Eq

[manlystanley]

Sweet! Great finds!

Best Regards,
Stan

[Hyfi]

Interesting. I got an AudioControl 10 along with the last system I picked up but never even installed it thinking it was just one more pc of gear to degrade the signal. Maybe I will give it a try and see if my system needs it or not.

[poppachubby]

Interesting. I got an AudioControl 10 along with the last system I picked up but never even installed it thinking it was just one more pc of gear to degrade the signal. Maybe I will give it a try and see if my system needs it or not.

02audionoob has the same thought as you hy-fi. However, I gave both channels a rock n roll smile and it gives the Marantz that extra umph that its low power rating lacks. I am certainly not saying that this means I am playing at louder levels. Quite the opposite, my low level listening is even more refined than it had been...

[E-Stat]

Interesting. I got an AudioControl 10 along with the last system I picked up but never even installed it thinking it was just one more pc of gear to degrade the signal. Maybe I will give it a try and see if my system needs it or not.

I think that equalizers can be useful tools when one is aware of what they can and cannot do. They cannot create frequencies that are not there. Bass shy 60's rock recordings cannot be fixed. They can be "fattened up", but EQs are unable to create first octave bass where none exists. Nor can they restore air to dry recordings. What they can do is ensure a greater degree of neutrality for ranges that are already served by the recording.

The irony is that most systems need room correction and unfortunately most active equalizers will indeed degrade signal integrity when run full range. With the main system, I'm able to use a forest of traps and was able to place the speakers optimally avoiding the need for an electronic solution. In the den where WAF rules, however, neither of those approaches is practical. I use a third octave EQ there, but only on the powered subs where I run them wide open (up to 150 hz) so they can fully participate. That is where the biggest corrections are required and it avoids the nasties that occur when the unit is run full range.

Using test CDs and a SPL meter, I found my room has a couple of modes that needed correction:



Without the corrections, the overall sound is heavy and ill defined. The lowest bass is not sufficiently there. While there is a small boost here and there, the most drastic *fixes* are achieved with the cuts. Just for grins, I tried the device in the garage with the Advents. While there are a couple of mild upper bass peaks that the eq could tame, the sound was immediately harsher and more closed in sounding. No joy. I'm also amused when I see folks who run ALL the sliders to the maximum using the "my stereo goes to eleven" theory of sound quality. The resulting roller coaster of peaks and valleys always sounds dreadful.

rw