Large speakers plus EQ, what have you done?


Hi Everyone,

I’m hoping to collect experiences from those who have:

1. Large (floor standers) with genuinely deep bass

2. Have EQ’d the speakers, at least through the bass section.

There are many ways to get excellent bass, but please keep OTHER methods off this discussion.  If you use a subwoofer, or bass array, or whatever, this discussion is not about that. I know I’ve recommended some of those ideas myself. I just genuinely want to know who has tried this particular combination and what their experience has been.

This is also not a discussion about what I’m going to buy. Just curious who has done this and how far they feel it got them in terms of integrating the speakers with the room.

Were you satisfied?  Did you end up giving up and doing something else?

 

Thanks!

 

Erik

erik_squires

My system is vintage. The bass has been ok, very good with some songs and lacking with others. Have been looking for a vintage EQ, while also thinking about getting the Loki Max. 

After reading stuff all over the web, everyone said recap the crossovers. Did that, and the bass was a magnitude better, deeper, fuller, faster. So was the mid and high end. It really woke up the speakers. 

After living with that for a bit, and still wanting more...

Did a full recap/refresh on my pre-amp. Another order of magnitude better, everywhere! Turned my treble from +4 to 0, and bass from +6 to +3. Everything was so much cleaner, clearer, most of all the lowered noise floor. 

That lasted about 2 weeks...

Did a full recap/referb on my amp, same as above, just less so. But mostly lowered the noise floor, feel like I got another 50w out of the amp. 

Just this week, wanting more low bass, want to feel it in my chair! Decided to move the speakers around the room. Spent about 3 hours measuring, taping, moving listening... 

Found the sweet spot, might have been almost sitting in the null. Now I have powerful bass that I can feel, soundstage is much better, channel separation is better, tone controls are almost no longer in use. Bass is 0 - +3 depending on source and volume. 

Will see how long this last, but still thinking about adding a sub, and/or a EQ. If something pops up used that looks like fun it will be added. But in the end of all this, my entire systems sounds 100% better, total cost was not much, but a ton of sweat equity. 

I have magnepan 3.7 speakers in a smallish room. Have tried dirac several times but always get dissatisfied with the sound.  I can make the bass sound very controlled but it also takes the “life” out of the music.  So far I prefer no EQ.

You can address peaks but not EQ your way out of modal nulls.

("Positional EQ" maybe, i.e., move seat and buttocks out of null)

Back in the late 80's/early 90's i started learning the effect the room had on sound and, going to the library (how quaint?) did research on sound and room effects.  What got me going on that track was an article in [i believe] Stereo Review in which the author talked about EQ and sound curves in various concert hall "best seat" locations and how measured response at those positions was never "flat"--As i recall from the article it seems the best seats had a slightly boosted bass and gradually began rolling off after 10KHz to around 6dB down at 18KHz. (Approximation from admittedly defective memory)--Anyway,  at that time I owned Cizek Model 1 speakers that supposedly reproduced usable bass down to 25Hz, although i never really tested that spec with organ music or the like. What i did know was that in the room i had my system i was not happy with the sound which was extremely constrained by WAF  so i began exploring whether i could EQ my way out of it--i purchased an ADC Sound Shaper SS-525X which billed itself as an "Automatic Computerized Equalizer/Analyzer"--it had a pink noise generator with an interesting feature:  you could press a button labeled "set flat" and it would generate pink noise and automatically adjust the sound at your listening position (where you positioned the included calibrated mic) to perfectly flat frequency response. From there you could adjust the EQ sliders to design the frequency curve you desired--which BTW did not match slider position but rather a complicated summing of adjacent sliders--took some practice.  I first listened without adjusting the flat response and found that sound very unpleasant--tipped up at the high frequencies and the bass was "lifeless"; however, when i adjusted to one of the published best seat curves the sound improved considerably and i was happy-- so the use of EQ really helped a situation where i couldn't treat the room or move the speakers from the corners.  Now i have a dedicated music room, albeit small so i listen nearfield, and i don't find that i need the equalizer--my components and speakers are considerably better and the sound is so good that i don't want to mess with it--i've handled room modes by room treatment and speaker positioning--but i may one day put the ADC back in the loop and experiment just to see what happens--it can be bypassed for easy A/B comparison but i've been reluctant to put it in the signal chain even in bypassed mode simply b/c i believe in minimizing equipment in the path.

Just for the record, flat measurements are only meant for anechoic and quasi anechoic situations. Harman and many others have a lot of writing available on how speakers should perform at the listening location.

Actually flat at your chair sounds horribly bright.

Among others, check the B&K speaker curves or the standard Dirac curves.