j-curve
100+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Apr 15, 2002
- Posts
- 489
- Likes
- 11
Having traced the trademark HD580 treble gloss to the 10-10.5 kHz area, I'm wondering about equalisation. Is it a mere coincidence that the gloss and the bass hump in the HD580 correspond to the standard 10kHz and 100Hz tone controls? Mini-component systems with digital tone controls seem to operate with 2dB steps at those frequencies.
I measured my MZ-R909 (minidisc recorder) tone controls and came up with 3dB steps at the same frequencies. A single notch (ie. 3dB @ 100Hz) bass cut is ideal for neutralising the HD580 bass hump, even at the risk of losing some low-end extension. You couldn't accuse the HD580 of being bright however, so a tone control is a bit of a blunt weapon against the shiny spot in the HD580's high end. Some kind of notch, not too deep, say 6dB at 10.25 kHz might be an interesting experiment. I'm sure there are those who would say that the silver lining in the HD580 is something not to be toyed with, buy hey.
Finally on the subject of ExtraMegaCrappoBassWomp controls, are they really as evil as I always thought they were? As a result, none of my portable gear has any type of low bass boost, but the one on the mini-system offers 7dB of boost at 40Hz, which is ideal for livening up the MX400 earbuds. The standard 100Hz bass control isn't so useful because the MX400 doesn't need any help there...
I measured my MZ-R909 (minidisc recorder) tone controls and came up with 3dB steps at the same frequencies. A single notch (ie. 3dB @ 100Hz) bass cut is ideal for neutralising the HD580 bass hump, even at the risk of losing some low-end extension. You couldn't accuse the HD580 of being bright however, so a tone control is a bit of a blunt weapon against the shiny spot in the HD580's high end. Some kind of notch, not too deep, say 6dB at 10.25 kHz might be an interesting experiment. I'm sure there are those who would say that the silver lining in the HD580 is something not to be toyed with, buy hey.
Finally on the subject of ExtraMegaCrappoBassWomp controls, are they really as evil as I always thought they were? As a result, none of my portable gear has any type of low bass boost, but the one on the mini-system offers 7dB of boost at 40Hz, which is ideal for livening up the MX400 earbuds. The standard 100Hz bass control isn't so useful because the MX400 doesn't need any help there...
