. I know it limits the EQ capabilities, but man, they sure do shake the floor. I have heard that the best setup is 4 subwoofers, each opposing the other on all sides of the room. Never tried it, but that is what led me to the idea that maybe another sub would help out. thanks for the response.

 

[Matteo]

So I think I have the sub Eq thing down, kinda. But I want to move onto the speakers. I have a 5 channel stereo capability, but can understand testing one speaker at a time, moving it, then testing again to see if I can find the smoothest response. Is there anything to do/know before I start testing each speaker individually. I read somewhere that you can only test the mains or use the main channels to test your other speakers. Did I read that correct and if so, why is that? I did a sweep of my room from 50-10k, just to see how it functioned, and will post that here. I see the whole graph is lower than intended. Are there specific vertical/horiz. you would like to see? Also, I had to put the 1/3 octave smoothing on, or it was really scratchy. Is that the way to do it, or am I starting out wrong? Thanks for a good nudge in the right direction.
roly

 

[Matteo]

Great, I actually think I understood everything you told me. I knew you would understand the "scratchy" description. I'm using a Behringer 2500 for the subs and an Atlantic Technology 7 channel for the speakers. I will use one RCA pre-out from a main channel on my processor and connect it to the rest, one at a time. I will turn off the amp each time prior to disconnecting/connecting to make sure I don't fry anything. To reiterate, I will disconnect all rca inputs on my amp, except one, the left or right channel, and move it to each amp input in sequence until I have a full measurement of all the speakers. Does this sound correct? thanks.
roly

 

[Matteo]

so this is the measurement of my mains and my sub. I had to keep going down on the measure level because clipping kept being detected. Anything you can deduce from this? Anything I should deduce from this graph? Is the next step to move my speakers around and see if I can reduce that nasty peak around 100 hz? Thanks.

 

[Matteo]

This is kind of strange. So I just did my last measurement that I posted. I went to eat, came back, turned everything back on, and now I can't get a descent output level. It is as if my soundcard has been muted partially. I am using the mobilepre usb. I went into my soundcard settings, and before when I checked the levels my "out" was around -15 and I could easily match the level of left to it. Now, I can only get the "out" to about -27, and I have increased all levels as high as I can. When I play music through my MobilePre, I have the volume up very high and the speaker volume is very low. I checked my DVD player, and it is loud as ever. I uninstalled an re-installed the drivers.
Also, where my gain on my sub amp was at 50%, now it is up all the way and barely making the spl meter hit 75. My volume on the receiver was at -23, now it is at -04. Any ideas?

 

[Matteo]

I am not sure what I did different. but I finally got it working. I have a pretty big dip around 40hz. Just out of curiosity I put a 12" sub in the room. It seemed to help with the dip, but not sure if it is worth it. Here are the graphs with my riser sub only, and with the riser and 12".

 

[Matteo]

Since I can't move my subs, I know room treatments are recommended before EQ. Is it a trial and error thing, or how would I go about using room tx. to make this the best possible curve before I EQ? Do I just spend some money on bass traps and try them in different corners to see how it helps? Or should I just EQ it and call it good?

 

[Matteo]

Great. I will just EQ it and be done with the bass. What is the modal region? I will post some full range graphs later. Do treatments often help at higher frequencies or when do people start implementing wall treatments? Does the response have to be really bad to make a difference?