Living with the graphic equalizer on

[steve_1979]

Hi all.

A couple of months ago I switched on the graphic equalizer on my computer while listening to some 'Infected Mushroom' rave music at loud volume. The tweeks I made were very subtle - just a tiny 1dB increase from 30Hz to 125Hz and a 1dB decrease from 8Hz to 20kHz. The change that this made to the sound was very subtle indeed, barely noticable in fact but just enough to give it a slightly fuller and warmer sound.

So two months later and I've just noticed that I'd forgotten to switch it back off again and I've been listening to it like this for the past two months without realizing. In the past whenever I've fiddled with the graphic equalizer I've always found that I prefered the sound with it switch off. But now that I've had two months to acclimatise to a slightly fuller and warmer sound I find that I actually prefer it this way now.

So what's the point of me telling you this? Well if you listen to a computer based system try tweeking the graphic equalizer by just 1dB in the same way that I have. Then give yourself a couple of weeks acclimatise before changing it back. You never know. You might like what you hear.

 

[CnoEvil]

Well I'll be........You'll be listening to Valves next! :shifty:

 

[steve_1979]

Or cables. :help:

 

[CnoEvil]

Or cables. :help:

Baby steps.........remember, I have a lot of years on you!

 

[steve_1979]

You should try blasting out Infected Mushroom at high volume with the bass turned up a bit Cno. It'll make you feel young again.

Army of Mushrooms is a good album. It's very progressive music though so you need to listen to the tracks from beginning to end to fully appreciate it.

 

[CnoEvil]

You should try blasting out Infected Mushroom at high volume with the bass turned up a bit Cno. It'll make you feel young again.

Army of Mushrooms is a good album. It's very progressive music though so you need to listen to the tracks from beginning to end to fully appreciate it.

Onto my Christmas list it will go!

 

[plastic penguin]

Hi all.

A couple of months ago I switched on the graphic equalizer on my computer while listening to some 'Infected Mushroom' rave music at loud volume. The tweeks I made were very subtle - just a tiny 1dB increase from 30Hz to 125Hz and a 1dB decrease from 8Hz to 20kHz. The change that this made to the sound was very subtle indeed, barely noticable in fact but just enough to give it a slightly fuller and warmer sound.

So two months later and I've just noticed that I'd forgoten to switch it back off again and I've been listening to it like this for the past two months without realizing. In the past whenever I've fiddled with the graphic equalizer I've always found that I prefered the sound with it switch off. But now that I've had two months to acclimatise to a slightly fuller and warmer sound I find that I actually prefer it this way now.

So what's the point of me telling you this? Well if you listen to a computer based system try tweeking the graphic equalizer by just 1dB in the same way that I have. Then give yourself a couple of weeks acclimatise before changing it back. You never know. You might like what you hear.

All too graphic for my liking. :?

 

[alienmango]

They do like to crack in some LOOW bass don't they! Even I can't reproduce it with an 18 inch sub. (Gonna have to go bigger or go home....muahaha)

Cheers for the suggestion great music to work to.

 

[CnoEvil]

They do like to crack in some LOOW bass don't they! Even I can't reproduce it with an 18 inch sub. (Gonna have to go bigger or go home....muahaha)

Will 12 Hz cover it?

 

[steve_1979]

Will 12 Hz cover it?

Show off.

 

[steve_1979]

Yes Infected Mushroom needs a good subwoofer to do it justice.

Their song Sa'eed is one of my favourites. :rockout:

 

[alienmango]

They do like to crack in some LOOW bass don't they! Even I can't reproduce it with an 18 inch sub. (Gonna have to go bigger or go home....muahaha)

Will 12 Hz cover it?

Most of it....some's around 5.

Set my crossover to 10 hz and turned it up (it's ported) lots of flappping ensued..

Out of interrest what do you use, 12hz is rare to say the least! :dance:

 

[alienmango]

You'd need multiples of these.... http://funkywaves.net/catalog.cfm?item=fw_18_0

/diy http://www.parts-express.com/tc-sounds-lms-ultra-5400-18-dvc-subwoofer--293-666 ... still expensive, 5hz is insane to do cleanly.

If you wanna try.... http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/subwoofers/201540-5-hz-bass-125-db-room.html

 

[CnoEvil]

Out of interrest what do you use, 12hz is rare to say the least! :dance:

Kef Ref 209.....picture here (10th down): http://www.whathifi.com/forum/your-system/and-finally

 

[alienmango]

Well I'd happily swap Very jealous of everything!

