Hello all:

I have searched tirelessly looking for EQ settings for the Rio, and have come up empty handed - I think it would be very usefull to have a central repository that folks can upload their EQ settings to, and share ideas about the configuration. Does anyone have some good baseline settings to help me on my way to being an EQ God? I have a 4 door Ford Explorer with leather seats (acoustically speaking).

Thanks,

John Enever

Blue Rio 60Gig

You do not understand the purpose of an EQ. A central repository of EQ settings would be useless.

The EQ settings will be different from car to car, from amp to amp, from speaker to speaker, and from owner to owner.

..however a guide to setting up the EQ would be invaluable.

Would you know where one might find such a thing, Tony?

Rob

I probably should just add a whole other FAQ entry on that subject, to clarify why you can't have "one size fits all" EQ settings.

Would you mind using a different graphic for your avatar? 640x480 @ 110kB is a little large.

OK, I think I have been misunderstood - I do know what an eq is, and that it is also very subjective, and varies from environment, type of music, quality of rip, etc, etc, etc, - what I was looking for was a good 'jumping off' point for my specific vehicle, or even a decent baseline as opposed to the default 'flat' (which is not truly flat anyway) settings the player comes with. And I have read the FAQ re the para eq prior to my first post -

what I was looking for was a good 'jumping off' point for my specific vehicle

The vehicle environment is going to be the smallest difference compared to the other factors in the audio chain. The speakers are going to be the biggest.

And before you say "I am using the factory speakers" keep in mind that most people replace the factory speakers so using one of their EQs is still not going to match your equipment. And then there's the fact that even if they did use the factory speakers, the amp is going to be different no matter what. Also different vehicles have different speaker and interior options.

I would guess that you probably wouldn't be able to find another empeg owner with the exact same car, interior, speakers, and amp as you have. Without all of those factors in place, there is no "baseline" or "jumping off point" at all.

If you're not prepared to LISTEN to the sound of your stereo and make your own judgements of where to make adjustments, then you have no business messing with the EQ. I'm sorry, there is just nothing that anyone else can do to short-cut the necessary process of LISTENING to the stereo and adjusting the EQ in that environment.

(Except RTA, which is mentioned in the FAQ entry I just created).

as opposed to the default 'flat' (which is not truly flat anyway)

You are quite wrong there. I have personally tested the output of the empeg with an RTA connected directly to its RCA jacks, and it's ruler-flat, flatter than any other commercial car CD player (most of which come "tweaked" a bit out-of-the-box).

Fair enough - I was as you say 'looking for a shortcut' to speed up the process a little. And noooo way am I using the factory speakers! :-) I replaced them with Focal 165A up front, and Alpine in the back + JL Stealtbox 10" sub. I am going back to my audio dealer to get some minor issues resolved, and we are going to use the "IASCA setup & test" tracks to set the levels - thanks for the tip, I re-ripped it into WAV instead of mp3 for the testing. If anyone wants a copy for their own use, let me know - I ripped it right from the original.

NOW you're talking!

Make sure you're running software beta13 so that all the EQ editing issues are resolved, and make sure the guy doing the RTA knows it's parametric (perhaps print that FAQ section).

You bet - Beta 13, plus Hijack installed. I'll post an update once I get it leveled, and the sub installed -still not in stock!

Also remember that the "bass" and "treble" controls in Hijack will steal the top two bands of the equalizer if you use them. So if you're doing RTA and you intend to use the Hijack bass and treble controls, you need to leave the top two bands set at 0db.

I personally used the bottom 8 bands for RTA flattening, and now use the bass/treble controls for the overall "to taste" adjustment of my bass and treble. I'm quite happy with the way it's worked out.

Oh, and don't forget to kill the loudness setting before RTA'ing.

Hmm....that reminds me...one day I'm supposed to give you those bands back

OK - I thought it best to leave bass/treble/loudness off anyway, and rely on the eq to achieve the desired results? I have it all turned off right now anyway.

Question about EQ settings in general though now: If one is supposed to 'drop' levels, rather than 'raise' them to achieve desired sound, would it not make sense to drop 'all' the levels to -2 or -3db, and that would then allow room to 'raise' some, and lower the remaining accordingly? Otherwise (in my mind) it seems that any level that actually needs to be raised - requires all the other levels to in fact drop to compensate to keep it below 0db in order to eliminate clipping potential??

Or is my logic off base?

The problem is that if you drop all the EQ bands equally, it's no longer starting out flat. Its base output is then already bumpy at that point.

When you do the RTA, your goal will not be to remove dips in the spectrum, it will be to remove peaks. So if you work with the mentality from the start that you're cutting rather than boosting, you'll be OK.

As far as "never using bass/treble/loudess", those things do have their place, and they are much easier to adjust quickly than EQ settings are. Ideally, you would tweak the EQ so that it sounds great with no bass/treble/loudness, and then only occasionally alter those values for special situations, such as you're playing a particularly bassy album and you need to dial it back a bit, or you have a friend in the car who likes more bass than you do, etc.

I find that when I have passengers in my car, I need to increase the bass and loudness a bit. Dunno why, something about the acoustics.

Hmm....that reminds me...one day I'm supposed to give you those bands back

<taps foot>...

I find that when I have passengers in my car, I need to increase the bass and loudness a bit. Dunno why, something about the acoustics.


Well loudness basically increases both bass and treble at low volumes, flattening out as the volume increases. I'm just guessing, but do you use a lower volume when you have passengers in the car than you would otherwise? If so, then try leaving your loudness at the 'passenger' setting and see how it affects the 'lone' sound at 'lone' volumes levels...or try to find a compromise.

But yes, the number of people in a car changes the acoustics. People are basically 80% H2O, the acoustic properties of which are fairly well known to submariners and anyone who ever stuck their head underwater in a bath...it pretty much absorbs most bass frequencies..
When I used to do sound engineering at Uni gigs, I discovered that most professional sound engineers start by eq'ing the room flat, and then pre-compensate for the expected mass of bodies on top of that eq. The result is generally crappy and painful soundchecks.

I'm just guessing, but do you use a lower volume when you have passengers in the car than you would otherwise?

I'm aware of that factor, of course. I was taking that into account. I mean that even given the same moderate volume setting, I notice that I want more bass when there are passengers than when there are not passengers.

It's called the Pose Factor. We all do it.

Rob

*snickers*