Room EQ

[umbucker]

I am having a bit of trouble with EQ and wonder if anyone would be kind enough to give me some advice. I know the Hifi Purest would always set the eq to Direct of Flat... but with the equipment I have I am very unhappy with the sound. I have a Denon AVR2808 with the Tannoy DC6T floor standers DC4 centre and DC4 rears. If I use the supplied microphone for Audassy Room EQ I personally think the sound is much improved but after 20 mins or so I begin to suffer from Ear fatigue!

I spoke to someone who advised I should alway reduce frequencies rather than add, but I have experimented this and find this makes the bottom end sound muddy (Tannoy TS12)

Is there any advice you can give me to develop a full spacial sound without having the 16Hz to the max and developing ear fatigue......

PS - I am having most dificulty with the centre channel I am not sure if this is due to the small 4" drivers ?

 

[Anonymous]

umbucker: If I use the supplied microphone for Audassy
Room EQ I personally think the sound is much improved but after 20 mins
or so I begin to suffer from Ear fatigue!

Are you comparing Denon's sound to the out the box response or are you comparing EQ on to EQ off. My advise - use the micophone to set speaker distances then turn the EQ OFF. If EQ its so amazing why do AV amps generally reset to source direct when play DT & DD HD sound??

Just my opinion

 

[umbucker]

I suppose I am just after some advise on eq-ing in general....I dont beleive i should keep it flat..... I think every room behaves differently and certain frequencies in a particular room will always be stronger than others. a flat response in theory should only work in a perfect accoustic environment. However in my room I can only seem to bring my speakers to life by attenuating the higher frequencies and wonder if I have gone wrong somewhere...maybe the Amp is not up to the job for the £3K of speakers....?

 

[kinda]

Hello,

I think when the EQ is on as flat I don't think it is simply flat, but is taking into account the properties of the room, as measured via the microphone, to set an equalisation profile that will give a uniform frequency response in your room.

I know a lot of people seem to suggest turning EQ off, but I still can't understand how that can make things better unless your room is perfect in terms of acoustic properties. EQ is supposed to go a long way to giving you a good sound in your room without having to acoustically treat it, and if it routinely made things worse it would just be a rubbish feature.

I'm not saying it can't be made better for your ears with some tweaks, but I think EQ on should be better than off generally.

I would have thought the amp and speaker combination is fine. I get good sound for films and music with an £800 Marantz amp and Tannoy speakers with 4" drivers. I have the EQ on and flat, and I've found that better than having it off.

Not sure what to suggest for your problem. Maybe try different microphone positions and make sure there are no background sounds going on while you run through the setup?

 

[wireman]

umbucker: I am having a bit of trouble with EQ and wonder if anyone would be kind enough to give me some advice. I know the Hifi Purest would always set the eq to Direct of Flat... but with the equipment I have I am very unhappy with the sound. I have a Denon AVR2808 with the Tannoy DC6T floor standers DC4 centre and DC4 rears. If I use the supplied microphone for Audassy Room EQ I personally think the sound is much improved but after 20 mins or so I begin to suffer from Ear fatigue!

I spoke to someone who advised I should alway reduce frequencies rather than add, but I have experimented this and find this makes the bottom end sound muddy (Tannoy TS12)

Is there any advice you can give me to develop a full spacial sound without having the 16Hz to the max and developing ear fatigue......

PS - I am having most dificulty with the centre channel I am not sure if this is due to the small 4" drivers ?

Personally, I've found Denon's Audyssey room correction works best when sampled from just one position. But anyway...

I don't know if this will help, but a "hi-fi purist" friend had trouble with room equalisation with his Tact 2.2XP (£4,500 of hi-fi oriented digital pre-amp with room correction) - or rather it was a lack of guidance in the manual on how to get the best out of it. Here are guide notes from someone he found who specialises in professional event/studio equalisation, which he found helpful in eliminating listening fatigue (too much boost at 4kHz seemed to be the cause in his case). I'm sure Andy will edit these out if I'm unintentionally reproducing them here in breech of any forum rules.

Equalisation effects on Voice (frequency/Hz)

40 to 125 Sense of power in some outstanding bass singers.
160 to 250 Voice fundamentals.
315 to 500 Important for voice quality.
630 to 1k Important for voice naturalness. Too much boost in the 315 to 1 kHz range produces a telephone-like quality.
1.25k to 4k Voice fricatives-accentuation of vocals. Important for speech intelligibility. Too much boost between 2 and 4 kHz can mask certain speech sounds e.g. "m", "b", and "v" can become indistinguishable. Too much boost anywhere between 1 and 4 kHz can produce "listening fatigue". Vocals can be highlighted by slightly boosting the vocal at 3 kHz and at the same time slightly dipping the instruments at the same frequency.
5k to 8k Accentuation of voice. The range from 1.25 to 8 kHz governs the clarity of voice.
10k to 16k Too much boost causes sibilance.

Equalisation effects on Music (frequency/Hz)

31 to 63 Fundamentals of bass drum, tuba, double bass and organ. These frequencies give music a sense of power. If overemphasised they make the music "muddy". The 50 or 60 Hz band is also used to reject AC mains hum.
80 to 125 Fundamentals of lower tympani. Too much boost produces excessive "boom".
100 or 125 Hz are also used for hum rejection.
160 to 250 Drum and lower bass. Too much boost produces excessive "boom". Also useful for 3rd harmonic mains hum rejection.
315 to 500 Fundamentals of strings and percussion.
630 to 1k Fundamentals and harmonics of strings, keyboards and percussion. Boosting the 600 to 1 kHz range can make instruments sound horn-like.
1.25k to 4k Drums, guitar, accentuation of vocals, strings and bass. Too much boost in the 1 to 2 kHz range can make instuments sound tinny. Too much boost anywhere between 1 to 4 kHz can produce "listening fatigue".
5k to 8k Accentuation of percussion, cymbals and snare drum. Reduction at 5 kHz makes overall sound more distant and transparent. Reduction of tape hiss and system noise. The 1.25 to 8 kHz governs clarity and definition.
10k to 16k Cymbals and overall brightness. Too much boost causes sibilance. Reduction of tape hiss and system noise.