All speakers have a little EQ built in
It may come as a shock to audio purists but part of the work of a crossover is level matching as well as tonal adjustments of individual drivers. Ahem. That's what we call equalization.
This is true whether the speaker uses active or passive crossover, and may be in place just to adjust phase matching in the crossover range.
Also, curiously, while companies may brag about the number of parts in their crossovers, more parts does not indicate more quality. It may just indicate more equalization had to be done to the drivers to get them to match.
@carlsbad2 I'm not sure all speaker designers share that flat goal. A speaker thatsounds good in a room and will sell may very well be their goal. The term speaker designers use in fitting different drivers together, and matching them to a cabinet is equalization. |
@erik_squires I'm not saying you are misusing the term. I'm saying the term when it was coined last century was and is a bit of a misnomer. My speaker manufacturer brags of a flat frequency response. Indeed. some very expensive speaker manufacturers tune their speakers to be bright because the target market who can afford expensive speakers tends to be older and have frequency loss in the higher frequencies. I won't derail the thread by explaining why I, at 67, can still appreciate the flat response instead of the boosted treble. I hope I'm positively contributing to your interesting thread. Jerry |
@carlsbad2 Oh, I prefer a smooth and objectively neutral treble as well.
OTOH, Dali for instance, is making big strides by lifting up their treble response. I think there is a market for that, for hearing loss but also for low-level listening. |
erik_squires OP I replaced my speaker’s level controls recently, vintage electrovoice 4 way, 16 ohm L-Pads (not potentiometers). Pair labeled Presence and Brilliance vintage AR-2ax, two pairs of speakers, 3 way: two 8 ohm L pads each pair. Also renewed the AR-2ax crossover capacitors. Electrovoice crossover is components in a metal can full of tar. I’ve been advised by custom crossover makers to leave them alone. then I use a microphone, ear level seated position, with tracks 9 to 28 from this GRP/Carver test tone CD
then spent a day and a half carefully balancibg them so frequencies not only blended equally but frequencies do not vary side to side |
