Now that we’ve all had some time to settle in, show us what you’re doing with PEQ. What are you trying to do and what tricks did you learn along the way ?
I’ve got active bass speakers but there is a little “hole” at 55 Hz and this fills it in nicely, this is on top of room convolution. I should probably do it all in one, but this just worked so I’m sticking to it for now. Also a very slight roll off of HF which helps “solidity”. I found the high shelf filter with Q adjustments handles this so much better than trying to do it with low pass and/or peak/dip. Don’t ask me why I go to such trouble to reproduce HF fully and then roll it off slightly, but it works for me. Maybe it’s about keeping the detail but avoiding fatigue.
Awesome idea! I was wondering about other peoples PEQ. I have a Sonos 3 and I am trying to bring the highs out more and I am a bit lost on how to use PEQ. Hope to see more posts!
Time to lay my cards on the table… since the beginning of time I have been brainwashed perhaps into believing that ANY processing of the original signal is somehow blasphemy against the “god of pure music”. That somehow any processing takes away the magic of the illusion. Bear in mind I’m a child of the 80’s; ie cut my hifi teeth back when computer power was 1000’s of times poorer than nowadays or more.
I would love to hear from the new generation. Is it pure balony and I should be diving head first into modifying the sound without such worries?
I know it’s a little off topic for this thread, but perhaps there are a few like me who need their minds set straight before they can jump in and tweak their PEQs!
ps… due to the nature of my primary setup, ie desktop, small space environment, i always have a hump around 110-150hz, which I crave to tame, but always go the mechanical route, shifting things around, speaker distances from walls, stands, dampers, etc. Can’t quite tame the resonances fully.
In the audiophile world, Tempering with the audio stream takes away the “perfection” of your music/stream coming down.
It is a big no no to play with EQ’s but some times is necessary… IE: My Sonos Play 3 has a very low sound to it and sounds a bit muffled… I apply a bit of EQ and brought my highs back to life
I’m not the younger generation but hree years ago I was firmly in your camp @Sallah_48. I remember a programmer friend of mine came over to listen to my analog system (turntable and reel to reel). He said he liked it but he was looking for something that would store his whole collection digitally, convolve room correction, upsample and be controllable from an iPhone. “You barbarian” I cried. “What did the signal ever do to you ?” Fast forward three years and I’m doing exactly what he predicted (Yes, I’ve told him about Roon).
Digital manipulation of the signal is different to adding analog components into the signal chain. It has its own pits and downfalls, especially if badly implemented in the time domain, but generally speaking well implemented DSP does far less violence to the signal than an equivalent analog component.
You can’t make water flow uphill though and so your attention to the physical setup should be the primary focus. But once you’ve exhausted the possibilities there then experiment with a judicious dip in the PEQ. It does no harm to try it out. The Q control is (in the peak/dip filter) a bandwidth parameter. Increase it to narrow the filter, reduce it to broaden. Even though you are cutting, you may also want to create 3dB of headroom to prevent clipping.
I will give it a go, however; must overcome prejudice!
One thing… is it output specific? ie… if i make a change to improve my primary office setup (Adam A5X +mojo) and then take laptop core into kitchen to play there on KEF 300A’s, which doesnt need the EQing (to my mind), will i need to remember to switch off the DSP?
I have never touched it and don’t feel the need to. I do all my at home listening (TV, Radio, Music) through my Meridian G61 R with Meridian active speakers. (I have an F80 in a non critical zone but the audio is superb)
I listen almost exclusively in Trifield. All my tweeters are at the same height. I have set speaker delays and used the in built Room Correction.
Also I have GIK Acoustic panels behind the listening position. The MS 200 audio endpoints works perfectly with Roon.
All in all, I am a very happy bunny…
Hahaha and two of them… They’re actually turned down too. Everybody is always yelling at me to 'turn em up!"
So from my HD800S PEQ settings above, it’s obvious I’m not a bass head, although I do need the sub-bass present for a lot of my music… I just don’t like to over do it.
The DPS Engine settings are like the Queue. They are tied to a Zone. Every Zone has its own DPS Engine Settings. When you select a Zone in the Zone Picker then any changes you make to the DPS Engine will relate to that Zone.
Here is mine, looks kind of dramatic but I use it for digital room corretion (measured in REW), and with a subwoofer in a small room with concrete walls. If I measure in REW with these settings, I get a very flat response though.
That looks boring, do some room correction to make it look more fun
Be aware though: if you haven’t done any measurement in your room, it will almost certainly show you lots of things you don’t want to see!
DSP room correction is for wimps. I choose months of manually positioning speakers and strategic placement of room acoustic treatment, all done by ear!
