[Special K]

Quote:

Originally Posted by cosmopragma Not at all.Think about attack and decay or transient response, dependant on the mass in relation to the affecting power.How fast a transducer reacts is measurable and clearly audible.

What exactly is meant by "attack"? I'm assuming decay is just referring to how long a note will sound after it is played, before it finally decays away to being inaudible?

 

[thomaspf]

Quote:

Software or hardware EQ? Software EQ cannot produce a gain of greater than 0 dB, which means you can't really improve the phones beyond what they are capable of by default. Wouldn't it be better to use an active hardware filter to really boost the lacking frequencies instead of lowering the other ones?

Most better software equalizers are implemented in the floating point domain where things like 0dbfs have little meaning. In fact the quality you can expect to get from a software equalizer is much higher then what you usually get from an analog circuit. Even phase linear equalization is not a big problem in the digital domain

If you are concerned that a digital equalizer cannot improve the dynamic range of a signal you are correct if at the end of the process you calculate back to to the original bit depth. However, with most music originating in 16bit/44.1Khz you can convert that to 24bit and use the added range for equalizing beyond your 16 bit full range.

In any case I doubt ther are any headphones that can even represent a true 16 bit dynamic range.

Cheers

Thomas

 

[Special K]

Quote:

Originally Posted by thomaspf Most better software equalizers are implemented in the floating point domain where things like 0dbfs have little meaning. In fact the quality you can expect to get from a software equalizer is much higher then what you usually get from an analog circuit. Even phase linear equalization is not a big problem in the digital domain If you are concerned that a digital equalizer cannot improve the dynamic range of a signal you are correct if at the end of the process you calculate back to to the original bit depth. However, with most music originating in 16bit/44.1Khz you can convert that to 24bit and use the added range for equalizing beyond your 16 bit full range. In any case I doubt ther are any headphones that can even represent a true 16 bit dynamic range. Cheers Thomas

What is a good SW EQ? Maybe I am underestimating the benefit of a good one. Right now all I use is the one creative provided with my Audigy 2 ZS drivers, and the one in windows media player 10.

 

[thomaspf]

I personally only have limited experience with the equalizers shipping as part of ntrack 4.1 and the Behringer DEQ2496 ($) which is an external digital equalizer that I use for room correction.

The ParEQ is a parametric equalizer ($) implemented as a DirectX plugin.

The linear phase graphical equalizer also bundled with ntrack is developed in Japan and implemented as a VST plugin and is donateware. ($)

I load these plugins into the DirectX host in Jriver Media Center and they sound very transparent.

The high end stuff comes from pro music software companies like Wave ($$)

or Algorithmix ($$)

or pro hardware companies like Weiss ($$$$)

Cheers

Thomas

 

[Special K]

Quote:

Originally Posted by thomaspf I personally only have limited experience with the equalizers shipping as part of ntrack 4.1 and the Behringer DEQ2496 ($) which is an external digital equalizer that I use for room correction. The ParEQ is a parametric equalizer ($) implemented as a DirectX plugin. The linear phase graphical equalizer also bundled with ntrack is developed in Japan and implemented as a VST plugin and is donateware. ($) I load these plugins into the DirectX host in Jriver Media Center and they sound very transparent. The high end stuff comes from pro music software companies like Wave ($$) or Algorithmix ($$) or pro hardware companies like Weiss ($$$$) Cheers Thomas

Does ParEQ make a huge difference? Does it work with windows media player?

 

[Ayreonaut]

About equalization, I find it most useful for bass frequencies where the rolloff is pretty simple. Up into the treble and midrange, trying to flatten out the FR jaggies doesn't really work well with a banded equalizer. It's like trying to tweak with a big hammer.

As was stated, there is a lot more to a good sound than frequency response. Transient response, decay and sensitivity are a few other factors that are measureable. But its pretty easy to look at a frequency response graph and get an idea of what the equipment will sound like. (bass heavy, shrill, etc.) It's not easy to look at a step response and imagine what the transients will sound like. Not to me anyway.

 

[thomaspf]

Yes ParEQ makes a dramatic difference although for the type of broadband equalization I currently use with the Super.fi 5 pro I somehow like the graphical one better.

If you want to experiment with it in WMP get the VST-DirectX-Wrapper here and install
http://www.spinaudio.com//downloads....download_id=33

then get the DirectX-to-Winamp wrapper here

http://www.chronotron.com/

and the finally the linear phase equalizer plugin in here
http://www.ismusic.ne.jp/slim_slow_s...vst/index.html

Remember where you unpack the equalizer and start WMP. You can now bring up the adaptx window under plugins and load the linear phase equalizer.

I am sorry for the somewhat complicated setup but it actually works. Unfortunately the adaptx demo is limited to 7 days but it should give you a feel for things.

Cheers

Thomas

 

[Special K]

About that directx to winamp wrapper - can you provide a direct link to it? I couldn't find anything by that exact name on the site, and once I installed the stuff I couldn't get the plugin to work.

 

[thomaspf]

Just use this one. Try the mastering version. btw. download the EQ2 version.

If there is any clipping try reducing the master volume. Good test for accuracy is the distortion detector that got posted here a while ago.

http://www.klippel.de/aura/default.html

Have fun and let us know what you think.

Cheers

Thomas

Edit: Just realized that the distortion detection won't work since they bypass this equalization.

 

[thomaspf]

Sure, I assume you wanted to try this in WMP not Winamp but the wrapper works in both.

http://www.chronotron.com/binaries/inst_adaptx.exe

Cheers

Thomas