Rockbox EQ help (Klipsch S4 and Clip+)

If you go to Sound Settings then equilizeryou can enable the EQ then go to graphical EQ.

There is also Bass & Treble in Sound Settings which is independent of the EQ. I use the bass and treble for small adjustments of the bass and treble and the EQ for the overall sound.

Now for the EQ.

Gain - Freq - Q

I use the first band purely for emphasizing the lower bass or kick. something like 5.0 - 60 - 4.0

the next band for mid bass 2.0 - 100 - 0.7

The next 2 bands are for your mid to high  so maybe something like 2.0 - 1000 - 1.0 & 2.0 - 3000 - 0.7 ( I like my vocals forward hence the frequencies of 1000 & 3000).

The last band is for your highs 2.0 - 11,000 - 0.7

Dont forget to put your PRECUT on to about -10db or that bottom kick will clip like hell.

precut is in the Sound Settings.

Experiment and have fun

Q value for the peak filters determines the width of the range of values affected by your gain. You can think of boosting a frequency of 100hz with a low q value as making a hump and boosting a freq of 100hz with a high q value as making a narrow spike.

However, the q values for the low and high shelf filters are slightly different and you got to be careful with it. I noticed paulypaul has a high q value for his low shelf filter. While a high q value for the low shelf does result in a sharper rise in gain for the frequencies below the specified frequency, it will also result in a dip in gain for the frequencies after the specified frequency. That can be undesirable or desirable depending on how you make use of that. But if you don't want that effect you should keep the q value under 1 (0.7 is recommended).

Here is a file that is helpful in visualizing the eq settings: http://www.musicdsp.org/files/rbj_eq.xls

(the high and low shelf are in the eq1 tab. Ignore LPF and HPF as low and high pass filters are not available in RB)

The precut should correspond to the highest gain that you boosted. But do note that if your setting overlaps the gains do stack.

e.g. for paulypaul's settings, since his 100hz peaking filter has a low q value of 0.7, it will overlap with the gain in his low shelf filter. So there is a possibility that there is an effective gain of 7-6db at 50hz. So his precut should be minimum around 6.5db. So technically he doesn't really need to have a precut of -10db, although I can't be sure about that. I would just trust my ears for any clipping. If i'm not wrong you don't want too much a precut since it might result in a weak signal though.

For the s4, i heard they have a lot of midbass. You might want to cut a db or two around the 300hz region?

You can refer to this for a rough guide as to what frequency to cut or boost.

I realize this is an older thread but I had to register to say thanks for the info. My S4's were dull and muddy with my Clip+ and were about to get the junk drawer treatment when I saw this thread.

Now I have a big grin on my face using your settings (with a few changes) and my S4's. My 47 year old ears thank you.

Thanks!