More > JRiver Media Center 23 for Windows
Sonic Sculpting Speakers with Shelving Filters
flac.rules:
--- Quote from: Spike1000 on July 05, 2017, 07:46:30 am ---Similar thing maybe yes, but not the same. Tone controls aren't 'shelf like' and you don't get to choose the frequency they operate from. You may get an improvement in sound with them but you can't tune them in terms of the frequency they operate over. Brian has multiple shelves 'stacked' (or stepped?) over a given frequency range, these shelves have both 'cuts' and 'boosts' between 800Hz and 10kHz+. Something you can't do with a tone control.
Spike
--- End quote ---
What you are saying is that finer grained controls can do more than coarser controls. That is of course the case, but when discussing boosting bass vs attenuating treble, its more meaningful to assume the same type of controls in both scenarios. (and more realistic i would say).
flac.rules:
--- Quote from: blgentry on July 05, 2017, 07:51:10 am ---Yes, provided that you *don't* clip. The problem is, you never know how high the signal level of the music you are playing will be. If you have boosted everything below 800 Hz by say, 7 dB, then any signal below 800 Hz that is close to full scale is going to clip for sure. This is why I choose to cut instead.
It's actually a well known practice in the analog world also. There are several models of stand alone analog equalizers that are cut only; no boost is even available.
Brian.
--- End quote ---
It is easier not to clip, that is true. (although one could just do the opposite of what you did, and turn down the entire signal). But in your post I got the impression that you ment the quality of the bass itself was also different. But after your clarification, it seems we are in agreement.
blgentry:
--- Quote from: Elvis133 on July 06, 2017, 02:20:57 am ---But in your post I got the impression that you ment the quality of the bass itself was also different. But after your clarification, it seems we are in agreement.
--- End quote ---
I was making two separate points and perhaps I should have illustrated that better:
1. Turning down (cut) works better because it prevents clipping.
2. Using shelving filters to boost the bass works better than parametric EQ in many cases; particularly when you don't have measurement equipment. It's easy to really screw up the sound of your system using (relatively) narrow band filters. You can easily make big spikes. In the bass, this results in "one note" or "boomy" sound since one very narrow band has been boosted in an effort to get more bass. On the other hand, shelving filters boost (or cut) a whole range at once, so you don't get these narrow band effects. Generally speaking I think this is much safer in terms of not harming the sound. This is just a generalization; parametric EQ certainly has it's place.
So, you read me correctly. I just didn't make my points clear enough. I hope this helps.
Brian.
drmimosa:
Brian, facinating post and great idea. Thank you!
This immediately made me think of the Harmon House EQ curve, which I've read about but never implemented.
https://www.innerfidelity.com/content/acoustic-basis-harman-listener-target-curve
Suppose I would like to make a stock decending "house" EQ curve that cut 1db per octave across the audible spectrum, for a total of 8db slope from (say) 65htz to 16khtz. If I understand your post correctely, the following high shelf filters could accomplish this curve.
130htz -1db
260 -1db
520 -1db
1040 -1db
2080 -1db
4160 -1db
8320 -1db
16640 -1db
Of course, this is not taking into account room acoustics. The goal is an EQ slope as described in the article, with the hope that it sounds good with my room and speakers. I don't currently have measuring equipment, just will experiment and listen.
I may be missing something in my understanding of the Harmon curve and usage of it as well. 8db seems a bit much for a cut, so -.5 db may be a better value for each shelf for a -4db slope. The paper I linked to specified a -6db slope as preferred by listeners.
Does this look like it accomplishes what I am trying to do? Also, how significant is the Q value in the shelf filters?
Thanks again for your time spent writing this post!
flac.rules:
The curve is what you get in a good room with a flat respons from the speakers. It is (in general) not a good idea to implement the curve at the signal level.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version