New toys & tricks

[Feanor]

I've been experimenting with some measurement and equalization tools.

I got a Dayton Audio OmniMic System for Parts Express, (here).
This is a fairly impressive tool for measuring room responses.



I've only begun to investigate its capabilities, but the first thing I did was measure my stereo's frequency response from my listening position. This was my initial measurement ...



The other toy I'm fooling with is the Electri-Q equalizer from Aixoustinc, (here). I'm using the free version that works with my Foobar2000 player using the George Yohng VST wrapper component.

After a while of trying different EQ settings in Electri-Q I have settled for now on this EQ filter scheme ...



I worked interativel with OmniMic to develop these settings, and the following is my pro temp, EQ's result ...



A smoother, flatter response should be possible with a little more fooling aroung, and perhaps using steeper EQ filters. Presently I'm using 12 dB/octave filters but Electr-Q supports 24 as well as 6 dB/octave filters.

My system was a still is pretty flat between 200 - 2000 Hz which is doubtless important for its good sound. However getting rid of the bass hump around 70 Hz and leveling around 3000 Hz has made the bass much more natural and helped the mid-range too; notably voices in large choral works are more separated and intelligable.