The 20 hz knob on the Loki is "centered" at that frequency and effects the frequencies nearby, so the effect takes away or adds low bass. It’s not a notch, it’s a smooth curve. Although I augment my (seriously underrated and amazingly great sounding) Heresy IIIs with 2 REL subs, I agree that the bass that the Heresy IIIs produce alone is really nice and seemingly accurate, and I think since they're on the floor getting reinforced acoustically it makes sense. I have turned my subs off and cranked the Loki 20 hz knob just to see what's what, and it's interesting...there's some bass hidden in those 12s! Otherwise I say again I rarely use the Loki, and when I do it's primarily to deal with reticent or overly aggressive high frequencies on a few recordings.
I like my system flat, no tone controls, no eq..........what is your preference, and why.
A poster on another thread here has encouraged me to post this. Been an audio professional and a hobbyist for 50 tears. I had my time with eq, tone controls ( even reverb and time delay units ). I am currently at the point where I need nothing to alter the recordings I listen to, nor to compensate for room aberrations. I have spent lots of money on equipment , had equipment on loan, of all types ( pretty much a bit of everything, for the most part ) and I have tweaked, and tweaked, and tweaked. I have recently tooled down to a much simpler and less expensive system, and I find I am the happiest I have ever been. Might be my amp, my passive unit, my speakers...…….yes, all of that. Yes, all of that is important, but it is the system synergy that has made me realize that changing anything with an eq or tone controls took me further from that synergy, that balance. I accept, and enjoy my recordings for what they are. Some better than others ( sq ). But, I am enjoying the brilliance of all the studio work put into them, exactly as they were intended to be listened to. This is me. I do not believe in right or wrong, better or worse, newer vs older, yada yada yada. I have believed, and have stated, particularly in this hobby, to each his own. I hear fuse differences, power cable differences, etc. Some believe I was born a bat. I am happy of my gift, not just hearing well, but through the years, teaching myself " what it is I like ", which is the key for most of us. I am not sure where this thread will go, but I put it out there, and hope folks will drop in, even though much of it might have been stated before in other threads. Thank you A'gon family, be well, and Enjoy ! MrD.
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I think someone may have linked to this video somewhere above but I didn't see it. Nothing much said about the Loki that hasn't been said here but towards the end it does show the frequency curves for each of the dials. https://youtu.be/i6oyxHGJbsM |
I can't stand the, IMHO, over the top high end just about any speaker has. I thought by the time I got to be as old as I am, 62, that that would change, as it seems to have for every friend of mine, man or woman, even close to my age. But no, I still have to cut the high end, and even simple bass and treble do that ok. Not a huge cut, but definitely a couple of notches. I've recently heard some great systems that have a great low and midrange, that were runined by a sizzling hot high end. My one friend has severe hearing damage from being around jet engines when he was in the USAF. I don't stay inside his house for long, he's got his HT's treble cranked to the max. When he comes over here, he complains how "dead" my system sounds. We're all different, and we hear differently, so some kind of EQ is a must, just due to some of the rotten recordings there are out there. |
While I agree that tone controls and equalizers do have often degrading effect on overall sound (I am not talking about frequency balance), some recordings will benefit from such treatment. One way to accomplish this to some extent, is using an active crossover. This does not degrade sound as it is basically replacing the passive crossover and usually sounds better, if setup correctly. Depending on what equipment you use, it could add substantial expense or very little. thanks, giri |
Interesting topic with interesting responses , so with that being said everything that I say is either male bovine droppings to some or rings true to others . It seems like a lot of responders are very experienced and long term audiophiles , not like myself who while having systems since the 1970s didn't take listening to the audiophile level until about 10 years ago . The term Flat is very elusive but I agree with the concept . I am a minimalist using a passive preamp with only a stepped attenuator and 2 inputs , one for a Tavish Designs Adagio tube phono preamp and the other for a Carver SD/A-490t CD player . Hoping that less is more , or less electronic interpretation . Flat on my system will sound different than anybody else's Flat . So how are you and I supposed to know what Flat is or what it is really supposed to be . We all set up our systems to please our own senses , thus the tube vs. solid state , single speaker speakers vs. 3 way speakers , subs or no subs . I have learned a lot from reading many of the forums here on Audiogon , especially from the Thiel speaker thread and the discussions concerning power amplifiers , any one component can change the entire dynamics of your system and that the Synergy that we all strive for can be elusive and frustrating , but if to your senses you have found your nirvana then you should not need to use or even have tone controls ( or subs in my opinion because to me that is artificially boosting lower frequencies ) . Weather you agree or not with my BS I agree with mrdecibel . Happy Friday |
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