If I had that kind of cash I wonder if I'd still build stuff haha.

Scary thing is ignoring room gain that monstrous sub only gets you 87db at 5 hz!

.....Something tells me Infected Mushroom never really intended 5hz to be played properly!

 

[CnoEvil]

Well I'd happily swap Very jealous of everything!

If I had that kind of cash I wonder if I'd still build stuff haha.

Scary thing is ignoring room gain that monstrous sub only gets you 87db at 5 hz!

.....Something tells me Infected Mushroom never really intended 5hz to be played properly!

Thank you.

The Sub I got for silly money when Kef brought it to NI for a demo week and didn't want to bring it back again, so left it with my dealer........who couldn't find anyone else with a big enough room, or looney enough to take it.......nearly got me a divorce though!

 

[alienmango]

Haha nice! [I don't think you're loony at all].

I built an 18 inch sub when my parents were away, got the panels professionally cut from 25mm mdf for £20! All in with amp and crossover about £250!

You can imagine their suprise when they return early from a holiday and greeting them is a group of 20 drunk/high students in their garden listening to reggae music with a sub the size of a washing machine gently massaging the earth at 125db. As they're hippies at heart they couldn't really be angry...

I'd love to have some sub bass, I'm limited to 25 hz (built a dual tuning method....just plug one port with a pillow haha)... dance music/reggae tuning esssentially!

Parents were too suprised/confused to be angry and it's sayed that way....I wanted to take it to university but it won't fit in damn well any car so it's permanently installed in my room!

Time to stop procrastinating I think :type:

 

[Singslinger]

I don't have a graphic equalizer but my preamp, which is an Accuphase, does have tone controls. Perfect for taming unwanted bass boom.

 

[Macspur]

I don't have a graphic equalizer but my preamp, which is an Accuphase, does have tone controls. Perfect for taming unwanted bass boom.

Plus 1

Mac

www.macsmusic.blogbubble.net

 

[steve_1979]

A couple of months ago I switched on the graphic equalizer on my computer while listening to some 'Infected Mushroom' rave music at loud volume. The tweeks I made were very subtle - just a tiny 1dB increase from 30Hz to 125Hz and a 1dB decrease from 8Hz to 20kHz.

Now that I know the EQ is switched on I've found that most music sounds best with no increase to the bass frequencies so I've set the EQ to be flat (0dB) from 30Hz to 8kHz. I still prefer the treble when reduced by 1dB from 8kHz to 20kHz.

Electronica and rave music still sounds best with a bit of extra bass though. :rockout:

 

[craig84]

Vicious Delicious album is amazing, as is army of mushrooms. May I just ask ask what the point of 5hz is. Seriously, I'm a vibration test engineer and test down to 1hz it's just displacement at those frequencies and you would need a 50" +woofer to shift enough air to feel the effects of that frequency. We have an Lds 984 shaker with 30" armature and a 130kw amplifier , you should feel that pushing 33 hz at 20 g!!!!

 

[John Duncan]

And there was me thinking that the spectral content of music didn't need anything below 60hz...

 

[fr0g]

And there was me thinking that the spectral content of music didn't need anything below 60hz...

must.... resist....

musttttt......resssssssssiiiisssssttttt....

 

[steve_1979]

And there was me thinking that the spectral content of music didn't need anything below 60hz...

Feeling as well as hearing bass that goes down to 30Hz is all part of the enjoyment with some music.

 

[steve_1979]

Vicious Delicious album is amazing, as is army of mushrooms. May I just ask ask what the point of 5hz is. Seriously, I'm a vibration test engineer and test down to 1hz it's just displacement at those frequencies and you would need a 50" +woofer to shift enough air to feel the effects of that frequency. We have an Lds 984 shaker with 30" armature and a 130kw amplifier , you should feel that pushing 33 hz at 20 g!!!!

I wonder if Infected Mushroom even realise that their music has bass content which goes down to 5Hz? Maybe it's only there by mistake.

Having the amplifier working overtime and the speaker driver flapping around without making any noise probably doesn't do the sound quality any favours. I might try ripping it to WAV files and filter out all of the frequencies below 20Hz using Audacity to see if it makes any difference to the sound quality when played at high volume.