TOPIC:

I posted this on Hometheatreshack, but thought I would ask the same question here.

Thank you for any advice.

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Hi All,

Apologies in advance if this has been answered before. If it has could someone be kind enough to provide a link?

What are the do's and don't regarding EQ?

I have a specific example of what I have done if that helps people to tell me what I have done wrong or how they would do it differently.

I recently bought a balanced miniDSP uni -> www.minidsp.com/minibox/minidsp-balanced-2x4

The unit is actually great value and its extremely flexible. Have a read about it on the website above if your interested. One good feature is it gives you control down to 10Hz.

I have two sealed 125L Maelstom-X subs powered by a Crown K2 (conservative 800W's per sub).

Below is the before and after plots for some EQ I applied today. I was just playing around to get it all working. My main aim was to extend the frequency response in my room.



Don't worry about the difference in SPL, that just wasn't set up right for the second measurement.

Basically I used the PEQ feature to add two filters to add around 10dB of boost in the bottom end. The subs still had their 80Hz crossover enabled in my Integra DHC-9.9 (LFE channel)

I have played woofer cooker and bass I love you at near reference levels and I haven't had any problems (no clipping or warning lights on the amp). I have also played Iron man through the cave scene at about -10dB which is louder than I will ever listen at and everything seems to cope fine.

Basically wondering if this is the way to do it? How would you do it differently?

Rather than boosting the low end, would you use cutting (EQ) to bring the other frequencies more in line with the natural output at 20hz?

Thanks for any help.

Aaron,

In answer to your questions, here is what we would recommend:
- Removing a peak is easier than boosting a dip. reason being that a dip may be caused by a cancellation of some sort (in your enclosure, or due to your crossover settings). Sometimes, no matter how much you boost, you won't get pass the dip
- While the miniDSP allows +/-16dB boost, apply some common sense when tweaking your PA. A +/-12dB boost is already very big.. pay attention to these things when you try to imagine what signal will go through your miniDSP outputs, speaker and such.. Good news is that since you have a balanced kit, you have a +2Vrms output so you do have some margin there.

As for the two curves, I can't see much obvious difference and I think that you will be able to achieve better. Have a look at REW (application note section of this website). You might find convenient to actually let the software calculate it for you.

Hope this info helps

DevTeam