I’m looking for some advice on how to make the vocals on tracks stronger in my main room for listening. I am listening on a pair of Dali Oberon 5 floor standers powered by a Sonos Amp.
The sound is great but I feel it lacks a bit of clarity and brightness on the vocals of most tracks, the vocals seem to be a bit behind most instruments and I’m looking for them to be a little more forward if possible.
Does anyone have any settings that could help with this? At the moment I have 8khz at +4db and Q at 100 which does seem to have made a bit of a difference but was just wondering if anyone has a good EQ set up for this?
Hi @Scott_Hughes, to some degree this depends on both your tastes and the room. This article
Is on of a few that a Google search for “eq settings brighter vocals” turned up. That should give you some pointers at least. A bit of “informed experimentation” might we’ll get you there.
Hi Scott I have exactly the same setup in my living room, but don’t see that at all with the vocals. I really enjoy the sound from the Oberon 5s.
I have the back of mine about 3 feet from the wall and a sub woofer so not sure if that makes a difference as maybe it takes away some of the work from the 5s or not.
Saying that I am going to look at this article anyway
Hi Mike, I can only get 35cms away from my back wall so tried out port bungs to see if that helped and it did a bit. I don’t have a sub woofer either. I was worried the lack of distance from the wall was causing the bass to muddy the mids and highs.
I do enjoy the sound from the Oberons but I prefer the mids and highs to be a bit more prominent than my bass and mid bass and felt the vocals on some tracks to be a little neutral for my liking.
I will keep tinkering around with the Parametric EQ and see if I can find the sweet spot I’m searching for lol.
Good to know someone else has the same set up, if you have any tips let me know.
I have used Townsend speaker stands that have worked wonders on the bass and as such allowed more midrange and high frequency. They are expensive though but as an experiment it may be worth trying the same idea with a granite chopping board and some squash balls to see if it makes a difference first.
Scott
In the two years I have had mine, they have snuck ever further away from the wall (the wife understands it sound much better) . The sub came to live with us early last year.
The sub made a huge difference to the balance of the sound, it can pretty much be placed anywhere and got mine off eBay at nearly half price (a definite recommendation). I have had to switch sub to always on as sometimes Sonos stopped seeing it was there in auto mode.
I did buy some fairly decent speaker cables, power block and a replacement power lead early in lockdown and all that helped as well.
Hi Scott, your speakers are too close to the wall. In the bass and mid bass, you have nearer a 2π radiation pattern than a 4π radiation pattern. The Dali has a relatively narrow baffle, so the baffle step compensation will have been designed to attenuate by about 6dB from around 700Hz (right in the vocal range). With the speakers so close to the wall, everything below 700Hz is going be much louder than intended by the design, which will make the vocals and higher frequencies appear quieter. To EQ, I’d start with say +3dB at ~700Hz, rising to +6dB from 1400Hz and above. You may well have to tweak a bit as the speakers are 35cm from the wall rather than against it, but these numbers should be a good starting point.
Graeme do you have an example of how this might look in the Parametric EQ
Eg. Filter type for each band and the measurements
I just gave it a try and couldn’t get a smooth rise from to +3db at 700Hz to +6db from 1400Hz and above. I’ve only been used to using Peak / Dip and a High Pass so far.
This chart may give you a bit of ideas with regards to actual frequencies for voices and instruments. Female vocal go up to approx 2KHz. So try out slightly lower that 8KHz. Although I feel freq at 8HHz and there aroung have an influence on crispness of voices.
Just to add a different tack regarding speaker cable. This can make a great deal of difference not knowing what you have I can’t add any more but for example silver cables will provide a clearer/brighter top end, copper mellow.
