I'm by no means an audiophile and am just getting into the whole audio arena. EQ's were always a mystery to me...i mean, i get how they work...i get the frequency correlations, but i've never known how to REALLY use them to get the best sound out of a system. Could anyone give some hints or point me to a good resource as to appropriate (or at least reference) settings for different types of music? Or is it just about sitting in your car and tweaking until it sounds right?

I listen to a wide variety of music on my Empeg. I switch from high pitched punk to thumping electronic music or hip hop to classical quite frequently and want to have EQ settings to match each type of music. I've noticed the setting i usually use for general high bass makes punk stylings sound like crap. (hrmm...that just gave me an idea for the wish list... you could tag each song with a particular custom EQ setting number on the Empeg so that it automatically switches to the appropriate EQ settings for each song...hrmmmm). Okay, so that aside... could anyone point me in the right direction?

Thanks!!!

||| loren.cox
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Look in the FAQ forum. Tony wrote a great entry that answers your question entirely.

Holy crap. I just looked through the docs and i had NO idea the EQ was that powerful... Q parameters? i've got some reading up to do. Thanks for the pointer Rob!

*slaps self on forhead for not checking faq*

||| loren.cox
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... you could tag each song with a particular custom EQ setting

How 'bout it, Rob. In v1.1 maybe?

tanstaafl.

"There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch"

Sorry, it's not on the list for 1.1. It's still on the wishlist for later releases though.

Hugo

*slaps self on forhead for not checking faq*

Don't slap yourself for it. Once you read that entry, you'll realize it's not a basic primer on EQ's. It's a description of the Q parameter only, which is much more esoteric than a plain old EQ. I kind of gloss over the basic EQ stuff (assuming you already know it) so I can get to the details of the Q parameter.

If anyone has a link to a good "basic primer" on how to use an EQ in a car stereo, please let me know so I can link it in that FAQ. Doug has suggested that I write just such a primer, but I'm not sure I'd do it proper justice.

___________
Tony Fabris

Yeap. you're right there Tony. After reading the FAQ...i'm just more amazed at how powerful the EQ is...and all the more stumped on how to get the max benefit out of it. Pointers to resources would be a great help. I'll do some web searching today and see what i can find. =] Thanks guys.

||| loren.cox
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Hopefully this answers your questions about basic EQ use... This is a general response, and I haven't gotten my empeg yet, so I can't be specific as to it's configuration or use, but this should apply to most car environments. This is the quick-and-dirty method, and if you are REAL picky and/or have spent several thousand dollars on an amp and speakers I recommend using a real-time analyzer (RTA) to achieve optimal results.

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Step-by-step: The quick-and-dirty method for setting Car EQ

1. Play a tape or CD (preferably one containing a variety of acoustic instruments). It helps if it's well-recorded and something you're VERY familiar with. Preferably from a genre you listen to a lot.

2. Adjust the Deck's volume controls until the system is playing at a comfortable level. You should not hear any distortion. If you do, either your amp is underpowered for the volume you want to listen at, or something is wrong with with a sensitivity setting somewhere. Check the owner’s manual for your amp for information on setting its input sensitivity. Get this fixed *before* fiddling with your EQ.

>>PUBLIC SERVICE DISCLAIMER: Please remember that your hearing is NON-REPAIRABLE and that prolonged (>1hr) exposures to 95dB+ sound levels can cause permanent hearing loss. Use your judgement and you'll enjoy your music for much longer. <<

3. Remember that the goal of an EQ is to improve sound quality by smoothing frequency response, and not to make up for inadequate speakers. IT IS ALMOST ALWAYS BETTER TO CUT FREQUENCIES RATHER THAN BOOST THEM. Remember that excessive boosting (esp. of very low frequencies) can damage your speakers!

3. Listen to the vocals and instruments. Cutting the frequencies in the mid-bass (90 to 250 Hz) and mid-range (2 to 4 kHz) is usually a good start. The mid-bass response is usually a problem area due to standing waves caused by sound resonating in the passenger compartment. The mid-range frequencies are most sensitive to the ear and usually need to be brought down a bit.

4. Continue listening and try boosting the low bass frequencies in the 31.5 to 63 Hz area. Usually this area needs help due to design limitations of smaller woofers and loss of bass in cassettes. IF YOU HEAR ANY DISTORTION OR LIMITING COMING FROM YOUR SPEAKERS, YOU HAVE BOOSTED TOO MUCH! Don't try to use your EQ as a substitute for a 10" subwoofer. This is the most common cause of speaker (and hearing) damage related to EQs.

You can spend hours playing with the advanced EQ settings to compensate for the quirks of in-car audio and achieve a flat-sounding result. In other words, the goal is to distort the waveform to compensate for flaws in the environment and make it SOUND as if it isn't distorted at all.

HOWEVER in the vast majority of cases my advice for setting the EQ would be to work with the default bands and simply tweak them to achieve a sound that you enjoy. Forget the science - a few minutes of trial and error should reveal how each band affects the output, and you should be able to find settings that sound nicer than others.

In the case of our demo car, I tweak the bottom two bands down by a couple of dB to compensate for a tendancy the 8" Kappa's in the front have to get jiggy with their plastic covers. The sub gain is set a little high, so the reduced bass compensates for that as well. I also tweak the treble up a tiny amount to bring the door tweeters to life, and (quite probably) to compensate for the effects of listening to too much loud acid techno over the years.

The result is far from an audiophile dream but it's a sound that I enjoy, the cones don't try to blow the door trim apart, and it's punchy enough to bring a smile to the face of reviewers. On a new player it takes about 30 seconds to set the EQ for this.

If we were to sit John (our audio type person) in the car I'm confident that he would spend hours tweaking the EQ, but for my own listening pleasure I don't feel the need to do that. I guess what I'm trying to say is, don't be scared to screw around with the simple EQ settings and see what happens. If you don't like the result, you don't have to hit "save"!

Rob

don't be scared to screw around with the simple EQ settings and see what happens.

Nicely said, Rob.

I, on the other hand, have to live in three different worlds... I have one EQ pre-set designed to impress IASCA judges; another designed to maximize my score on an RTA meter; and a third designed to please my own particular tastes. These tastes have no doubt been defined by "what I'm used to hearing", in this case a relatively inexpensive Panasonic CD player that was unusually high in mid-range 200-2000Hz frequencies. As a result, even though the flat response of the empeg is probably more accurate, I nonetheless distort the empeg's sound with the equalizer to make it sound like what I like to hear.

Unless you are competing and thus have to please other people rather than yourself, this last method is definitely the best way to go.

tanstaafl.

"There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch"