Topic: How to add an equalizer.

[newbie pa rin]

Guys can you help me on this.

I'm planning to add an equalizer on my setup.

My questions are what do I need to look for in an equalizer?
Whats the wattage preference and so on?
Can you recommend a brand?
Another thing is how do I connect the equalizer to my receiver and speaker?

Im currently using a coax/optic connection.
My grears are
B&W 602S3
B&W LCR60
HK 235
Klipsch RSW10
Pioneer speakers for surround

TIA.

[RU9]

Setting up

http://forum.ecoustics.com/bbs/messages/1/1052.html

I read about equalizer for 2 channel only:

http://www.behringer.com/DEQ2496/index.cfm?lang=ENG

[Abad Santos 7]

For a 5 channel set-up you cannot add an equalizer just to boost certain frequency.

It can only use for a 2 channel audio and can only use the analog input of your receiver.

At any rate by using the analog input, an equilizer will alter the audio input that will come-
in from the source to your receiver processor thus, it will not do the decoding....

I wonder why you are still needs an equalizer?  You have a very good set-up....I think
focus maybe on room acoustics first, speaker placement, avr parameter adjustments....

Cheers.

[newbie pa rin]

Thanks for the link and replies sirs.

[stereophile]

The use of an equalizer for two channel audio isn't as popular as it used to be in years gone by.

The goal of an audiophile is to extract as much of the source material (analog, digital) the performance without any alteration and produce it thru his speakers. Though not possible, your aim is to reproduce as close as possible the performance in the masters. In the transfer to either LP or CD or SACD or iPod, some losses occurred. As the signal moves from the front-end towards the rear-end of your system, fyrther losses occur.

Adding an equalizer adds one more link in the chain. This 'degrades' the signal, not to mention the purpose of an equalizer w/c is to modify certain frequencies. Serious audiophiles don't use balance controls in their pre-amps or even do away with the pre-amp and use a 'passive' pre. Whether you like to do it this way is a matter of preference.

[RU9]

the advantage of using an equalizer:

http://www.tnt-audio.com/ampli/sigtech.html

[Voltraizer]

From AMX thread posted by AMXTube : (Tone Control and equalizer)
http://pinoydvd.com/board/index.php?topic=15773.4228
quote
I can understand your frustration. Tone controls and equalizers are so anathema to many high end listeners. But funny, a tube phono preamp is an eq amp. it has to be pre-equalized correctly under the RIAA standard. Now many resort to twaeks to get that sound that they are looking for. Many cables exhibit high capacitance, which tend to roll off high frequencies, some cables exhibit a slight inductance which will therfore accentuate low frequencies to a certain extent. During the "Golden Age of Hifi"few people resorted to "tweaks" to get their desired tonal balance because their preamps had tone controls. But many will say this is a form of distortion. Well it will depend on how you will look at it. If the recording is perfect, and your loudspeakers are perfect sitting in an acoustically perfect room, then adding any tone control is adding distortion, distortion meaning anything that does not please your perfect ears. But "audio life" is far from being perfect. Sensual pleasure (acoustic kind that is) is what we ultimately seek. So if you will ask me, go ahead equalize,or tweak till your ear brain combination reaches its acoustic orgasm or at least gets tickled.If you reach your "nirvana" then it is yours to keep. What the heck, its the music and the sound we are all after, no matter how you get it. Dont suffer not to listen to your fav artist because the CD is badly done when you can do a little to make it at least acceptable.
Yes we can build tube equalizers, they used to be very costly items found only in studios then, called "Acoustic Baton," but today we have the technology, but many gurus say its distortion! Really?JUST FOLLOW YOUR EARS!
..end quote


  )

[newbie pa rin]

Thats exactly my goal in adding an equalizer.
To achieve the sound that I am looking for when listening to different kinds of music.

IMHO adding a little distortion that would make the music sing the way you want it is not a bad compromise in this hobby that is full of compromises.

[av_phile1]

Thats exactly my goal in adding an equalizer.
To achieve the sound that I am looking for when listening to different kinds of music.

IMHO adding a little distortion that would make the music sing the way you want it is not a bad compromise in this hobby that is full of compromises.

That's ok, if indeed you're just adding a little distortion.  Problem is, it's not just little.  With an equalizer, not only  is there insertion losses, and added THD into the chain, but once you start tinkering with the controls per center frequency, you are introducing phase shifts not only to the center frequency but also to the adjacent frequencies.  You think you like what your hear, boosting the lows and the highs or attenuating the mids,  but you are not only mutiliating the frequency mix on the record, you are endangering the speaker tweets with levels of high frequencies it may not be able to handle at even normal listening levels.  It is not uncommon to fry the tweets with maxed out treble controls.  Equalizers will do it faster.   

If I were to re-state that article above, it would sound like this:  since our home playback system is not perfect anyway, feel free to further worsen its imperfection.     So long as the ears are happy.  Which I strongly doubt after a few minutes of listening with an equalizer. 

Those stereo equalizers work only in analog connection via the record out of your receiver in the so-called tape loop.  If you want you can use three stereo equalizers for the pre-outs of the receiver, but you'd need an outboard multichannel power amp for equalizing HT.   Some generic DVD players actually have onscreen equalizer settings you may want to tinker with.  They operate in the digital domain.  Which reminds me, if you have a PC, you can use the equalizer function on the Windows Media Player which also equalizes in the digital domain. If you have Soundforge or Nero or some other 3rd party audio editing tools, they even have parametric equalizers which does a much better job.  I actually do that - rip from CDs into the hard drive and use the Nero parametric to improve the sound.  Then burn my "enhanced" wave files into a CD-RW or play it though the PC soundcard digitally connected to my preamp.    No phase shifts because they work in the digtial domain.  just a little distortion.    

[rascal101]

The problem with an ordinary equalizer is that you tend to emphasize certain frequencies which may or may not be good to other types of music. In other words to suit different CDs you have to constantly tweak the equalizer. I believe this is probably the reason why equalizers today are not as popular as they used to.

[av_phile1]

Actually, most people I see using mini-compos with equaliziers have this U-shape or v-shaped eq controls they hardly change from one track or CD title to another.   

[RU9]

That's ok, if indeed you're just adding a little distortion.  Problem is, it's not just little.  With an equalizer, not only  is there insertion losses, and added THD into the chain, but once you start tinkering with the controls per center frequency, you are introducing phase shifts not only to the center frequency but also to the adjacent frequencies.

Yes, thats one way looking at an equalizer.

Here another way :

It is accepted that the room contributes to the sound. What if you have an equalizer which compensates for the rooms' contribution to the sound, so what you get is the sound produced by your equipment.

The new generation of digital equalizer is a far cry from the old.

See this speaker:


Dry, verging on the harsh, without any real bass to speak of, and in my large listening room also without much stereo to speak of: there's left, then a hole, CENTER, again a hole, and right. Imagine the sound of giant telephone horns. That's about it.

See the In-room frequency response:


But after engaging the SigTech EQUALIZER there was stereo width, wall-to-wall. And there was a proper bass. And warmth. And neutrality throughout.



So better try this approach and end all your audio woes!!!


(see link above)

[av_phile1]

The way I understood it, this SigTech Ae1000 is a DSP-based ROOM correcting equalizer that operates in the digtial domain.  Which I find sensible since manipulating signals in the digital domain theoretically yields better results than doing similarly in the analog domain.  And it should be room correcting.  Equalizers, in the truest intent, are really meant to compensate for speaker and room deficiencies.  They were not meant to alter the input signals from the record mix.  Though to the casual consumer, both has meant the same thing.

But there are limits to what a equalizer can do, even for something as sophisticated as the SigTech.

For one thing, if you have frequency dips or suck-outs in your listening postion,  nothng an equaliezr can do can remedy that.  Because once you compensate by increasing the amplitude of the frequencies getting sucked, the opposing reverb will just increase in opposite amplitude to cancel that.  So you end-up with the same suck out.  I disagree with the article that says you can achieve only 10% to 20% ideal room response with accoustic treatments.  Done right, accoustic treatments do a more thorough and sensible job at it.   And while I agree than equalizers can do a good job taming the peaks, paramteric equalizer, that is, it should only be used as the  LAST RESORT when room accoustic treatments fail. 

And by the way, for the DSP-based equalizer to really work well, the use of really excelllent feedback microphone is a must.  The article was right mentioning its use of a professional grade Schoeps mic costing "as much as the whole system."   So unless the ordinary joe gets hold of such a microphone, I doubt very much if he or his SigTech can do the right job correcting room deficiencies well.  BTW, any idea how much this SigTech cost?

[RU9]

some users recommend this as sufficient:

http://www.behringer.com/DEQ2496/index.cfm?lang=ENG

well, could be worth a shot.

This is by  REG       www.regonaudio.com

The sound of an audio system is Predominately determined by the time
windowed frequency response. Barring gross distortions(amp clipping
and so on), the overall sound is almost entirely described by
knowinG how much energy in each frequency arrives as a function of
time.

In the lower frequencies(below around 300 Hz) the room contribution
and the direct sound of the speaker are essentially treated by the
ear/brain as a unity. If this region is made RTA (steady state)
flat, it sounds right. Further up, there is a gradual increase in
emphasis on direct arrival,although the room sound still counts.


Much of what is wrong with audio systems in rooms can be fixed by EQ-
-in the bass essentially ALL that is wrong can be so fixed. Higher
up, life is not so simple since the ear/brain begins to hear the
direct arrival, then the early reflections, then the "room sound" as
a whole in separate and different ways. The best hope is to get rid
of as much of the room sound and the early reflections as possible
in the higher frequencies.

Most speaker/room combinations do not do all that well. But a good
speaker and careful placement can get one surprisingly close. Have a
look at the Harbeth M40 graph in my photo gallery here. One might
like to EQ out a little of the extra "warmth" and I usually add a
subwoofer to pull up the deep bass slightly, but overall, it shows
signs of working! So do some of the other speakers measured on
www.regonaudio.com at least with a little judicious EQ.

REG

PS New people: I really really recommend a very careful reading of
the design brief on www.gradient.fi
especially the part (page 3) about how people could essentially not
tell the output of an anechoically-played flat speaker from the
source being played, that the differences were very small. This fact
is a profound truth.

[qguy]

I just recently used an equalizer to  determine what frequency was being exagerated by my speaker after that I  modded the crossover to "flatten out" the frequency response

Rather than boosting some signals that seems to be lacking... try reducing signals that seems exagerated

hey if you like the way it sounds with an equalizer...go forth and use the equalizer... your the ones who is listening not the other guy with the different set of gears